Kemi Badenoch: the new generation candidate

Kemi Badenoch has launched her candidacy for The Conservative Party leadership and is positioning herself as the new generation candidate. 

A very successful narrative for a new generation candidate is called The Phoenix.

It’s a story which promises renewal. It offers a fresh start based on a reassertion of fundamental principles and a clean break from the troubles of the past. 

The Phoenix typically creates an image of honesty and optimism, appealing to voters’ desires for a clean break from the past and a hopeful future. 

The Phoenix narrative is often successful when there are two Big Beasts who have been on the scene for a while and represent different sides of a cleavage (e.g Patel and Cleverly). The game becomes taking votes off both. 

This was the narrative deployed by David Cameron in ‘05; he took votes of Clark and Davis. And also Pete Buttegieg in ‘20; he took votes from Biden and Sanders.

You can learn all about The Phoenix, along with four other narratives from primary elections, in my book Primed: five election narratives to win your party’s nomination.