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31 October 2020updated 02 Nov 2020 8:51am

US presidential election 2020: America beyond the beltway

The second of three dossiers of selected New Statesman pieces unpacking the race for the White House.

By New Statesman

With the US presidential election (as well as elections to the Senate and the House of Representatives) of 3 November nearing, all eyes are on the polls. Readers can check our results model and polling overview, both updated daily, on our US election hub here. And it is also the time to reflect on the events of the past four years, the significance of the choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden and what America’s future has in store.

Over the past months, as part of its international expansion, the New Statesman has been covering the election campaign itself but also those big long-term subjects. So now, in the final days before election day, we are publishing a series of three dossiers of selected New Statesman pieces providing depth and perspective on those subjects.

This is the second. It surveys America beyond the beltway: the crucial swing states, the issues affecting Americans’ everyday lives and the mood on the ground. The first focuses on American democracy: the ways the republic’s norms and institutions have been put under strain, the contest between Trump and Biden and the election campaign itself. The third rounds off the series with an exploration of America in the world: its foreign policy, its relations with other powers and its role in global matters.

Anti-Semitism in the time of Trump

By Emily Tamkin

How hatred and conspiracy have been normalised in American political life.

Hispanics won’t be loyal Democrats forever

By Ben Walker

Democrats could do with Hispanics in the Sun Belt what Donald Trump did with white voters in the Rust Belt – but it won’t yield as big a dividend as the party might hope. 

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Georgia on our minds

By Emily Tamkin

Why the southern state continues to cause hope and heartache for Democrats.

Will Donald Trump hold on to Pennsylvania?

By Jake Blumgart

Despite favourable demographics, support for the president in the rust-belt state has been slipping since 2016.

A fractured United States

By Gary Younge

Donald Trump’s brazen violations of democratic norms are not new, but a continuation of a political culture built on racism.

America and the politics of pain

By Timothy Snyder

Gravely ill in hospital with sepsis, our writer had a revelation on how Donald Trump transformed the US’s inequalities into a suicidal tribalism.

The Divided States of America

The New Statesman’s World Review podcast hosts Sommer Mathis and Courtney Fingar to discuss cities, trade and America’s evolving political geography.

Donald Trump’s grip on his white working class base is waning

By Ben Walker

Non-college educated white voters helped secure the 2016 Republican win. Will they remain loyal?

Can the Democrats retake Michigan from Donald Trump?

By Emily Tamkin

Voters in the midwestern state are more aware, informed, energised and empowered than they were in 2016.

QAnon 101

Sarah Manavis joins Emily Tamkin and Ido Vock on the New Statesman’s World Review podcast to discuss the election and online conspiracy theories.

Can North Carolina turn blue?

By Emily Tamkin

Though polling points to victory for Joe Biden and the Democrats, they must contend with some of the most extreme gerrymandering anywhere in the country.

In search of a US beyond coronavirus

By Nick Burns

Driving through some of the most desolate reaches of the continental US, our writer hoped to find places untouched by Covid-19. What he saw instead was the true reach of the American government.

Is 2020 the year Texas and Arizona will finally swing?

By Emily Tamkin

Demographics have shifted over time, but that doesn’t mean voting patterns have changed with them.

The Riled West

Jeremy Cliffe and Emily Tamkin are joined by Nick Burns on the New Statesman’s World Review podcast to discuss his travels through California.

What Donald Trump misunderstands about American suburbia

By Emily Tamkin

The suburbs are more diverse, more foreign and poorer than Republican hyperventilation allows.

The Florida Factor

By Emily Tamkin

Why the Sunshine State is facing a typically mixed election forecast ahead of November.

Virginia is for… Democrats?

By Emily Tamkin

The story of how the former Confederate capital turned blue is one of demographic shifts, a Democratic political machine and Donald Trump.

We can’t breathe

By Gary Younge

What connects the most brazen forms of state violence against black people and the struggles of BAME coronavirus patients is systemic racism.

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