Exploratory committees give candidates two doses of exposure
Number of 15-second cable-news clips where Sen. Elizabeth Warren (2020), Dr. Ben Carson (2016) and Sen. Tim Scott (2024) were mentioned after announcing their exploratory committees compared with after declaring their candidacies
WARREN
CARSON
SCOTT
EXPLORATORY
Committee
200
ANNOUNCES
CANDIDACY
100
0
100
0
200
Scott has
not announced
candidacy
100
0
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
DAYS BEFORE OR AFTER ANNOUNCEMENT
SCOTT
WARREN
CARSON
200
Exploratory
committee
ANNOUNCES
CANDIDACY
100
0
100
0
200
Scott has
not announced
candidacy
100
0
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
DAYS BEFORE OR AFTER ANNOUNCEMENT
Search queries of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC included the candidates' full names, common nicknames, common misspellings of their names and, if appropriate, their titles plus their last names. The cutoff for measuring any given day is midnight Eastern Time.