This year, Ozean’s top staff will be presenting their own “Year in Review of 2020” comprised of their top takes in three areas: Digital Media, Political Research, and Political Data.
This is Amelia’s review of 2020 in political research, data, and digital media. A persepctive from a first time voter in the most polarizing election yet.
Digital Media
It’s been a very long year. We have been working through a global pandemic and have faced one of the most challenging election cycles in our nation’s history. This election cycle was my first time qualifying to vote in a Presidential race and I couldn’t have imagined a more exciting one even if I tried. With Americans living on their technology to work remotely and lockdowns limiting other activities, digital marketing pushes in campaigns became more crucial than ever. What came out of this big digital push were some very memorable campaign ads such as the one from Maryland’s congressional candidate Kimberly Klasick that went viral and brought in millions in fundraising dollars. It was a savvy digital ad that made the candidate look and feel relatable to voters from her district and demonstrated the hypocrisy of the democratic incumbent.
Political Research
Although this election was polarizing and maddening, it did give us many interesting voter statistics to look into. One of the most interesting findings was how the Latino communities in Texas have swung greatly over to the Republicans. From Brownsville to El Paso, Trump picked up a lot of support from Mexican voters unlike ever before. In 2016, Trump lost all 18 Texas counties where Latinos make up at least 80% of the population. This time he won five of them and closed the gap considerably in the rest. What was possibly the cause of his unlikely success in these areas was his strong support for law enforcement and his defending of the oil industry. These two fields are how many support their families in these areas of Texas.
Political Data
This year’s senate race between Tommy Tuberville and Doug Jones was a big one to say the least. Jones outspent Tuberville by a long shot and broke an Alabama record for campaign spending. A lot was riding on this seat for the Democrats but Republicans knew how crucial it was to flip the seat back red. Most polling done throughout this campaign always showed Tuberville up by a considerably large margin, but then an internal poll came out from FM3 Research that had Jones up by 1 point. As someone who interned and worked on the campaign, this came as a big surprise and we knew immediately it was a faulty poll. This polling was wildy innacurate considering the outcome of the election giving Tuberville a 20% win. This goes to show that the side that pumps the most money into an election does not always come out on top!
