my pre-election read in
only a few more days to go
Hello Tamia Talkers. Happy Sunday!
I’m dropping in this week with another late check-in. There are a mere nine ( eight by the time you read this) days until Election Day. I truly cannot believe it.
As a swing state-residing reporter girlie, my mind, eyes, and ears have been almost nowhere but on election coverage for the past few months, weeks, and days leading up to November 5th.
In addition to writing a handful of politics stories for my paper, I have consumed some incredibly well-reported and thoughtful pieces on the stakes of this presidential race, local efforts to mobilize and educate voters, evaluations of the health of American democracy, and insights from policy experts on how to tackle the issues most important to the U.S. electorate.
I am sure I have missed dozens of great stories in compiling this list, but here are some of my favorites from the past few weeks.
If you live in the United States and plan on voting, are looking for election info, or are hoping to find additional resources to register, early vote, or find your polling location, visit vote.org or head to your municipal clerk’s office website.
Ok, let’s get caught up!
articles
What the Polls Really Say About Black Men’s Support for Kamala Harris: Jelani Cobb’s New Yorker story examines how Black men have come under amplified scrutiny in the weeks leading up to Election Day as the Democratic Party grows worried about weak links in its potential path to election victory. Read here.
The New Effects of Immigration: This ProPublica investigation by Mica Rosenberg and Jeff Ernsthausen examines recent spikes in migrants coming to the United States border and shows that growing numbers of migrants are turning themselves in instead of trying to escape arrest. Additionally, the reporting explores how the United States government is addresses concentrated influxes of immigrants arriving in communities, like Whitewater, Wisconsin and Denver, Colorado, where community leaders feel unprepared to serve new residents. Read here.
Claudia Conway Declares Her Independence: Rachel Janfaza’s New York Times profile meets Claudia Conway, daughter of Kelly Anne Conway and George Conway III, moments after volunteering at a National Voter Registration Day event. For the past five years, Conway has found herself in the political spotlight, freely sharing political views that oppose those of her high-profile Republican parents. 2024 will mark her first time casting a ballot in a presidential election, one in which she plans to support Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. In August, I sat down with Conway at “Hotties for Harris,” a Gen Z-focused voter mobilization event at the Democratic National Convention. This conversation further explores some of the issues she says she will prioritize in November such as reproductive rights and gun control. Read here.
Have Democrats found a way to win over rural America? Look at what’s happening in Wisconsin: Redistricting is giving Democrats a viable opportunity to win back seats in the statehouse in Wisconsin but securing the rural vote will play a critical role in the party’s journey toward narrowing a 30-seat Republican majority. For Politico, Tyler Katzenberger writes about how Democrats are vying for rural votes in the Dairy State and what these local races say about the importance of state politics in an increasingly gridlocked political environment. Read here.
Sixty years after the unwinding of Jim Crow, a historic US election: Ahead of Election Day, Reuters reporter Donna Bryson visited 9 Black voters to talk about life during the Jim Crow era. Each voter offered insights on the racial violence and intimidation endured by Black people before the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and detailed their fears about the erosion of civil rights protections in the 21st Century. Read here.
The Pipeline: How Russian disinformation is reaching the U.S. ahead of the 2024 election: Storm-1516, a Russian propaganda group, has some of the internet’s most far-reaching and influential disinformation. The group produces fake news stories, videos, and photographs that use fake primary sources to promote the re-election of Donald Trump, diminish Western support for Ukraine and attack Vice President Kamala Harris, reporter Brandy Zadrozny wrote for NBC News. Read here.
more stories
The Washington Post opinion editor approved a Harris endorsement. A week later, Jeff Bezos killed it., Columbia Journalism Review, Sewell Chan: The Washington Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, announced last week that the paper will no longer endorse presidential candidates, breaking a tradition that the paper has maintained since 1988. The decision has led to a steady flow of resignations from long-time staff members and subscription cancellations from readers who feel they can no longer trust the paper to deliver coverage on “the threats Donald Trump poses to American democracy.”
Wisconsin college students and recent grads receiving threatening texts over voting, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Mary Spicuzza: An anonymous text message landed in the inboxes of thousands of young voters in Wisconsin this month. The message cited Wisconsin statutes and warned that violating them could result in fines of up to $10,000 or 3 1/2 years in prison. It also stated, "Don't vote in a state where you're not eligible." The message, targeted at 18 to 25-year-old voters in the swing state seemed intent to stoke fear and concern among college students who can register to vote either at their home address or the address where they are attending school, the Journal Sentinel reported. Voting rights advocates are taking steps to have the messages investigated by the federal government.
Over 230 Republican candidates have cast doubt on the 2024 election, The Washington Post, Clara Ence Morse, Derek Hawkins and Carson TerBush: This month, the Washington Post reported that nearly half of Republican candidates for Congress or top state offices have cast doubt on the integrity of the 2024 election with social media posts on platforms like X, TikTok, Truth Social and Youtube. Experts anticipate that a pervasive spread of misinformation shared by politicians could fuel potential political violence or threats to election workers and voters leading up to and on Nov. 5.
Waukesha Times looks like a local news outlet. It's actually funded by conservative megadonors., Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Quinn Clark: In Waukesha County, Wisconsin, the Waukesha Times has been regularly delivered to local residents’ mailboxes. With the slogan "Real data. Real value. Real news," and stories featuring quotes from local officials, Waukesha Times appears to be a nonpartisan, local news publication, Journal Sentinel reporter Quinn Clark writes. But the paper is one of 1,200 politically-backed news sites funded by Metric Media in the United States.
podcast episodes
Tweak the Vote, RadioLab
The Trump Plan to Flip Georgia Back, The Run-Up
Vice President Kamala Harris, Call Her Daddy
Swing States of Denial, Reveal
In Michigan, Arab Americans weigh the power of a vote, Code Switch
How Trump would fight a 2024 election loss, Post Reports
books
How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
This Will Not Pass: Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder
The Situation Room: George Stephanopolous and Lisa Dickey
See you next week!