Online election campaigning in changing political environments: A comparison of the 2014 and 2019 European Parliament elections
Sebastian Stier 
Yannis Theocharis
Sebastian Adrian Popa
Brian Paul Boyle
Abstract
It has long been assumed that social media would equalize election campaigning by providing cheap means of communication for smaller parties who lack a strong mass media presence. Yet given the increased political importance of social media, parties with more professional staff and resources could also gain the upper hand in online campaigns. So far, knowledge of the development of online campaigning in a rapidly changing political landscape remains limited, as only few studies have taken a longitudinal and cross-country approach so far. This paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of more than 12,000 unique candidates from all 28 European Union (EU) member states in the 2014 and 2019 European Parliament (EP) elections. We theorize and empirically assess how party size, the populist nature of parties and their EU position relate to the presence and activity of EP candidates on Twitter as well as the salience of the EU in their tweets. The results show that candidates of parties with a bigger national vote share were more likely to have a Twitter account and tweet more on the EU. Overall, the findings point to a ``normalization’’ of online election campaigning over time and a further convergence of first and second-order elections.