election 2020

Joe Biden Can Inspire Young People — If He Listens to Them

by Erica Moretti

Despite apparent progress, children and young adults remain politicized but unable to be political. Mostly this is because politics remains an old person’s game, seldom open to direct representation of young people and adolescents even in issues that directly concern them.

Competing Visions of the American Dream are Driving Democrats and Republicans Apart

by Steven M. Gillon

Biden has declared this election as a battle for the “soul of America.” It is also a struggle to determine what the American Dream will mean for the future.

Election 2020: The State of the Race and Crisis Elections (Online Program), September 3, 10:00 AM

The University of Virginia's Miller Center hosts an online program on the 2020 elections featuring historians David M. Kennedy and Margaret O'Mara, Journalist Yamiche Alcindor, and political analyst Larry Sabato, beginning at 10:00 AM eastern on September 3. 

Trump’s Mail Ballot Claims are Part of a Long History of Voter Suppression

by Griffin Black

Over the years since 1965, voter suppression tactics have returned in forms like voter ID qualifications and voter roll purges that force citizens through administrative hoops to reach the ballot box. 

When Selecting a Vice-Presidential Candidate Became a Spectacle

by Amber Roessner

Jimmy Carter’s campaign staff recognized that the vice presidency had garnered tremendous attention during the 1970s, and not in a good way.

Trump’s Push to Amplify Racism Unnerves Republicans who have Long Enabled Him

Leah Wright Rigeur of the Harvard Kennedy School argues that Trump keeps making appeals to white racism because it's central to his political identity. 

Can Trump Pull Off an Upset Like Harry Truman’s in 1948?

Comparing Donald Trump's reelection prospects to Harry Truman's comeback victory in 1948 is a reach. 

Has Trump’s Popularity Reached a Tipping Point? Joe McCarthy's Fall May Give Clues

by Robert Brent Toplin

McCarthy rode a wave of bullying and bluster until it broke back on him. Trump has advantages as president that McCarthy didn't, but faces the same problem: his tactics will work until they don't. 

In This Election Year We Historians Need to Insist on Truth-telling

by Walter G. Moss

“Tell the truth” should be as central to our mission, as “First, do no harm” is to doctors and nurses. 

“Free College” in Historical Perspective

by John R. Thelin

“Free college” is a visible and volatile issue in the Democrat candidates’ presidential campaign platforms. No Democratic candidate today can afford to ignore the issue, even if it means taking time to impose strict limits. 

What winning New Hampshire — and its media frenzy — could mean for Bernie Sanders

by Kathryn Cramer Brownell

The New Hampshire returns tell us a lot about the leading candidates.

Is Pete Buttigieg Jimmy Carter 2.0?

by J. Brooks Flippen

To win the White House and be a successful president, he must learn from an eerily similar candidate.

Socialists were winning U.S. elections long before Bernie Sanders and AOC

The “Pledge of Allegiance” was written by a Christian socialist in 1892. Eugene V. Debs ran for president on a socialist ticket five times; in 1912, he got nearly a million votes.

Bernie Sanders’ New Hampshire Victory Is a Big Deal for Socialism in America. Here's What to Know About the History of the Idea

Sanders’ success in both Iowa and New Hampshire may signal that a version of American socialism is again on the rise.

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Education Plan Will Help Fund HBCUs

by Maria Perez

Warren’s education plan would cancel 95 percent of some student loan debt for the nearly 45 million Americans with debt and eliminate student loan debt for 75 percent of people. 

The Cult of Trump

by Michael A. Genovese

Come home Republicans.  We need you.

After Donald Trump, we need a Washington outsider like Jimmy Carter in the 2020 race

by Jonathon Zimmerman

Carter wasn't a particularly effective president. But he was the right candidate for the moment, a decent man who healed the hole in our national heart.

Kamala Harris is among the few black women to run for president. Here is the amazing story of the first.

Forty-seven years ago this week, Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) announced she was seeking the Democratic 1972 nomination, becoming the first woman and first African American to run for a major political party’s presidential ticket.

Trump Should Have a 70 Percent Chance of Winning in 2020

We’ve analyzed more than 500 elections. Here’s what should happen next.

These Two Midwestern Democrats Could Be Serious Contenders for the Presidency in 2020

by Ronald L. Feinman

Their names? Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar.