An Election of Consequence: Campaign 2024

Scholars and analysts have described the 2024 US elections as the most consequential for the American future since the election of 1860. The course will focus on the most important issues and electoral factors at play during the most critical weeks of the election-the "early voting" period and Election Day-concluding with an analysis of the November 5 results and their potential implications for the US and for the world. It will consider in real-time the ongoing and emerging factors that will determine the outcome: the polarization and mood of the electorate; voter enthusiasm; third parties; the relative weight of competing issues, e.g., the future of democracy vs. the cost of cereal; the role of foreign policy (including Gaza and Ukraine); the Electoral College and the popular vote; and Trump's legal cases, among other issues. We'll monitor the parties' electoral strategies and messaging in the presidential and congressional campaigns and look at potentially decisive voter blocs, including "abortion voters"; Black and Latino men; youth voters, and the disengaged and undecided. We'll examine the policy issues most in play and compare the parties' national platforms. We'll consider "targeting" strategies and the roles of the Democratic left, the MAGA right, and the various pieces of the "center." We'll look at the respective campaign "narratives" and monitor the role of media-how voter groups access and process information-and the tension between facts and feelings. We'll stay alert to potential "October surprises"; and assess the implications of potential total control of the three branches by either party versus split government. Following election day, we'll look to the future for the parties, for the political process, for governing, for the institutions of civil society and democracy, and for America's place in the world.
 
Instructors:
 
Judith Siegel , Ph.D., former Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Information Programs at the U.S. State Department.
 
Mark Siegel , Ph.D., former Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee and Deputy Assistant to the President.

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