After months of primaries, a late change candidacy, blockbuster conventions, two assassination attempts, and hundreds of rallies nationwide, US citizens will finally be heading to the polls this Tuesday. To reflect on the 2024 race to the White House and put it into context by comparing it to presidential elections in the recent past, we assembled SGIA’s US Politics trio Dr. Tessa Ditonto, Associate Professor of Gender & Politics, Dr. David Andersen, Associate Professor of US Politics, and Dr. Neil Visalvanich, Associate Professor of Political Science to unpack what changed and what remained the same in this campaign compared to past presidential races.

To learn more about our guests, visit their websites:

Dr. Tessa Ditonto: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/tessa-m-ditonto/

Dr. David Andersen: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/david-j-andersen/

Dr. Neil Visalvanich: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/neil-visalvanich/

The link for Durham University staff and students to sign-up for our Chancellor in Conversation event is: https://pay.durham.ac.uk/event-durham/chancellor-in-conversation#:~:text=Staff%20and%20students%20are%20invited,pm%20in%20Mount%20Oswald%20Hub.

Links to information and further reading on the topics covered in this episode:

- Burn-Murdoch, J 2024. Will Trumpism Outlast Trump: the changed political and cultural landscape makes a rest unlikely. The Financial Times 1st November 2024 https://www.ft.com/content/3ce7ceef-9135-45ab-a4f5-412ee5037da2 {Last accessed: 1st November 2024].

- Campbell, W. J. (2022). Misfires and Surprises: Polling Embarrassments in Recent U.S. Presidential Elections. American Behavioral Scientist, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642221118901.

- Cassese, E.C. and Barnes, T.D., 2019. Reconciling sexism and women’s support for Republican candidates: A look at gender, class, and whiteness in the 2012 and 2016 presidential races. Political Behavior, 41, 677-700.

- Ditonto, T., 2017. A high bar or a double standard? Gender, competence, and information in political campaigns. Political Behavior, 39, 301-325.

- Eagly, A.H. and Karau, S.J., 2002. Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review, 109(3), 573.

- Jennings W, Wlezien C. 2018. Election polling errors across time and space. Nature Human Behaviour 2(4):276-283. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0315-6.

- Junn J, Masuoka N. 2020. The Gender Gap Is a Race Gap: Women Voters in US Presidential Elections. Perspectives on Politics 18(4):1135-1145. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592719003876

- Lake, C. and A. Iovino 2024. A Democratic and a Republican Pollster Agree: This Is the Fault Line That Decides the Election. The New York Times 30th October 2024: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/30/opinion/gender-education-gap.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare [Last accessed: 1st. November 2024].

- Sommer, U. and I. Franco 2022. Trump’s African Americans? Racial resentment and Black support for Trump in the 2020 elections. Politics, Groups and Identities 12(4), 921-947. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2023.2265899

- Sommer, U. and I. Franco 2024. Solidarity in question: activation of dormant political dispositions and Latino support for Trump in 2020. European Political Science Review 16(3), 351-377. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773923000371

Music: The Good News by SHANTI from https://tunetank.com/track/263-the-good-news/