2020 Presidential Candidate Student Presentations, Part 1

Before embarking on our New Hampshire Presidential Campaign adventure, all students learn about all of the candidates running.  

In addition to their own research about each of the candidates, students draft short seminar papers about  one of the presidential candidates (including a brief biography, a brief review of policy initiatives/platform, a brief summary of his/her campaign strategy, and current standing in the polls (national, IA, NH, and FL).  Students are encouraged to consult the campaign website and candidate’s book, look at videos of campaign events and speeches (using the websites included in the Syllabus for the RTWH seminar), and consult news sources to learn more about the campaign strategy and current polling numbers (again, there are sites included in the Syllabus).

In addition to the written paper, students make a presentation to the class. These are typically multi-media presentations (e.g., we may watch and discuss the candidate’s TV ads, or the campaign website, or a short excerpt form a campaign event to illustrate a point about the candidate’s message/strategy).  

I assign the candidates for the papers, to ensure that we have a paper/presentation about each of the candidates running. 

In 2020, students prepared papers and presentations about 14 presidential candidates:

Democrats

1)     BENNET                                                                    7) KLOBUCHAR

Campbell                                                                                Carter

Rodriguez-Campos                                                                 Castle

2)     BIDEN                                                                       8) SANDERS

Collins                                                                                    Duarte

Crowley                                                                                  Etheridge

3)     BLOOMBERG                                                         9)STEYER

Fiore                                                                                        Hall

Gregory                                                                                   Hobbs

        4) BUTTIGIEG                                                         10)WARREN                                                Manning                                                                        Lopez

Martindale                                                                  Maechtle

             5) DELANEY                                                            11)YANG                                                            Mitchell                                                          Medero

            Nero                                                                            Miller

6) PATRICK                                                                       12) GABBARD

            Snyder                                                                                     Ortner

            Jimenez                                                                                   Rodriguez-Moreno                      

                                                                                                                                                       Republicans

13)     TRUMP                                                                     14) WELD                                   

Starr                                                                                        Terrell

Stephens                                                                                  Pasierb

Johnson

Here are some pics of my students presenting, part 1:  Bennet, Biden, Bloomberg, Delaney, Klobuchar, Steyer, and Yang.

 We will hear the rest of the candidate presentations next week.

 

 

 

 

 

Why Iowa?!? A Conversation with Prof. David Redlawsk about the Iowa Caucuses

One of the  benefits of the way our New Hampshire trip is designed:  we arrive in New Hampshire (and the students begin work at their campaign placements) prior to the Iowa Caucuses.  And we are able to watch and discuss the Iowa Caucus results over dinner together in New Hampshire.

In order to get the most out of this experience, I want the students to learn about the Iowa Caucuses (what is the difference between a caucus and a primary? how are the caucuses run? what are the differences in rules between the Republican and Democratic parties' caucuses in Iowa?), the role of Iowa in the sequential nature of our presidential nominating process, etc.

Students were assigned to read a few chapters in

David P. Redlawsk, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Todd Donovan, Why Iowa?How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process 

and to draft a seminar paper summarizing and critiquing the authors’ framework of understanding the Iowa Caucuses and to apply that framework to the 2020 Democratic contest. 

 

While Dr. Redlawsk is now the James R. Soles Professor and Chair of Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware, he is currently on research sabbatical in Iowa.

We appreciated Prof. Redlawsk taking time out of his busy schedule in Iowa to meet with us (via skype) and to answer students' questions about the caucuses.

You can follow Prof. Redlawsk in Iowa on Twitter:  @davidredlawsk

RTWH 2020 -- Group Photo at USFSP waterfront -- and Citizenship Bingo winner

This is the 5th time I have taught this quadrennial course -- and each year, we have taken a group picture in our Road to the White House t-shirts (and USF hats, and, in the inaugural year, yellow and green mittens) by the waterfront.

It was so hot as we posed for this picture in our long sleeve shirts (over our outfits) and hats.

On the contrary, it is 15 degrees in Manchester as I type this.

These pics are always fun to look back on once we are up in the frigid snow...and we wish we were sweating in the t-shirts by the waterfront in the sunshine.

Soon, we will be living together in New Hampshire .... and riding around the state in our 15-passenger vans .... but for now we are still getting to know each other.

I introduced my "Citizenship Bingo" icebreaker (all the questions are from the US Citizenship exam) -- and here is this year's winner!  The prize is a poster from the 2016 NH primary (100th Anniversary) - and historic ballot boxes from towns across NH are pictured.

