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 vogue than any president in trendy occasions, 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 People react to the adjustments 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 have been extra circumscribed they usually have been anticipated to sacrifice their freedoms and financial independence to satisfy their position as moms. Elements of the non secular proper are attacking not solely entry to abortion, but additionally entry to contraception as a approach to reign in what some see as an excessive amount of sexual freedom for ladies. This imaginative and prescient has been strengthened by the conservative majority of the Supreme Courtroom, which insists that the Structure must be interpreted by way of 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 depart, 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 coloration. 

The Harris marketing campaign represents a very totally 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 document as vp and her alternative of Tim Walz, who as governor of Minnesota efficiently handed paid depart and childcare laws, additionally demonstrates her imaginative and prescient of what insurance policies she believes can assist to offer an excellent enjoying subject for ladies.

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

Blyth: If we’re speaking in regards to 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 dwelling, particularly the price of housing, is a key problem. Sadly, there may be little or no both candidate can do about these elements within the quick to medium run (construct many extra homes, break up concentrated markets) and certainly one of them appears to have little curiosity in both answer, focusing as a substitute on China and immigration as key themes. When it comes to the lower than 1% of the inhabitants that can 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 combination. 

On the position of race

Tate: Trump has made race a problem on this marketing campaign. He accused Harris of solely just lately 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 develop into the nation’s first Black South Asian feminine president. When requested straight about Trump’s remark about her racial id, 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 exhausting sufficient and need particular favors (about 40% of the white inhabitants) tremendously most well-liked Trump over Clinton in 2016, and that whites who consider the identical issues about Latinos (i.e., they don’t work exhausting) additionally most well-liked Trump. Trump has campaigned exhausting on stressing that Latino immigrants deliver crime and are violent. Some Blacks and Latinos additionally consider that members of their group don’t work exhausting. These voters will strongly again Trump. If Trump wins, it is going to be due to his exploitation of America’s racial divisions.

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

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

On Black voter polling

Tate: Harris has gained again many 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 assist. I believe Black dissatisfaction is there with each Harris and Trump. Though Harris changed Biden, the selection in 2024 appears equivalent to the one in 2020 to dissatisfied Black voters. I believe the turnout amongst Blacks could be low. The Democratic Occasion has to work more durable on securing the assist of younger Black males.