'After the Vote' discussion seeks to interpret Election 2016

Students, faculty and staff are invited to Whitley Auditorium on Thursday, Nov. 10, for a conversation about the results of the 2016 Election, which saw multiple close contests in North Carolina and the historic and surprising selection of Republican businessman Donald Trump as the next president. 

Four members of Elon’s Department of Political Science and Policy Studies will gather at 4 p.m. to lead a discussion about the results from the Nov. 8 election and discuss its implications going forward.

“What we want to do is to set the stage of what happened, as best we can explain it 48 hours after the election,” said Carrie Eaves, assistant professor of political science who is helping organize the event and will participate as a panelist. “We want to spend some time about what this means going forward and provide some context historically, what it means for the country, and what it means in terms of what policies we should expect to see.”

Joining Eaves on the panel will be Assistant Professor Jessica Carew, who specializes in race, ethnicity and identity in politics; Assistant Professor Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll, and Assistant Professor Elisha Savchak-Trogdon, whose research focuses on judicial races. 

Beyond discussing the hotly contested presidential race and what drove Trump to victory, the panel will delve into the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races in North Carolina along with the implications for the selection of U.S. Supreme Court justices in the months and years to come. 

The event will begin with the panel discussion, and will then be opened up to questions and discussion topics from the audience. Such a discussion is important during an election season that at times has turned contentious and stirred passions from all political persuasions, Eaves said. “We want to approach it from an academic side, but we want to acknowledge that there is an emotional side as well,” Eaves said.