The iconic waterfront group photo since the inaugural 2004 semester: 

RTWH 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020!

First Day of Class! January 14, 2020 on USFSP Campus

Road to the White House is a 6 credit course -- 3 credits for the Presidential Campaign Internship (Field Work course) and 3 credits for the seminar about Presidential Campaigns and Elections. While we do meet as a seminar over breakfast at the hotel - and I deliver presentations, arrange for guest speakers, and arrange field trips during our time in New Hampshire -- we also meet on campus before we leave and after we return.

Students started applying for the class in September.  Applications were due in October. Then there were interviews. Students were notified late October. Course fee deposit was due in November with the balance due in December.  We created a facebook group for the class.  And since December we have had regular updates and announcements via facebook and group emails.  But we did not meet in person until Tuesday, January 14th:

This semester we are meeting in the new STEM lab in the newly re-named Heller Hall.

See
https://www.usfsp.edu/home/2019/05/14/usf-st-petersburg-to-name-building-in-honor-of-bill-heller-former-dean-and-community-leader/

Delighted to be teaching my course in a building named in honor of our beloved former Campus Dean, Bill Heller, the epitome of community engagement and community service.

This is a state-of-the-art classroom.  Even the tables are whiteboards. When I learned that, I asked for students to use their whiteboard desks to say what they are most looking forward to on this Road to the White House.  Here are some of their responses:


 

showed the RTWH 2008 video while the 2020 student filled out paperwork

 You can watch that video here: University Beat RTWH 2008

USFSP Road to the White House 2020: 5th RTWH Course: Here's to RTWH2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016!

Pictured:

RTWH 2004:  21 students on 7 campaigns
RTWH 2008: 19 students on 11 campaigns
RTWH 2012: 21 students on 6 campaigns
RTWH 2016: 23 students on 7 campaigns


and 2020:  29 students on 8 campaigns


Hard to believe that this is the fifth (5!) time I have taught this quadrennial course. Prior to returning to academia I worked at the White House and on presidential campaigns. It was my dream to develop a Road to the White House course -- and to bring my own students up to New Hampshire for the first-in-the-nation primary so they could experience it for themselves.

I am so grateful for the leadership at USFSP (especially then-Dean Mark Durand and then-Chair Darryl Paulson and then-Chancellor Karen White) allowing me to develop this course the minute I arrived (Fall semester 2003 -- getting ready for Spring RTWH2004 course) -- trusting me to bring a group of students 1,300 miles north (nearly all of whom would be seeing snow for the very first time -- and not just seeing it, Canvassing in it! Doing vis in it!)  And, of course, I am grateful for the students who apply and who make sacrifices in order to come along on this adventure, trusting me to facilitate a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience for them.

Each time I teach this course it is like developing it all over again --- as far as the presidential campaign internships, each cycle there are new candidates, new campaign staff, new office locations, new set of logistics (hotel, van, etc, etc) -- and for the seminar, there is a new body of literature generated since the last cycle and major updates are required.

Getting everything ready for RTWH2020 was a herculean task - as it always is - but we are so excited to go on the "Road to the White House"!

We are looking forward to having you join us, via this class blog.  All of the students will be blogging individually as well (as they did beginning in 2004, when the concept was still relatively new).  We also created a course instagram.  And we may even do a class Tik Tok video! Stay tuned.  :-))

UKIM Law Revivew article published -- "Presidential Correspondence During the Clinton Administration: Staying in Touch with the American People"

I also have a "McLauchlan's Macedonian Musings" blog, dedicated to my work in the Republic of North Macedonia as a Fulbright Scholar (beginning in Spring 2017 and continuing partnerships to this day)


https://jainmacedonia.blogspot.com/2020/03/ukim-law-review-article-published.html


As I was completely consumed with planning for this Road to the White House 2020 course in December 2019, my article (based in part on my work during the Clinton Administration) was published:


"Presidential Correspondence during the Clinton Administration: Staying in Touch with the American People"

in the December 2019 issue of Годишник на Правен факултет Јустинијан Први (Journal of the Faculty of Law Iustinuanus Primus).

For more about UKIM's Law School, see http://www.ukim.edu.mk/

Thank you to the editor (Prof. Karolina Ristova-Aasterud) and to the reviewers for including this article about the Clinton Administration.

(I was delighted to deliver a guest lecture at the law school based on the research in this article when I visited UKIM in November 2019....more pics of that visit in a forthcoming post on the Macedonia blog.)