Hello.

I'm Fritz Pingel.

Welcome to the fourth and final episode of Shifting Democracy, a partnership between PBS 39 and the Lafayette College Policy Studies Program focused on the 2022 midterm elections.

Tonight, I'm joined by a panel from the Lafayette community to break down what we've learned.

We'll also hear from my classmates and more of their reports this election season.

Now the introductions.

John Kincaid is a professor of government and public service and director of the Minor Center for the Study of State and Local Government.

Caroline Lee is professor of sociology.

She heads Lafayette's Department of Anthropology and Sociology.

Caitlin Ahern is a member of the Lafayette College Class of 2023.

She is from Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Professor Lee, could you start us off with your thoughts about the impact of young voters, maybe starting with the key Pennsylvania contests?

Okay.

So first of all, we're scholars.

We're going by the exit polls right now.

It's still really, really early.

So it's going to take a couple of months for us to crunch the actual data and be able to say more specific things about, for instance, college students.

So when we're saying young voters, we're talking about young people between 18 and 29.

And we can say for sure that young voters turned out all across the U.S.

So they turned out 27% of all eligible young voters went to the polls and voted.

And that's a real high watermark, in fact, that only in the last 35 years it's the second highest midterm turnout behind 2018.

And Professor Kincaid, could you give us a little bit more insight into some of the issues and policies that are motivating young voters?

My feeling is abortion substantially drove the youth vote, that that was an important factor for young people in that age group.

Um, and so the other issues probably pay less of a role and the kind of mobilization that was occurring on campuses I think was important.

And we certainly had mobilization on the Lafayette campus.

And Caitlin, can you speak to that a little bit?

We're going to go in depth a little bit more later.

Yeah, absolutely.

I don't think it's unique to Lafayette's campus.

I think you saw a similar turnout and excitement about this election on campuses across America.

So like Professor Leigh mentioned, the aggregate youth voter turnout was slightly higher in battleground states like Pennsylvania.

It was actually 30% here, which is insane considering young voters made up over 10% of all votes cast.

So that really does have the power to heavily impact an election.

And like Professor Kincaid said, I think abortion in heavily motivated college age students, there was a 28 point lead to favor Democrats among youth voters.

It's very, very prominent partizan lead.

And I do think it was because of the issue of abortion.

Before we move on and so anything else you'd like to add?

Yeah, I'd just say I agree with all of this.

So young voters ranked abortion as their number one issue.

All other age groups listed inflation.

56% of young women ranked abortion as their top issue.

And when you've got 63% of young people voting for Democrats, that's really going to be significant or just a slice of in close elections.

So, for instance, for John Fetterman margin over odds in Pennsylvania, young people netted Fetterman 120,000 votes.

Thank you for your responses.

We're now going to move on.

Young people weren't the only factor in this election.

Latino voters played an influential role as well.

For more on that, Andrea Rivera Conteh spoke with Norman, Bristol Colon, a political strategist and founder of the annual Pennsylvania Latino Convention.

Following up on our last conversation.

I just want to ask.

So after the midterms, did we see, in fact, that Latinos played a pivotal role in this midterm election?

Absolutely.

Latinos all across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania play a fundamental role in the results on the elections on November 8th.

And you can see it from the Lehigh Valley all across that 222 corridor, Philadelphia.

The Latino vote really played a major role in once again in the results.

You saw in the Lehigh Valley that prior to the election, the congresswoman, Suzanne Wild, was being behind in every single report from the pundits when it comes to election night.

And the results show that she won.

Indeed.

I'm going to speak because of the great mobilization of Lehigh Valley, a Latino community, and especially the Lehigh Valley Democratic Party, in engaging the Latino vote and knowing that the only way that she was going to be able to succeed was by engaging that vote.

So I also want to ask, we talked about diversity in the Latino community.

So in this election, did we see any evidence of that diversity in political thought?

Absolutely.

We saw once again, we both political parties, both major political parties, because we have more than just two of them, I should say.

They mobilize Latino voters.

They mobilize Latino base on values.

Now, let me be very clear.

We have Latinos in both sides of the aisle, Latino voters that were heavily involved from all over, you know, from Argentina to Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, and, of course, the Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico and Espanola.

You know, today, Dominican Republic, I'm Hillary and Cuba.

So that that was reflected on Election Day diversity.

