On Wednesday at the Kent Free Library, multiple political science professors were invited by Kent State University’s Retiree Association to share their research on this year’s presidential election results.
The speakers focused their attention on social media influence, important topics that the Democratic party missed in their campaign that could have possibly flipped some votes and growing trust issues amongst the working class towards the Democratic party.
Kent State political science professor Ryan Claassen highlighted the importance of having a full-length campaign when relying on social media attention to win a presidential election.
“Trump is just lightyears beyond what Harris is in terms of the number of followers,” Claassen said. “Plus, the long campaign matters. Harris might have achieved more followers if she had had a longer period of time.”
Another political science professor, Michael Ensley, followed this argument by stating that Joe Biden’s team failed the Democratic party by letting him attempt to run again, which led to him eventually dropping out of the race, rather than letting another candidate have a full campaign.
“Biden tried to hold on and sort of run again,” Ensley said. “If he wouldn’t have done that, they would have had a proper primary and a good candidate emerge from that. Whether it was Harris or not, the Democrats would have been in a much better position.”
Ensley also brought up the idea that the Democratic party has lost a lot of trust from working class people in the United States. He noted that many working class voters are more commonly shifting towards the Republican party due to projected Democratic policies not benefiting them.
“What we’ve seen in 2024 is those working class voters, and now not just the white working class, but working class minority voters moving towards the Republican party,” Ensley said. “One of the things that the administration keeps pushing for is forgiving the debts of people with college degrees. Again, that doesn’t speak to working class voters, right?”
This point resonated with members of the Retiree Association. When asked about what educational purpose the presentations offered, retired project manager Barbara Tolliver mentioned that this issue of trust was one of the main things she learned.
“It appears like the Democratic party has not done a good job recently of earning people’s trust,” Tolliver said. “They feel like they don’t have their best interests in mind.”
Tolliver’s inspiration to come to this event stemmed from her husband, a retiree of Kent State and current vice president of the Retiree Association.
Tolliver felt like the topics mentioned in these presentations, especially the trust issue, were important for understanding the election results, and even more so if people want there to be a change in the next election.
She said she would recommend this type of presentation to people who have not seen anything like it before, but personally would not attend another one.
“I would recommend other people to go, but I don’t think I necessarily would, because I am more forward-focused,” Tolliver said. “Although what we learned from here will help us, I guess I don’t feel like I have a strong piece of it.”
Tolliver expressed some hope for the next four years despite her fears surrounding the outcome of the election.
“I hope to stay present and not look too far ahead because it’s a little scary for me,” Tolliver said. “I hope to continue to do my best to promote my values, and not to let the grief that I felt during this election take my joy away.”
Addison Young is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
