No Capes Required: America's Love Affair with Electable Heroes

At PharosGraph, we use large language models to map the deeper architecture of public narratives - the moral roles, frames, and foundations that shape how people understand political actors. By analyzing thousands of articles, social posts, speeches, and LLM responses, we can see not just sentiment, but structure; how language assigns responsibility, virtue, agency, and blame.

One of the clearest signals in that landscape is our Hero Score, which measures the share of public narratives that cast a candidate as the "hero" in the story. It is part of our broader system for identifying roles for hero, villain, anti-hero, and other moral positions in public discourse. The Hero Score is not a poll; it is a reflection of how prominently a candidate is elevated within the narrative field.

And in this year's major local and state contents, that heroic framing aligned remarkably well with who won.

Three races, Three Winners With the Strongest Hero Framing

During the final week of the campaign in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger held a Hero Score of 16%, nearly double Winsome Earle-Sears' 8.3%. Spanberger went on to win the race 57.5% to 42.3%. Much of the coverage cast Spanberger as a stabilizing, service-driven leader; someone positioned to deliver competence at a moment when voters were seeking it. Her narrative advantage matched her decisive victory.

New Jersey followed the same pattern. Mikie Sherrill closed the campaign with a 21% Hero Score, compared to Jack Ciattarelli's 14%. Sherrill won 56.6% to 42.8%. Her public framing leaned into pragmatism, unity, and resilience, protraying her as the credible protagonist in a politically shifting state.

The clearest example came out of New York City. Zohran Mamdani's final week Hero Score reached an impressive 47%, while Andrew Cuomo registered just 2.6%. Mamdani won 50.4% to Cuomo's 41.6%. Throughout the final stretch, he was consistently presented as the energetic, forward - driving protagonist in a city demanding new direction.

A Consistent Relationship Between Hero Scores and Election Outcomes

Across all three contents, the candidate with the highest Hero Score won their race. In each case, the winning candidate's Hero Score was at least 50% higher than that of their nearest competitor- a substantial narrative advantage mirrored by solid margins of victory. While the Hero Score did not determine the exact vote spread, the pattern was clear: the candidate most often cast as the "hero" in public narratives was the one voters ultimately chose.

Why Hero Framing Resonates with Voters

Being case as a hero in public discourse signals agency, competence, and moral alignment - the sense that a candidate can act and deliver amid uncertainty. At a time when voters are frustrated and outcomes feel high-stakes, a narrative positioning becomes a form of electability. The candidates framed as capable leaders were the ones voters ultimately trusted with the job.

Important Caveats

Hero framing is only one dimension of narrative intelligence. Turnout, resources, opponent weaknesses, and local dynamics all play decisive roles in any race. And Hero Scores measure the public narrative, not private perception.

It is also important to note that while these races showed large Hero Score gaps paired with sizable electoral margins, this relationship is not guaranteed. If the narrative gap were narrower, the vote margin could be much closer as well, and in a tight race, it is entirely possible for a candidate with a lower Hero Score to squeak out a win through stronger fundamentals. The 2025 cycle demonstrates correlation, not causation, and future cycles will continue to test how far this pattern extends.

Key Takeaway

In 2025's key elections, voters did not simply choose a party; they chose the candidate cast as the hero. The figures framed with the clearest agency and moral purpose were the ones who won at the ballot box.

As we look towards the 2026 cycle and beyond, campaigns and parties who understand and actively shape these narrative roles will be operating with a strategic advantage.

If you want to understand how PharosGraph can help your candidate or organization understand their narrative position, uncover their vulnerabilities, and strengthen their path to victory, reach out for a demo.