So in this election, we saw big numbers and turnout.

And in terms of gen-z and millennials, did you see the same in the Latino community?

You know, when you look at the the only way that we can see and justify to some extent what I am saying is because of the Latino gen-z and the Latino millennials, as you well know, 50% of the Latino community, you know, out of the 65 million Latinos in the United States, at least 50% are millennials or younger.

So if you saw an increase in Latino vote, definitely without any doubt you saw an increase for Latino millennials and Latino audiences getting out on Election Day and.

Voting as an advocate for Latinos in Pennsylvania.

What message do you have for candidates and policymakers going forward?

Well, it is important that they fully engage the Latino community.

We need to help to bring Latino leadership to the to the positions that are available.

And I truly hope that, you know, not only from the governor's office, I hope that from the House of Representatives and the Pennsylvania Senate and at the congressional level, that if they are in the real business of engaging the growing Latino community of Pennsylvania, that it is showing in their representation, their staff.

So this is the time to engage Latino voices.

This is the time to make sure that we are not left behind.

It is a great opportunity for the Commonwealth.

It is a great opportunity for the nation.

If they truly engage the 1.1 million Latinos in Pennsylvania and the 65 million Latinos in the nation.

I think of someone who's left leaning a Democrat.

Democrat.

A lot of people don't really like like live was a live was going to have a bad name towards them, I guess.

You know, people that believe in equality, people that believe in, I guess, good things for everyone.

People that are pretty progressive, open to like like social change, economic change, all that.

I think people who are passionate about other people's plight.

Progressive.

The midterms were held over two weeks ago, but even now they're not over.

A runoff for one of Georgia's U.S. Senate seats is set for December 6th.

There were plenty of surprises and shifts.

Republicans gained control of the U.S. House, but not by the margin many expected.

Democrats still control the Senate.

In Pennsylvania, Democrats retained the governor's seat and for the first time in more than a decade will have a majority in the State House.

Professor Kincaid A lot of narratives say that in the 2022 midterm, the Republicans largely underperformed.

Given the political context and situation of what was going on.

How big of a deal is it that they were unable to recapture the Senate, and what will they be able to do now that they've been able to recapture the House and are able to control one branch of our Congress?

And how big of a shift is it that in Pennsylvania we now have a Democratic legislator and governor?

Well, those are pretty big questions.

You know, the Republicans way underperform aimed and but it was mostly the Trump supported candidates that underperformed.

The non-Trump candidates performed much better.

And so the Republicans are, if they nominate non-Trump candidates in 2024, are maybe sitting on a better, bigger electoral victory, then it means that the Senate will be able to appoint justices, the Supreme Court, the Democrats want to appoint a lot more federal judges, so they will able to do that through the Senate, whereas the legislative program will be pretty much blocked by the Republicans in the House of Representatives.

So it's going to make it difficult for Biden and the Democrats to get their their programs enacted in the same way in terms of the state legislature.

Now, with the Democratic control of the House.

That means that the there's going to be gridlock in Harrisburg as well.

We have a Democratic.

Governor and looking forward to the Georgia runoff election now that we know that the Democrats will have control of the Senate regardless of the outcome of the election.

How much of an influence and a factor is that on how this election is going to turn out?

Well, it's important because it could neutralize Joe Manchin.

So Warnock would support the, you know, Chuck Schumer and the Democratic program in the Senate.

But there's still Kristen Stewart Cinema from Arizona.

So she's a potential obstacle for, you know, getting their program through.

But to some extent, if Warnock wins, it will sort of weaken both of them and they won't have quite the leverage they had previously speaking.

So moving on to looking at the political divisiveness that we were just talking about, you know, how do we you know, how how do you see the outcome of the election influencing political divisiveness in the country moving forward?

So if elections are the mouthpiece of democracy, consider America to have spoken out very clearly that the Republican Party needs to adapt or risk becoming extinct.

Clearly, running these Trump backed candidates did not fare for them well in this election, and I think the GOP knows that.

And I imagine that the party as a whole is going to try to further distance itself from candidates like Donald Trump or Doug Mastriano, who were considered too extreme to vote for even by members of their own party.

So I think that going forward, the party may start shifting away from some of the divisive politics that we've seen in the past few years.

As far as the general electorate goes.

Only time could tell and I would say I think more positively that signals that people want to hear debates around particular policy issues that will help them.

What is the best way to address inflation?

What it's about, and it's really to the advantage of voters that they actually have choices.

Right.

That they're that both sides are are trying to govern.

All right, guys, thanks.

We're going to move on now.

Student experiences in college can have lifelong impacts, but does college shape a student's politics?

Student producers Reece Harding, David Levchenko and Jose Munoz talked to students from various majors and backgrounds to find out.

Given that.

We're in a college campus, a group of us decided to figure out if being in college actually influences your political.

Decisions.

So we decided to.

Run a little experiment.

What we're going to be doing is we're going to be interviewing a few of the students on our campus and asking them a couple of questions about their major and overall how being in college and their college experience has shaped their political decisions.

So Asher, at your time at Lafayette College so far, has there been a specific interaction maybe with a teacher or a fellow student or an event or maybe even a class that has shaped your political views in any way?

I definitely think that it's been my interactions with fellow students, so I don't think my political views have changed.

They definitely been shaped by I've been exposed to diversity of thought and different views, and that has actually served to reinforce my own views.

For example, take a controversial topic.

Abortion has been extremely controversial and through conversations with other students on campus and listening to their differing views.

Those conversations have served for me to question my own views.

Why do I believe what I believe and why do I disagree with a different viewpoint?

And through answering those questions in those conversations, I've been able to really back up what I believe, which, you know, that that's really been shaped by college.

So, Olivia, have there been any stories or experiences.

Or maybe classes here at Lafayette that have kind of shaped your political view?

I wouldn't say there have been any that shaped my political view in terms of like change the politics that I believe in or like one way that I live in or another.

But I think my first year seminar with Professor Brooks Thomas, we read this book about the making of the atom bomb from World War Two.

And there is this quote from the book by Leo Szilard.

It was like, this just goes to show that to be successful, you don't have to be much cleverer than other people.

You just have to be one day earlier than them.

I think that kind of changed the way I approach kind of viewing politicians and kind of, you know, doing all these background checks.

You know, what schools they go to, you know, how accredited are they?

But I think it kind of made me focus more on like, you know, can these politicians think on their feet or are they, you know, intuitive?

Are they problem solvers?

Like back at home, I was experiencing a lot of like lack of diversity where I came from.

And coming here was a large culture shock.

It was a large political like shock in general.

And I think by interacting with people from so many different backgrounds, I've been able to change my political lens a lot easier now and a lot more quickly, and it allows me to have more.

I feel like empathy and in different situations that maybe I would not have if not coming to laugh at for sure.

Yeah, it kind of makes your views more malleable with all these different.

Yeah.

Yeah, I like that.

I really do think that that's part of becoming educated and maturing is being able to have your views and have these views be affected by the people that you interact with on a daily basis.

Last semester, I took a class in the history department about the Jackson administration called Jacksonian Democracy.

I think one interesting aspect that we learned about was that Andrew Jackson often liked to overexaggerate his resume.

And what that has taught me in recent years of following politics is that to always look past what maybe politicians or potential politicians want to tell you and do your own research and look into your own views and question them through their instead of just listening to other people.

So overall, does this make you optimistic, looking towards the future for politics in the United States?

Yes, but I think that we have a long way to go.

Until then.

Republicans typically tone Trump.

Trump, someone who's right wing, someone who has more like views that were like from like earlier in time.

I guess people that are Republican people that are capitalist, people that, you know, seek for their own benefit.

They kind of stay where they are on views and don't really look to change minds.

Well, obviously, it's right leaning and like the definition of like conservatism is like to keep the same.

So, like, they want to continue what has already happened.

Polling on to like older values like the country's had but there still is like some like evolution in the conservative Party.

Next, we're going to go to Caitlin.

What was going on in Lafayette campus that, you know, to get people excited about voting, to get them to register and go to the voting booths.

So organizations such as Lafayette Votes had been attempting to mobilize student voters since the beginning of the school year.

We didn't just start, of course, the week of Election Day.

So I think that a lot of students were already very excited about this midterm before the midterm was even at their doorstep on actual Election Day.

I'm the president of College Democrats.

One of my good friends is the president of College Republicans.

Both he and I were sending messages in our group meals, trying to make sure that any student who had not yet submitted an absentee or a mail in ballot had not yet done early voting, was going to get to the polls.

