go negative

go negative (third-person singular simple present goes negative, present participle going negative, simple past went negative, past participle gone negative)

1. (US, politics) To focus on attacking political opponents rather than promoting oneself.
   • 2008, Lynda Lee Kaid, Christina Holtz-Bacha, Encyclopedia of Political Communication, volume 1:

     After losing several primaries and facing a campaign debt of $250,000, his associates persuaded him to go negative.

   • 2011, Judith S. Trent, Robert V. Friedenberg, Robert E. Denton (Jr.), Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices (page 235)

     All four of the principle candidates in the 2008 presidential election “went negative” in their acceptance addresses.

   • 2015, Kyle Mattes, David P. Redlawsk, The Positive Case for Negative Campaigning, page 24:

     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?

   • 2016, Yasmin Ibrahim, Politics, Protest, and Empowerment in Digital Spaces, page 187:

     We also found that gubernatorial candidates went negative on Twitter.