Summary Of Covid 19 And The 2020 Presidential Election By David Mitchell

Article Review of “Covid-19 and the 2020 Presidential Election” Introduction In David Mitchell's article “Covid-19 and the 2020 presidential election," he attempts to provide readers with a detailed explanation backed by facts and statistics over the many circumstances that have affected the 2020 Presidential election, leading to it being one of the most unique elections to have ever taken place. Summary: The article provides readers with valuable statistical information that aligns with the arguments presented. Mitchell focuses primarily on five states within this article, these being Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. What makes these states important is the role they played in the election. For some of these states,

This information is crucial because in the five states all decided by paper thin margins, voter turnout would have drastically changed the outcome of important swing states. Mitchell also states that generally, presidents will have much success in the following election if they have had much economic success, which Trump did for 80% of his term as president. But the sudden shutdown of the entire world in early 2020 led to sudden, drastic changes that Mitchell claims helped Trump in the election. This contradicts the author's saying that “the economic variables were of particular interest for this analysis. It is generally expected that voters will punish incumbents for poor economic performance.” (Mitchell 15). Which would’ve not helped Trump due to the economy plummeting and the entire country being forced to shut down for a long time. However, despite this contradiction, the article still effectively informs readers about the election with unbiased statistics and

Factor this in with over 45 different statistics and it makes for a very detailed article that the author uses to make reasonable claims. However, with the plethora of information provided, it can make some things seem very confusing, which is one of the two gripes I have over this article. It is a treasure trove of information, but the majority of the statistics provided aren’t even mentioned in the article and are just there for readers to examine after they finish reading. My second gripe is one I mentioned earlier in the summary, when the author contradicts himself by saying that COVID-19 had helped Trump by making the election closer. But Mitchell does not mention how the sudden shutdown of the economy could've led voters to change their minds about their candidate. The author might be correct in saying COVID-19 helped make the election closer for Trump, but I found it to be a claim that goes against his statement that “voters will punish incumbents for poor economic performance” since the economy was heading into a disastrous