So there were there was definitely conversations about voting that day.

Many students had already voted by mail.

They had they had participated in early voting.

Now, one of the key factors there was actually having a polling place on campus that is a relatively new development.

You know, when I came to Lafayette in 2006, there was no polling place on campus.

And students had to sort of figure out where off campus they should go.

And that's changed in a lot of places.

There were a lot of fights about polling places on campuses in Georgia, very important state, and actually a lawsuit in Poughkeepsie at Vassar College to where Vassar won the right to have a polling place on campus for students.

All right, great points.

We're going to move on now.

In a previous episode, student producer Abigail Hammel enlisted actors from the Lafayette College Theater Department to perform a skit on social do's and don'ts about political conversations on a college campus.

It is almost impossible to avoid discussions like that.

Here's more from Abby on how to keep passionate political views from coming between friends.

Hey.

What's up?

Nothing much.

I'm just coming from my political science class.

Nice.

Yeah, but the professor has views that are very different than mine.

How so?

They assign a lot of homework or something.

No, no, it's not that.

It's just he has really bad opinions on policies and tries to influence everyone in the class with his political beliefs.

I'm here with Monica Amorosi.

She's a licensed therapist who specializes in interpersonal relationships, skills as well as stress management.

Seems like as soon as politics are brought up, things get very aggravated.

Absolutely.

We know regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, any discussion on politics has the potential to be very divisive.

And you never want to make the assumption that the person that you're talking to shares the same belief system as you.

And so if we are going to put forward an opinion on a certain belief system, be prepared to back up why we believe the opinions and policies that are being shared in class are bad or harmful.

And education and influence is your goal.

We want to be very mindful that we're teaching, but we're also ready to listen to what the other person might have to say.

Yeah, let's see how the other roommate reacts to this remark.

What do you mean, bad opinions?

Well, he's literally a crazy liberal, and he tries to yell at me whenever I try to voice my political opinions.

Are you telling me you're a Republican?

Yeah.

I'm not dumb.

I mean, I'm a Democrat, and I think your professor sounds awesome.

I mean, maybe you shouldn't be allowed to spew your rightist propaganda.

It's called a liberal arts school for a reason.

Are you joking?

Please don't tell me you're voting blue in the next election.

Oh, I certainly am.

The guy who's running is actually incoherent and has no morals or values.

How could you do that to our country?

You're the one with no values, okay?

You're voting for someone that doesn't know what they're doing it all and has no experience.

It looks like the two roommates are kind of polarizing.

Themselves and trying to create sides in a discussion just leads to more conflict.

People may become more defensive as they team up with each other.

And again, you may lose track of the point of the discussion.

Insults and judgment put people closer to their beliefs, therefore, making it a lot harder to have any influence over what the other person's.

Let's see if they can get back on track.

You know what?

I should have known you were a liberal.

What's that supposed to mean?

You know what?

You shouldn't be able to cast a vote.

You're turning this country upside down.

That's all you.

How are you even raised?

I was raised by parents with good values that actually have brain cells.

Maybe your parents could use some.

Don't bring my family into this.

You know what?

I'm leaving.

I can't have a roommate that doesn't care about this world and is blindly voting for some idiot running for office.

This skit definitely resonates with college students.

What can we take away from it?

It can be jarring when you find out that someone close to you has drastically different viewpoints.

If your goal is to keep the friendship intact, then we want to be mindful of insults or offensive language, as that almost always damages the relationship.

If you want to educate the other person because your concern for how their thoughts might impact their vote or the country at large.

Be prepared to come in less aggressively and to make the person feel comfortable before you share what it is that you want them to hear.

Now let's see how this can change their discussion and potentially make it more productive.

Hey, what's up?

Nothing much.

I'm just coming from my political science class.

Nice.

Yeah, but the professor has views that are very different than mine.

How so?

They assign a lot of homework or something.

No, no, it's not that.

It's just he has really bad opinions on policies and tries to influence everyone in the class with his political beliefs.

What do you mean, bad opinions?

Well, he's very open about his democratic beliefs, and it makes everything very polarized.

And I don't feel comfortable sharing my views in class.

Are you saying that you're a Republican?

Yes.

And I stand by my viewpoints.

Oh, well, I think I would agree with your professor.

I mean, I think it's important for professors with liberal views to share them in a school like ours.

Are you joking?

