This is part of "Election Explained", a series in our Election 2020 coverage where we go behind the scenes of what's going on with the crucial decisions voters are making; we debunk myths, explore the concepts in the current conversation, and make sure that civic engagement is understandable to youth.
Our Election 2020 coverage includes the federal presidential and congressional election as well as the New York State Senate and State Assembly election and the school student government election.
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(MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. / The Journal) — With hours to go until Election Day, we've reached out to those who know politics best. They're those who have experience knocking on doors, organizing events, and coordinating campaigns, especially now during this election in which there has been historic turnout, a global pandemic, and increased focus on racial injustice and civil rights.
Student editor-in-chief Bryan Santiago spoke to David Crawley, who was the Data Director for the West Virginia Democratic Party from 2018 to 2019 and recently was a Joe Biden delegate for West Virginia to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, about how he's feeling with this year's crucial races. David is a part of the massive community known as Election Twitter (on the social media platform Twitter, of course) which encompasses mappers and statistics analysts as well as young people nationwide, and now includes institutions such as Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, the Crystal Ball newsletter and the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, and the Texas Democratic Party.
David is from the United Kingdom, specifically the Liverpool area, and is 26 years old, fitting into the millennial age group. He has lived in the United States for 16 years and got his American citizenship in 2018. Being an immigrant, politics has shaped his entire life, even as a young person growing up. When he arrived in 2004, the Democratic National Convention was important, coming off of Democrat Al Gore's historic loss to Republican George W. Bush in the 2000 election, in which the winners of the national popular vote and the Electoral College were different, a scenario that hadn't happened since the 1800's and wouldn't have happened again until 2016 between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, who is now running for re-election.
His main belief is that even if he couldn't vote, he could help others become engaged and ready to vote because that is already a big difference. One year at Marshall University, he registered 300 of his fellow students at a voter registration drive. He's led the College Democrats and proudly supports other immigrants, whether they be documented or not, in their search for the American Dream. Through that, he got involved with local Democratic campaigns with canvassing (door-knocking efforts) and other community engagement opportunities, which led him to the Data Director position at the West Virginia Democratic Party. The transition was "interesting", as he put it, because he soon oversaw support for all the Democratic races statewide from the municipal level to the state level, looking at the specific internal polling numbers and organizing logistics.
Looking at Election Night and its aftermath, David expects that there wouldn't be a sudden late shift of support from Clinton to Trump, as the pollsters have "learned their lesson" from four years ago. They now account for college education, which wasn't shown last time, and the fact that Biden has larger leads than Clinton ever had over Trump, even though polls have been tightening as November 3rd looms closer. However, while he supports Biden and believes that he'll win the Electoral College, he doesn't rule Trump out either but only gives the President around a 10% chance of winning this time. This comes after his experience as Data Director doing specific analysis digging deep into methodology.
History comes back again, as he pointed out that he was a world history teacher too, and emphasized that the reality of a Electoral College win differing from the popular vote's result hasn't really happened in modern history as stated earlier, but that this was the system that the "imperfect" Founding Fathers set up, which correlated to the infamous 3/5ths Compromise in the text of the Constitution regarding slavery in America and is an important discussion currently due to the Black Lives Matter protests after the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others. David's main advice to others, especially those who do not follow politics closely, is to "expect the unexpected"; he's had friends who were disillusioned by both Clinton and Trump in 2016 and now support Biden and he also points to the fact that Trump is on the defensive with Republican stronghold states such as Texas, Georgia, and Florida, becoming Election Night toss-ups, which would have been a laughable idea from election season last time around. The pandemic is another reason why this election is already making history; a deadly spreading virus such as COVID-19 wasn't around but now is. Trump as president has had nearly 9 and quarter million confirmed positive cases and more than 230,000 deaths from the novel coronavirus according to the latest data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The Electoral College's effect on both Trump's and Biden's campaigns is that they're focusing on the toss-up battleground states hoping that they go in their favor and not personally visiting every single state, which David believes would help more people understand that their vote matters, saying "It makes sense; why would you focus on a state you'd know you'll win instead of a state that could put you over the top?" That positioning is as true for Republican West Virginia as it is for us in Democratic New York.
Finally, a question about the balance of being a political organizer and continuing his education. David left his WV Dems Data Director job because the funding ran out, and he said that it was normal in the political world. Now, he's like other students too, tuning into Zoom classes from home as he navigates graduate school with remote learning for his master's degree. And he confesses that he's also feeling distracted and often procrastinating his homework!
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For more information and real-time updates on Election 2020, follow us on Twitter @TheJournal_MVSA.
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