go negative
verb1
Government, Politics US To focus on attacking political opponents rather than promoting oneself.
- After losing several primaries and facing a campaign debt of $250,000, his associates persuaded him to go negative.2008, Lynda Lee Kaid, Christina Holtz-Bacha, Encyclopedia of Political Communication, volume 1:
- All four of the principle candidates in the 2008 presidential election “went negative” in their acceptance addresses.2011, Judith S. Trent, Robert V. Friedenberg, Robert E. Denton (Jr.), Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices (page 235)
2 more examples
- The goal of this chapter is to situate our work in the broader literature on negative campaigning, as well as to address a key question: why do candidates have to go negative?2015, Kyle Mattes, David P. Redlawsk, The Positive Case for Negative Campaigning, page 24:
- We also found that gubernatorial candidates went negative on Twitter.2016, Yasmin Ibrahim, Politics, Protest, and Empowerment in Digital Spaces, page 187: