Election 2020: Conclusion

Folio concludes its series of critical discussions on the 2020 Election; moderated by noted national commentator and Folio Board Member Mort Kondracke.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won a histroical presidential election, yet the Democratic party failed to capture the US Senate, lost House seats and failed to flip a single Republican-dominated state legislature, putting the GOP in charge of redistricting for another decade. 

Does divided government mean four years of gridlock, or can the parties get together to solve pressing problems facing the US? Plus, a look at the future direction of both parties in terms of demographics, politics and ideology. Specifically, will Donald Trump continue to control the GOP? and how will Biden manage the split in his party between Moderates and Progressives?

John Lapinski, director of the Elections Unit of NBC News, David Domke, director of CommonPower, a national vote mobilization group based in Seattle, and Bob Merry, author of Where They Stand: American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians return for this much anticipated conclusion, joined by Sara Blanco, #ElectHer program Director at Running Start. 

Sara Blanco has always been interested in women’s empowerment and became especially passionate about women’s political leadership upon joining the Running Start team in 2012. As a Latina, she's particularly interested in empowering women of color to run for office. With Running Start, she has had the opportunity to speak to audiences large and small about women in politics.In 2018, Sara earned a Master of Public Policy at the George Washington University. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 2012 with a degree in English Literature and a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies. She continues to live in her hometown of Arlington, Virginia and is a member of the Women’s Information Network and the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network. Sara enjoys competitive karaoke and salsa dancing.

John Lapinski, Ph.D., is the Robert A. Fox Professor of Political Science, Faculty Director of the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program and the Director of the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies. He also serves as the Faculty Director for the Executive Masters of Public Administration program within the Fels Institute of Government and as the Director of the Elections Unit at NBC News. In his role for NBC News, Lapinski is responsible for projecting races for the network and produces election-related stories through exit polls for NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, and all of NBC’s digital properties. Dr. Lapinski earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2000, and previously was an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. He came to Penn in 2006. His primary area of research is concerned with understanding national elections as well as lawmaking in Congress through empirical analysis. He is the author of The Substance of Representation (Princeton University Press, 2013) and co-author (with David A. Bateman and Ira Katznelson) of Southern Nation (Princeton University Press, 2018).

David Domke is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, and for the past decade he has served as Department Chair. His research has focused on communication, politics, and public opinion in the United States, and in recent years Domke has worked closely with several organizations on communication and engagement in the public arena. In 2018 he worked with a team to launch CommonPower, and he now serves as its Director of Fieldwork & Learning.

Robert Merry is the editor of The National Interest and author of several books, most recently President McKinley. He has been a Washington correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and the executive editor of the Congressional Quarterly, has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other major publications, as well as appeared on Meet the Press, Face the Nation and many other programs.