ELECTION YEAR

This cycle started four years ago, but the end feels like forever

After seeing how many hours some voters spent in line during the primaries when poll workers didn’t show up to work, I volunteered to become a poll worker. My site seemed to be full of people with the same idea—they wanted to do something to help this go well. Having been trained on all the rules in place to be sure the process was bipartisan and fair helped me ignore the uproar after Nov. 3. The days before the election, I was listening to people who were saying we needed to keep up this energy post election. So much work needs to be done to end the pandemic, protect voter rights, and undo damages to people and the environment. I don’t want to hear that I should go check on people waving “Fuck Your Feelings” flags. I want to hear about supporting small businesses and independent artists. I want to know how to get ready for the next round of elections in New York City. —MV

Even if you didn’t vote for them, your representatives still work for you. Tell them how to do their jobs better.

Madeline Vega

In July, following John Lewis’ death, public fi gures called for more action and fewer good thoughts. Tim Eagan’s cartoon from March 5, 2019, illustrates what makes some of us so anxious about the future (politicalcartoons.com).

Change on Day 1

Keep the energy up. Research. Ask for change.

The Trump administration started with a clear mission to undo everything the Obama administration ever did. Knowing how much damage the idea of “super predators” did in the ’90s, it seems the Biden administration should be doing everything possible to undo policies President-elect Biden himself might have had a hand in creating. The Grassroots Law Project is collecting signatures for its petition on BidenJusticeDemands.com. Check out the desktop version of this issue for a breakdown of what they are requesting or visit BidenJusticeDemands.com for their complete list.

“This is how I like my reporters to look: disheveled and concerned.” -Leslie Jones

Like Leslie Jones, we were fixated on Steve Kornaki, too

Madeline Strum Photography

Election HQ on DirecTV would have been better if it were even more like the Sunday Ticket with alerts popping up for individual races, but this version of the Red Zone was a nice surprise

Madeline Vega

RECENT HISTORY

Before John Ashcroft became the Attorney General in the W. Bush administration, he lost his Senate seat in an election that included its own voter suppression. Before becoming a senator, Ashcroft had been governor of Missouri. His successor, Gov. Mel Carnahan, died in a plane crash on his way to a campaign event three weeks before the election. His wife Jean would take his spot. Republicans circulated an email that “on November 7th Mel Carnahan is no longer a ‘person’ nor is he a citizen of Missouri,” therefore Carnahan would not meet the Constitutional qualifications set for a senator.

When that didn’t work, St. Louis area polls closed with voters still in line. Late in the day, polls were ordered by a state circuit judge to be left open for an extra three hours but then closed approximately one hour after the original closing time when a state appellate court ordered the balloting to be halted immediately, introducing the idea of “legal votes.”

Carnahan won by 50,000 votes—an unlikely amount of invalid votes to be cast in the extra hour, but the outcome was expected to be challenged in court. But then Ashcroft became Attorney General and Jean Carnahan was appointed to the Senate by the governor. —MV

WHEN REGULAR PEOPLE GO TO WASHINGTON

Representation matters, but so does the funding to cover the costs of becoming a Representative

“We’ve got to make Congress more accessible to regular people,” Representative-elect Cori Bush tweeted after winning in November, but getting set up in Washington is not designed for regular people. As she explained in an AJ+ video, you have to fi nd a place to live and put down deposits, build a wardrobe, and travel to training sessions, but you won’t see your fi rst paycheck until the end of January. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck when you run, you have to fi nd a way to make it months without income because you can’t work while you’re in training in November.

Nicholas Carnes wrote a whole book about the lack of regular people (White Collar Government), and then New York Times tracked “How Every Member Got to Congress” after the 2018 midterms. The online version lets you select individual threads or search for House members to see their trajectory. Using Carnes’ and other researchers’ fi ndings, the chart is paired with an analysis of who we’re electing and why. In the U.S., 70 percent of House members are lawyers while less than 1 percent of the voting-age population are lawyers. Only about 15 members elected in 2018 were scientists or engineers. Nearly one in fi ve House members have military experience, but 19 new veterans were elected in 2018. NYT suggested many candidates with no political experience were emboldened to run based on Trump’s example.

Want to know how much the House looks like you? TheGuardian.com has an interactive map to show “How diverse is the 2018 U.S. Congress?” Spoiler alert: If you are a white cis male of any age, religion, or ethnicity, 335 members of the House and Senate look like you.

Bush’s post election tweets have been so down to earth compared to everything else I’m seeing. When I fi rst heard she won her race in Missouri, I had her confused with the candidate Shaun King implored fans to support—the St. Louis circuit attorney receiving death threats. Kim Gardner had fi led charges against the St. Louis couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter marchers and appeared at the Republican National Convention. Trump and the KKK were not happy with her, but Gardner won her primary and general election.

Bush is a community activist, ordained pastor, single mother, and nurse. While nurses worked to secure women’s right to vote and took offi ce at local and state levels in 1920, a nurse wasn’t elected to Congress until 1992. Bush will join fellow nurses Eddie Bernice Johnson (30th District of Texas), Karen Bass (37th District of California), and Lauren Underwood (14th District of Illinois (fi rst elected by Madeline’s hometown in ’18)). Underwood’s race was a nail biter. The AP didn’t call it until Nov. 12 with Underwood 1 percent ahead of Jim Oberweis, “a common sense conservative” known by ADW for his ice cream company.

The road to better representation seems paved with determination. Johnson grew up in segregated Texas. She had to leave the state to study nursing. She was the fi rst African American nominated by Dallas for state and then federal seats. She has authored and co-authored more than 120 bills that were signed into law. We hope the junior members can be as productive. —MV

Don Jr. said Biden needed more boats, but instead Biden ended up with more votes in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and California.