What to expect on Election Day, according to Brown’s faculty experts

On the historic significance of the 2024 election

Schiller: If elected, it’s extremely possible that Trump will govern in a extra authoritarian style than any president in fashionable instances, and he’ll attempt to disregard the rule of regulation, particularly provided that the present Supreme Courtroom has given presidents immunity for actions taken whereas president. We should see how Individuals react to the modifications that may are available in each nook of our democracy. 

Tobin-Tyler: This election couldn’t be extra necessary for the way forward for girls’s rights. The variations within the visions for the way forward for the nation, and interpretation of the previous, of the 2 campaigns are stark. The ideology represented by the Trump-Vance marketing campaign envisions a return to a time when girls’s roles had been extra circumscribed they usually had been anticipated to sacrifice their freedoms and financial independence to meet their function as moms. Components of the non secular proper are attacking not solely entry to abortion, but additionally entry to contraception as a strategy to reign in what some see as an excessive amount of sexual freedom for ladies. This imaginative and prescient has been bolstered by the conservative majority of the Supreme Courtroom, which insists that the Structure ought to be interpreted by the lens of “historical past and custom” and the unique public which means on the time of the nation’s founding, a time when girls primarily had no rights. In latest circumstances, it has additionally signaled its willingness to privilege non secular rights over the rights of girls and gender minorities.

Reflective of this “take the nation again” imaginative and prescient is an unwillingness to acknowledge the very actual challenges confronted by girls in 2024: No federally mandated paid household go away, unaffordable and sometimes low-quality childcare, a cussed pay hole, and a rising maternal well being disaster, exacerbated by inaccessible reproductive well being care for a lot of girls, particularly low-income girls and girls of shade. 

The Harris marketing campaign represents a very completely different imaginative and prescient of girls’s roles and rights. If she wins, as the primary girl president she is going to exemplify what it means for ladies to have equal entry to energy. Her report as vp and her alternative of Tim Walz, who as governor of Minnesota efficiently handed paid go away and childcare laws, additionally demonstrates her imaginative and prescient of what insurance policies she believes may help to supply a good enjoying subject for ladies.

On how the economic system will have an effect on voters’ selections

Blyth: If we’re speaking concerning the broad mass of voters whose votes will completely not decide the election — say Democratic voters in Massachusetts or Republican voters in Montana — then the price of residing, particularly the price of housing, is a key problem. Sadly, there’s little or no both candidate can do about these components within the quick to medium run (construct many extra homes, break up concentrated markets) and considered one of them appears to have little curiosity in both answer, focusing as an alternative on China and immigration as key themes. When it comes to the lower than 1% of the inhabitants that may resolve the election? That’s anybody’s guess. Housing or immigration? Take your choose. And if the Center East turmoil worsens and that impacts gasoline costs, that provides extra uncertainty into the combo. 

On the function of race

Tate: Trump has made race a difficulty on this marketing campaign. He accused Harris of solely not too long ago claiming to be Black. He has falsely accused Haitian immigrants of consuming household pets. He mentioned he would change Fort Liberty’s title again to its former Accomplice title, Fort Bragg. He has pledged to finish DEI packages within the navy and in federal places of work. He has additionally attacked Harris’ gender, calling her dumb. Harris has reacted by avoiding any dialogue of her race and gender. She usually has not commented on the historic nature of this election, and the truth that she might change into the nation’s first Black South Asian feminine president. When requested immediately about Trump’s remark about her racial identification, she refused to reply, saying “subsequent query.” 

By injecting race into the marketing campaign, Trump is interesting to his base of racially conservative white voters. Political scientists have discovered that whites who consider that Blacks don’t strive arduous sufficient and wish particular favors (about 40% of the white inhabitants) significantly most well-liked Trump over Clinton in 2016, and that whites who consider the identical issues about Latinos (i.e., they don’t work arduous) additionally most well-liked Trump. Trump has campaigned arduous on stressing that Latino immigrants carry crime and are violent. Some Blacks and Latinos additionally consider that members of their group don’t work arduous. These voters will strongly again Trump. If Trump wins, it will likely be due to his exploitation of America’s racial divisions.

Zarate:  I anticipate that race will play a major function in voter conduct and have an effect on the result of this election. Analysis has discovered that white racial identification and white racial animus are highly effective predictors of help for Trump. A lot of the Trump coalition is based on stoking white racial animus, and this hasn’t modified throughout his third marketing campaign for president. If something, with a girl of shade as his opponent, now this technique turns into even stronger. 

Though Harris’ standing as a girl of shade dangers hurting her electoral probabilities amongst racial conservatives, there’s cause to consider it’s going to assist her considerably amongst Democrats. Previous to Harris changing into the Democratic nominee, there was a scarcity of enthusiasm surrounding the election. That is not the case as evidenced by the Harris crew’s fundraising numbers. Though there are possible a number of components contributing to this, now we have each cause to consider that Harris being a Black girl is a part of it. This will likely be necessary come time to depend the votes. The 2020 election underscored the significance of African American voters to Democrats, particularly when desirous about the stunning presidential and senatorial victories in historically Republican Georgia. 

On Black voter polling

Tate: Harris has gained again a lot of the Black vote that had eroded beneath Biden’s candidacy. Nonetheless, there are reportedly extra Blacks supporting Trump in 2024 than in 2020. I’m not positive Trump in the long run will get a bump in Black help. I believe Black dissatisfaction is there with each Harris and Trump. Though Harris changed Biden, the selection in 2024 appears an identical to the one in 2020 to dissatisfied Black voters. I believe the turnout amongst Blacks is perhaps low. The Democratic Social gathering has to work more durable on securing the help of younger Black males.