2020 – Looking Foward to the Next Presidential Election
Samantha Martin, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com.
The 2020 Presidential election season has begun with the candidates launching into their campaigns. The ticket as it stands is very Democrat heavy, with 18 of the 22 candidates being slighted on the Democrat platform (Candidate Bernie Sanders identifies as an Independent, however is listed as Democrat according to Ballotpedia.com).
Notable incumbent candidates include Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. Candidates not currently in office, but that have a sense of notoriety about them are entrepreneur and author Andrew Yang, author and lecturer Marianne Williamson, businessman Roque De La Fuente and NextGen Climate President Tom Steyer.
With the uprising of environmental issues, many of the presidential candidates, such as Steyer, place an emphasis on environmental issues within their campaign message.
For NGU freshman Caitlyn Foster, this will be her first presidential election. Based on what she has seen and learned, there are several things which she feels necessary to include in her decision-making process.
“Environmental issues are really important to me, as well as healthcare and social programs. But more than political issues, I look for a candidate that seems personable. That they are someone I could get along with, that’s something that’s important to me,” Foster said.
The fact that young people are involving themselves in more political discussions follows the idea of power in the voice that Foster encourages others to use.
“I would encourage them [discouraged potential voters] to vote, because if everyone who is discouraged about voting votes, we maybe can make a difference,” Foster said.
But the elections may be wholly dependent on the media coverage as a similar situation to the 2016 presidential election.
“For people looking for [the reason] why did President Trump win, I think the media played a major role in it because it found him to be such a lightning rod for attention. This gave him a lot of face time and a lot of presence in the media for free,” Mass Communications professor, Dr. Andrew Stevens said.
Stevens mentioned a law in effect known as the “Equal Time Provision.” The law verbatim reads, “If any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any political office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station.” Stevens provided an example of this rule with two of the prominent candidates from last years election.
“President Trump had a very effective online media campaign, actually through Facebook. Facebook approached Secretary Hillary Clinton and President Trump and help them with promotion and advertising on Facebook. Clinton turned it down and Trump didn’t. It was offered to both, but only one used it,” Stevens said.
With the current climate of democrats pursuing impeachment inquiries, and that being such a hot topic in the media as of late, it felt fair to ask if this would set up for another media led win for Trump.
“I think that from what I’ve seen people are pretty set on how they feel about President Trump, it’s going to be large impacted by the turnout. I don’t think the impeachment inquiries will turn anyone to or against Trump, but I do believe they may cause people to grow tired of the Democrats, and that may push turnout,” Stevens said.
For those that going into this campaign and election season that may be unsure of how they feel about different political issues and which candidate may best align with those views, there are different resources available.
“I used Isidewith.com I think, as well as researching with a few others. I think it’s really important for young people to vote, to use their voice, because there are so many places where they can’t,” Foster said.
Though the campaigning has begun, the 59th presidential election is scheduled nearly a year away; November 3, 2019. This gives voters plenty of time to research and prepare for the decision.
