Welcome to Crash Course: Election 2020
A weekly election newsletter for students, explained by students.
Unprecedented is the word of the year in more ways than one.
From COVID-19 to racial tensions to the presidential election, keeping up with the news can be exhausting. Not only is navigating headlines emotionally difficult, but being able to distinguish “What are the most important stories?” is just as confusing.
We’re a group of UConn Journalism students with a passion for politics who are on a mission to educate those around us on the important issues surrounding the 2020 Election.
Our team is launching a new weekly newsletter on Friday, September 25 to help young (and first-time) voters figure out what’s at stake this election season and why it matters.
What to expect in “Crash Course” each week
We’ll be looking at the presidential and Connecticut legislative elections through the lens of prominent topics, such as COVID-19, unemployment, student loan debt and social media.
Open up our newsletter every Friday for original, straight-to-the-point, non-partisan explanations, as well as informative charts, links to notable headlines of the week and conversation starters for those dreaded talks about politics!
We’re gathering information from a mix of reputable sources so you can hear every side of the story. We’re interviewing professors, local and national journalists and political pundits. Here’s a sampling:
On COVID-19 and healthcare:
“There was a lot of federal aid that came in and helped stave off some of the destruction caused by COVID, but that might not be coming in anymore. It’s sad because we had been decreasing poverty rates in this country, but now we’ve gone back at least ten years.”
“Think about the role students are going to play in the next wave of the virus. If they don’t get sick— are they going to asymptomatically pass on the virus to more vulnerable people in the community? COVID has revealed that we have a really broken public health system.”
— Paul Bass, editor, New Haven Independent
On local elections:
“Students don’t know much about state legislature races or pay attention to them, but they should. What happens in the presidential race is so far from the direct impact of what happens to [college students], whether it’s COVID, whether it’s tuition increases, whether it’s unemployment benefits. Those are all handled on the state level, and the state legislative races are way more important and will impact student’s lives much more directly, much more quickly, than the presidential race ever would.”
— Daniela Altimari, politics reporter, The Hartford Courant
On police accountability and systemic racism:
“[The police accountability bill] has been very divisive among the general public in Connecticut. That will be a talking point for candidates running in this year’s general assembly elections. It’s putting people running for office on notice to have to either justify why they voted in favor of it or why they voted against it.”
“For some students, racial equity might be the actual point of reference for their voting decisions.”
— Kimberly R. Bergendahl, UConn Associate Professor in Residence, Political Science
On the economy:
“Particularly in a place like Connecticut, international trade is very important. We create, manufacture a lot of products that we market around the world. So, trade policy, although not always the most interesting, is really critical to a lot of issues.”
— Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant opinion columnist, lawyer and former Republican state legislator
On the environment:
"The climate is complex. There is not one answer accounting for all the changes and troubles it faces. Nor is their one solution (or politician) that can magically rectify all of these issues. But the climate crisis is real.”
“A key metric in 2020: who is willing to admit that we as individuals, a nation, and a planet have work to do? Who is willing to admit we can change things for the better? And who is willing to do the work to leave the planet a better place?”
— Patrick Skahill, science and environment reporter, WNPR
Chart of the week: Polling numbers
Among Connecticut voters: Joseph R. Biden (D) leads at 52% to Donald J. Trump (R) 32%. Undecided voters at 9%, according to a SurveyUSA poll from May 19-24, 2020.
Nationally, the presidential race is closer. Joseph R. Biden (D) leads with 50%, Donald J. Trump (R) at 41%. Undecided voters are 6% and 1% are not voting, according to The Economist/YouGov poll on Sept. 13-15, 2020.
In Case You Missed It
Here are some notable #Election2020 headlines from the past week:
Controversial U.S. Postal Service changes that have slowed mail nationwide were blocked by a federal judge who called them “a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service” before the November election. [Associated Press]
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that Russia is interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections with a steady stream of misinformation aimed at Democrat Joe Biden as well as sapping Americans’ confidence in the election process. [Reuters]
A whistleblower report containing allegations of hysterectomies being performed at an ICE detention center without the women’s consent sparked viral outrage. [Snopes]
One month after Connecticut college students returned to school, COVID-19 cases at UConn and other university campuses have played a significant role in the state’s recent uptick in coronavirus infections. [Hartford Courant]
President Trump said he will create a commission to promote "patriotic education" and announced the creation of a grant to develop a "pro-American curriculum."[NPR]
In pictures: Get a glimpse inside the Trump and Biden campaigns. [CNN]
And finally, there were two town halls this week with the major party presidential candidates. Catch up on what happened with Trump at ABC News, and Biden at CNN.
Crash Course is produced by UConn Journalism majors Allison O’Donnell, Fiona Brady, Ben Crnic, Ashley Anglisano and Mike Mavredakis, under the guidance of UConn Journalism Associate Professor Marie K. Shanahan. Read more about us.
Special thanks to Grace Coll, UConn Digital Media and Design and Communications double major, for our newsletter logo.
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