This What’s The Frequency episode is devoted to the big 2024 general election results that became known this week after Americans voted.
Republican Donald Trump won the state of Iowa and its six electoral votes for the third time, topping Vice President Kamala Harris in Iowa, by taking 56 percent of the vote. Trump also won handily in South Dakota, and took four of the five electoral votes in Nebraska.
Trump then won the presidency on Wednesday, once some swing state outcomes like Pennsylvania and Georgia became known.
There were not only federal contests such as the presidency and congressional posts for Siouxland voters to settle, but also some state legislative races and even some special ballot measures, as was the case in Nebraska and South Dakota, where abortion and other issues were on the ballot.
The guests for this episode who discuss a host of takeaways from the election include three political science professors from Siouxland colleges, with Julia Hellwege of the University of South Dakota, Bradley Best of Buena Vista University, and Patrick McKinlay of Morningside University.
They discuss how Trump is a political force in how he speaks and presents himself unlike any other. Trump has been impeached twice, he encouraged an insurrection after he lost four years ago, and is the first convicted felon elected to the presidency.
The trio of professors also dissect the role of how economics played in the minds of U.S. voters, the final weeks campaign strategies, and how subsets of Americans voted, such as Latino and black people, based on some initial exit polls.
One professor opines that the U.S. seems to be taking a rightward shift, and they debate what people would be saying this week if Harris had squeaked out a win.
Another topic addressed is what a second Trump presidency will look like, after he had a slow start in 2017 in terms of presiding over the government.
The professors also discuss how voters in the Siouxland states of South Dakota and Nebraska defeated abortion rights constitutional amendment special measures.
*Click on the audio link above to hear the entire show.
What's The Frequency, Episode 41