Don't tell me you're planning on voting blue in the next election.

Oh, I certainly am.

How could you do that?

The current president doesn't align with any of my political beliefs.

I feel the same way about Republican presidents, and your views are just as confusing to me.

Well, I didn't realize you had political views that were so different than mine.

Well, I just think that some of your views can really harm others.

Are these views common in your family?

How would you raised.

I'm happy with the way that I was raised and my views.

What views are common in your family?

Actually, I don't think we can have a productive discussion about this.

I think we should try talking about something else.

Monica, thank you so much for joining me today.

Thank you so much for having me.

It was great to get to speak to you.

On a final note, well, these skits were somewhat exaggerated.

Interpersonal conflict with regards to politics is truly no laughing matter.

Relationships can be strained through constant political argument and using tactics to avoid this is extremely beneficial.

We're back.

And before we close, I'd like to hear once more from each of you about what your biggest takeaway from the election was and what you guys are really going to remember down the line.

Let's start with Caitlin.

So if Americans take one thing away from this midterm, I think it should be that youth voters are a forced to be reckoned with.

Young people have grown up hearing that we don't vote enough.

We aren't active enough in politics.

And I think that this 2022 midterm and the 2018 midterm have completely thrown that idea away going forward.

I think Americans must remember that the youth vote is here.

It is incredibly powerful and it's going to stay that way.

Professor King, hit.

The takeaway for me is that our federal democratic system is pretty vibrant.

And it came through this election very well.

Our county governments performed very well in carrying out the elections.

There are clearly some hiccups, but they are just rather well to the swelling of mail in voting.

That is now the single biggest way people vote.

And so we have some delays in counting because this was all it was all suddenly came with COVID.

So they didn't have enough time to prepare.

But so those counties that have been counting slow, I think will do be able to do a better job in 2024.

And the state legislatures need to act like Pennsylvania needs to allow these votes to be opened and counted earlier than than election day.

And progressively.

Yeah.

I'd build on what Kate said as far as how young people have been able to turn activism into electoral power.

I think even more than that, the thing that I really took away from this election was that beyond electoral power, they actually are turning that into direct representational power.

So we saw Maxwell Frost, who's 25, who's going to be the first Gen Z member of Congress from Florida.

Nick Miller, who's 27, who's from right here in Allentown, is going to be the youngest member of the Pennsylvania Senate in 135 years.

Wow.

Right.

So, you know, when you see that sort of leadership starting to turn over, see at the national level with Nancy Pelosi what we see these up and coming leaders from both parties, that that's really exciting to see.

All right.

Thank you for your thoughts.

The 2024 race for the presidency already is underway.

We asked Lafayette students who they'd like to see as the next commander in chief.

Hello.

My name is Alexis La Liberté, and I'm outside of Lafayette College's Marquee Hall to see who Lafayette students would like to see as the next president of the United States.

Although this lunchtime sample is far from a scientific poll, some of these answers may surprise you.

Who would you like to see as the next president of the United States?

I would like to see AOC as the next President of the United States.

I'd love to see AOC as a candidate at some point in her political career.

Maybe AOC even announces, and.

I'd like to see Ron DeSantis as the next president.

I would like to see Biden as the next president of the United States.

Biden I think Biden's doing a great job now, but I think Kamala Harris would do a great job as president as well.

I don't really know enough about politics currently, so I don't even know who I'd want to see as the next president.

Preferably a woman.

I like the idea of like Bernie Sanders.

If there's an opportunity for a younger candidate to come into office, like specifically someone who does like range like from like 35 to 45, I think it'd be like a better showcase of black America.

So I guess it'd be like J.B. Pritzker of Illinois.

He's the current governor.

If I'm being completely honest, I haven't thought about this at all, so I'd have to do more research.

I'd like to see Ron Paul as the next president of the US.

It seems as though diversity and representation are top priorities for Lafayette students coming into the 2024 election.

That's it for this fourth installment of our Shifting Democracy series.

It was made possible by gifts from Bruce and Jackie Madigan.

Christopher Kane.

Donald Morrill Jr. And with the support of Lafayette's Gladstone T Whitman, 49, formed on behalf of Professor Marc Crane and the policy studies Program at Lafayette College and our partners at PBS 39 and Lehigh Valley Public Media.

Thank you for joining us.

Goodnight.