Weekend Election Update 4/17

Courtesy of Vox

By Jeremy Perillo

The upcoming presidential election is only six months away, and the looming pandemic has made that timeline feel much longer than reality. As most Americans struggle financially and emotionally in such a trying time, the candidates for president face an unprecedented challenge to win the hearts and minds of voters in such an unruly time.

As an incumbent President during a global pandemic, Trump maintains a bully pulpit far surpassing Joe Biden’s ability to gather attention while most Americans are isolating in their homes. This gives the President a major advantage in the race to the White House since he can be front and center on the news during prime time hours whenever he pleases. Or, more specifically, Trump has held daily Coronavirus task force briefings every evening.

That is not to say the future Democratic nominee has been left out of the press. Amidst the recent endorsements Biden has received in the last week, the focus has been over who his running mate will be. When former Democratic Presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren, issued her endorsement of Biden, she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that she would serve as Biden’s VP if she was asked.

“We have seen the importance of having a leader that we can count on in a crisis. It’s not Donald Trump. It is Joe Biden,” Warren said.

Speculation persists over who that person will be, as a list of ten potential women has been continuously examined by political commentators and the media in examining who could strengthen Biden’s chances of running for president. Many people are confident in the choice of Senator Kamala Harris, despite the fiery exchanges between the two candidates when Harris remained in the race several months ago. 

Another contender on the list, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, has received increased opposition for her strict stay-at-home orders. With her profile heightened because of her altercations with Trump, as well as the possibility of being Biden’s VP pick, thousands of Michiganians took to the street to protest regulations they deemed “tyrannical.” 

Protestors stood outside the Michigan statehouse and parked their cars in the streets to create intentional gridlock. The basis for the protest was in Whitmer’s “unreasonable” inclusion of garden supplies in her non-essential order, as well as restricting boaters from using motor boats or jet skis.

“The fact that we’re cracking down on people traveling between homes or planting or landscaping or golfing, really, for a couple more weeks is not going to meaningfully impact people’s ability to do so, because the snow will do that itself,” said Whitmer.