[The current presidential election is the most consequential so
far — because in 2024, we get the democracy we vote for.]
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WITHOUT A HEALTHY DEMOCRACY, NONE OF THE OTHER ISSUES MATTER  
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Errin Haines
January 18, 2024
The 19th News
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_ The current presidential election is the most consequential so far
— because in 2024, we get the democracy we vote for. _

Voters fill out their ballots at a polling station on on November 7,
2023 , (Julia Nikhinson/The Washington Post/Getty Images

 

Watching the returns from the Iowa Republican caucus
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week, I felt the usual excitement of the start of a presidential
campaign, plus a bit of nostalgia. 

Four years ago this month, The 19th launched just days before the
Democratic primary in Iowa; then, I was our newsroom’s sole
reporter, and our goal was to fundamentally change how we covered
gender and American politics. 

Today, the future of our democracy is in doubt as we head into
November. Still, our mission remains the same between now and Election
Day: to leave behind a more honest, inclusive and accurate record of
who and where we are as a country. 

What are the stakes for 2024? What are the dynamics that could drive
voters to — or away from — the polls? Much of what we will learn
will come not from the candidates, whom we have had months, if not
years, to get to know. It will come from the people who participate in
and who will be impacted by this election. 

While I don’t make predictions about election results, I do think
about what narratives I believe will shape this year. Coming out of
Iowa, caucusgoers confirmed a major theme I’ve been thinking about
in a month where we mark the anniversary of the January 6, 2021,
insurrection
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birthday of civil and voting rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.; and
the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade. 

It is the perennial declaration of political journalists that the
current presidential election is the most consequential so far. That
has been true in previous years for different reasons, and it’s true
this year because in 2024, we get the democracy we vote for.

On Monday, Iowa Republicans sent a message
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they want a democracy led by someone who has shown little regard for
its customs and norms.

Former President Donald Trump is seeking a return to office after
attempting to overturn the results of a free and fair election —
aided by his supporters who led an insurrection at the United States
Capitol. Trump currently enjoys front-runner status despite having
been found liable for sexual assault
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defamation and facing 91 felony counts across four criminal cases 
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alongside the campaign. 

[Donald Trump supporters chat ahead of the Iowa Republican caucuses in
January 2024, in Urbandale, Iowa.]
Donald Trump supporters chat ahead of the Iowa Republican caucuses in
January 2024, in Urbandale, Iowa.

Barring any major surprises, he will face an incumbent president who
was already the oldest person ever elected to the office. In 2020, Joe
Biden ran a campaign framed as “a battle for the soul of America,”
but his pitch for national unity has been largely rejected. A racial
reckoning, the end of federal protections for abortion, and culture
wars over education and LGBTQ+ rights
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helped to only further divide the country Biden hopes to continue to
lead.

But the presidential race will not be the only barometer of how
Americans prioritize democracy. Candidates up and down the ballot —
from Congress to secretaries of state, to local government leaders,
all with the ability to restrict or expand voting rights — continue
to embrace the lie of a stolen 2020 election. 

Voters in some states will also get to exercise direct democracy, with
efforts to get measures on abortion access on the ballot in at least
11 states
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No matter your issues — the economy, health care, education,
climate change, immigration, gun violence — none are more important
than the survival of democracy. Without it, none of the issues matter,
because they cannot be debated or legislated. I said last year that
democracy must be a kitchen table issue
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voters, but they must also see how democracy intersects with
traditional political priorities. 

Will democracy be a topic on the debate stage and campaign trail? Will
journalists probe how voters in key primary and general election
battleground states see their rights and our government? Our
understanding of how voters view and value democracy — and how much
importance they place on the issue as a value for their chosen
candidate — will be key in understanding voter behavior at the
ballot box.

Four years ago, I accurately wrote that, as more than half of the
population and the electorate, women would be the deciders
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the election. With the issue of rights, freedom and gender on the
ballot, we have seen women galvanized to make their voices heard at
the polls over the last four years. This year, I’ll be paying
attention to which women will shape 2024 — and how. 

Black women voters and organizers are feeling disrespected and
devalued in a political climate that has made them a prime target in
the diversity, equity and inclusion culture wars. In 2020, they worked
twice as hard for a democracy that many feel has given them half as
much, despite wins that included the first Black women to serve as
vice president and on the Supreme Court. But will they show up anyway,
if not for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, for democracy and
for each other?   

For White women: Will they align with their race or their gender in
the first presidential election after the Supreme Court’s 2022
decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization? While a
majority of women overall have preferred the Democratic candidate in
presidential elections since 1996, a majority of White women
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voted for the GOP presidential candidate for nearly a generation. Will
we continue to see divides along education, geographic and
generational lines?

White women — Gen Z and millennials in particular — “are voting
their gender in a way that we’ve never seen before,” said Taylor
Salditch, the executive director of Supermajority, a progressive
political organizing group. 

“We do have the power to dull the voices of the percentage of older
White women who, frankly, were not well organized when they were
coming up, or they were organized by the other side,” Salditch said.
“I don’t think that White women voting their gender is a foregone
conclusion. I think it actually requires organizing.”

The electorate continues to diversify, especially in key states, and
with it the voters who get to define what democracy means to them. For
Latina, Asian-American and Native women voters — many of whom also
see their rights and freedoms as under threat — their lived
experiences could inform how they head to the polls.

Both parties are approaching 2024 as a matter of unfinished business.
Four years into my role at The 19th and more than a century after the
passage of the amendment for which our newsroom is named, I’m
approaching this election as part of the unfinished business of our
democracy. Who gets to participate fully in our political process is
among the most urgent questions of this cycle. The results feel
existential to the young, people of color, LGBTQ+ Americans and many
others whose fates could depend on who all of us elect to create
policy in all of our names. 

Meeting this moment, as journalists and as voters, is what democracy
requires of us. We won’t get to Election Day — or whatever comes
next — without each other. 

_ERRIN HAINES is our editor-at-large. An award-winning journalist
with nearly two decades of experience, Errin was previously a national
writer on race for the Associated Press. She’s also worked at the
Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. Sign up for her biweekly
newsletter
[[link removed]], The
Amendment, for unique analysis reframing the political landscape. 
Errin Haines's work is free to consume and free to republish because
of contributions from readers like you. A donation of $19
[[link removed]] goes a long way toward
sustaining our nonprofit newsroom._

_The 19th is a nonprofit newsroom supported by a mix of membership,
philanthropy and corporate underwriting. Our goal is long-term
sustainability to support a lasting future for news and information at
the intersection of gender, politics and policy. Donors and sponsors
don’t get a thumb on the scale; they play no role in our journalism,
in our storytelling or in the planning and execution of our
events.  Become a Member [[link removed]]_

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