Editorial: Phew, there wasn’t a red wave. But it’s too soon to exhale!
The first round of the Democratic presidential primaries is winding down, and with it, another week of campaigns.
It’s an important time for a lot of people, from activists in every corner of the country to candidates with little experience at running for office.
This is an unprecedented time.
The US is no longer a two-party system, but a vibrant multi-partisan democracy where all parties, and their candidates, have a chance to get elected.
And that will be great news for millions of voters, as political competition in the 2020 cycle is in the hands of the young – and those who care.
We are moving toward better representation of issues that are important to voters.
Let’s take stock of this week’s headlines – and see where we are headed
For more, visit the US Elections page on The Conversation.
We’re in the middle of a Democratic primary season – but this is about more than just candidates vying to be party leaders.
The US is experiencing unprecedented public attention to how our democracy works – and the issues that matter most to citizens.
The issues we care about
There’s a lot on the election campaign agenda – but some of the most important issues that matter to the public fall into political science’s broad category of “wins to popular vote.”
While the election campaign itself is important, all elections matter because the results are just the first step in a long process.
We’ve seen this in the US election, which began in early April.
The public’s turnout in the two key presidential primaries, the Iowa caucuses (where voters will cast their ballots in just 15 days) and the New Hampshire primary (where voters will pick their favourite candidates to face the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses in February 2020) isn’t unprecedented in American history.
The US election campaign is in its early days, but when the dust settles, it
