A Tale of Two Elections: Changes in Candidates' Tweets During the 2022 Midterm Elections in Virginia

Previous research has shown that in congressional campaigns, incumbents behave very differently than their challengers, especially on social media. The research that currently exists regarding how candidates use social media during their elections, however, is limited by examining only general election tweets. In this manuscript, we update this work by examining the Twitter behavior of candidates throughout both their primary and general election. By examining the Twitter accounts of candidates in the congressional elections in the state of Virginia in 2022, we show that incumbents and challengers address different issues and use a different tone throughout the various stages of their campaigns. We also show that gender and partisanship have different impacts on the Twitter behavior of candidates in their primaries and general elections.