Posted by Ayam Shrestha
There are less than 50 days remaining before what might be a one of its kind presidential race in US history. While democrats have chosen former vice president Joe Biden and California Senator Kamala Harris as their nominee for this election, president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence are eager to get re-elected to the White House come November.
“First off, the COVID-19 pandemic in itself has been a huge challenge when it comes to the election,” said Dr Kim Lanergan, Political Science Professor at Coe. “Campaigning has simply been bizarre due to the inability to host huge rallies like previous years and that makes it a lot harder for candidates to get attention from local press and media.”
Apart from the pandemic, Lanegran also suggested that the magnitude of ideological differences between the two candidates is starkly different from what we would find in previous elections.
“Another difference is due to the fact that Trump is not a traditional politician and while this makes it harder for the Biden campaign to respond, it also makes this election a lot different from previous ones due to how different the two candidates are in terms of the policies they endorse”
While this election will surely be much different from elections that we are accustomed to, some consider it to be one of the most important elections of our time.
“The upcoming presidential election may very well be the most important election of our lifetime,” said Catarina Gòmez, vice president of Coe Democrats. “I believe that this election is no longer about political ideology, but a battle for human rights and the hundreds of thousands of people who have died from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our time to act is now.”
Student participation is expected to be a huge factor in this year’s election especially because of how close of a race between the two candidates seem to be as of now.
This year’s election is really gonna have big impacts on both the state and national level. The race is close here in Iowa for both of these key races and it is really going to set the tone for the country going forward.
“I think college students can play a huge role this year and have a lot of influence,” said Scott Franklin, founder and former president of CoeVotes, a nonpartisan club on campus which helps students with voter registration and information. “With how close the races are it could be a matter of something as small as a friend group or individual voting one way or another.”