ELECTION DEBRIEF 2024

with James Tyler Moore and Wade Catt

Election Results:

House of Representatives:

US Senate:

• 6/9 conservative supreme court justices

Democrats lost 10 million voters

The Youth Vote

2024

2020

+4%

+24%

So what happened?

• The incumbent of an unpopular administration usually loses

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• Biden said he was a “transition candidate” - he should have dropped out earlier

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• Lots of momentum early on, failure to differentiate from Biden on key issues

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• The effect of racism and misogyny

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• Focusing campaign on ‘moderate’ suburban republicans

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• Not highlighting left wing economic populist messages

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Is “the economy” doing well? Depends who you are

• The Medicaid Unwinding - the disenrollment of people after the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency ended - ~25 million people lost coverage between March 2023 and today

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• The Expanded Child Tax Credit in 2021 cut child poverty in half 13.7% to 5.2%. Congress allowed it to expire in 2022, after which child poverty rose to 12.4% again

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• Federal Student Loan repayments resumed in October, 2023

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• The rent is too damn high

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• 58% of utility companies’ requests to raise rates were approved in 2023, a $10 billion increase in revenue, they had a $4.4 billion increase the year prior

Where do we go from here?

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• Embrace economic populism or perish

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• Don’t despair, organize

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• Build community to fight anomie (Bowling Alone)

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• Don’t shy away, and win this argument in organizing spaces

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• People have persisted and resisted in difficult political situations throughout history, here and abroad

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Discussion Questions

• How are you feeling about the future?

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• What can we do right now to build safety and community?

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• In what ways does this election affect the single payer movement or other progressive causes?

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• What are some ways we can turn feelings of frustration or despair into resilience?