How an elevator can be key to a candidate’s electoral success

Can candidates use non-campaign advertising to help them to win elections? Using the example of North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Cherie Berry – who has her picture placed in every elevator in the state – Jacob Smith and Neil Weinberg find that this non-campaign advertising did increase her share of the vote. They write that in an era when races in competitive states like North Carolina are decided by only few percentage points, such an effect has the potential to swing the outcome of elections.