Talk Radio – November 15, 2022: The 2022 Midterm Elections – Call In 1-800-450-7876

GUESTS

Terry O’Neill, Esq.: 12:00 PM – 12:57 PM Eastern Time
Host of the podcast “What Equality Looks Like”;TJC Board Secretary; and, former President of the National Organization for Women (NOW)

Dianne Wilkerson: 12:00 PM – 12:57 PM Eastern Time
First African American Female to serve in the Massachusetts Senate and TJC Board Treasurer

Harry Richardson: 12:15 PM – 12:57 PM ET
2022 TJC-certified Voting Rights Advocate and attends Southern University Law Center and Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, as a second-year law and first-year MBA student respectively. Before law school. Former journalist for CNN, MSNBC, and the Huffington Post.

Ashley Shannon: 12:15 PM – 12:57 PM ET
2022 TJC-certified Voting Rights Advocate and third-year law student at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law, where she is earning her J.D. with a focus in criminal law, civil rights and policy reform. Ashley serves as a Graduate Assistant for UIC Law’s Restorative Justice Project, a Student Senator for the UIC Academic Senate Committee, Chief of Staff for the Midwest Region of the National Black Law Students Association and Vice Chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Civil Rights Committee.

QUESTIONS

FIRST SEGMENT

• For you, what was the most important outcome of this election? (nonpartisan)
• What was the most unexpected outcome?
• How did the African-American vote and the vote of other people of color affect the 2022 Midterms?
• What is “Roevember”? Why did “Roevember” not benefit Stacey Abrams in Georgia?

SECOND SEGMENT

• How did the youth vote affect the 2022 Midterms?
• Harry and Ashley, what has been the reaction on your campus to the elections? What has been the reaction of the Black law students?
• What did it mean for this nation for Maxwell Alejandro Frost to be elected as the first Gen Z member of Congress at 25, the youngest age you can be a Congressman?
• Gen Z’ers were an estimated 27% of the turnout having such a massive impact in so many states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and others, what could it mean if that percentage was close to 40 or 50 percent?
• 89% of African-American Gen Zers voted Democrat. What does this mean and why did this happen?
• People were stating that African-American Gen Z’ers were going to be apathetic when they actually turned out to be very robust voters.. Why do the pundits always get it wrong about young voters?

THIRD SEGMENT

• With single women breaking 30 points for Democrats, what does this say about “Roevember” and the “Roevember effect”? Jesse Watters suggested the answer was for them to get married because married women tend to prefer Republicans.
• People say their vote doesn’t matter. Just 114 votes in Bucks County’s 142nd District in Pennsylvania separated Republican Joseph Hogan in his race against Democrat Mark Moffa. In Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the 151st District seat is separated by 14 votes with Republican William Todd Stephens leading Democrat Melissa Cerrato. The Wisconsin Secretary of State race is currently separated by .3%, a total of 7,591 votes, with 99% reporting. In the Arizona governor’s race between Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake, with 98% reporting, about 20,000 votes separate them. All across the country, there are similar very close races. How do we continue to impress upon voters the need to vote?
• Ruby Belle Booth, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University’s elections coordinator, said this year’s election represents “a continuation of high civic engagement” among young people in recent years. This is the second highest youth voter turnout nationwide at people aged 18 – 19 voting at 27% – 30%. Researchers say the 2022 election had the second highest voter turnout among voters under 30 in at least the past three decades. So far, the highest turnout during a midterm for this voting bloc is 2018 when about 31% of young people who are eligible to vote cast a ballot. She said investments in organizations that mobilize young people year-round are key to improving voter turnout in this voting bloc. Booth said possibly a decrease in those kinds of investments this year could be why turnout this year was slightly lower than 2018. “We saw in registration numbers that 18- to 19-year-olds were not being engaged as much as they were in 2018,” she said. “And that’s a red flag that there isn’t as much work happening to register new voters.” However, those aged 18 – 29 in battleground states voted at a higher percentage. Generally, there have been criticisms in the investment strategies used by Democrats, Republicans, and grassroots organizations. What, in your opinion, were some of the major misses?

FOURTH SEGMENT

• With the Democrats keeping control of the Senate, how will that affect the fight for voting rights legislation?
• Dianne, TJC will be refocusing our efforts again in Georgia for this Senate Runoff Election. Can you tell our listeners about the opportunity to join our phone banking committee? (VotingRightsAlliance.org)
• Harry and Ashley, do you think that young people will come in to help with canvassing, rides to the polls, and other voter mobilization strategies?
• Discuss the other elements of TJC’s on-the-ground voter mobilization.
• How can voters use this election cycle to force change?
• Thank you for all of your hard work. How do our listeners get in contact with you?