Action Steps to Sway the 2020 Presidential Election

One of the topics dominating my group texts right now is the relationship strain, or complete loss of relationships, due to the upcoming election. I conducted a poll on Instagram to get some numbers around this and here is what yall said:

• 51% have cut off relationships because of disagreements around the election
• 81% have strained relationships because of the election
• 67% said the strain is more with family than friends

I asked for tips and resources on handling these conversations and people submitted a lot of really thoughtful advice which you can see on my Instagram highlights here. While there is a lot we can learn from each other on this topic, I also did some research on what the stats says works when it comes to swaying voters on the biggest presidential election of our time. Here are the takeaways: 

Voters: The Stats

Pulled from Pod Save America's "Herd Mentality"

• 11% of registered voters are undecided on who they will vote for.  
• 53% of these voters plan to do their own research to make a final decision 
• 20% plan to decide based on the debates.

The Issues

Pulled from FiveThirtyEight and Pod Save America's "Herd Mentality"

• Americans largely support Trump's "plan" for economic recovery, but support Biden on most other issues (see below): 

• 72% of voters polled fear the rise of racism
• 66% of voters fear rioters and looting - this is higher than percentage of voters who fear Coronavirus.

Important note about the stats above: those polled said they do not get their news from Fox News (my first assumption). These fears come from other news sources - mostly found on social media.

Messaging

• Most undecided voters could recall recent negative stories about Trump but could not recall any positive stories about Biden or his policies.
• Negative information about Trump has limited impact in swaying voters.
• The key to swaying voters is to educate them about Joe Biden's plans and policies.
• Messaging on specific topics has a bigger impact in swaying voters:
• #1 (tie): the economy
• #1 (tie): healthcare
• #3: race issues
• #4: climate change
• #5: education

Actions We Need to Take

The research and polling says the highest impact activities we can do are those that share information about Biden's plans and policies. These actions are going to matter all the way up to the minute the polls close on Election Day.

1. Share information about Biden's plans on social media (I will commit to synthesizing Biden's plans in a shareable format on Instagram and here on the blog. If you're not already receiving these posts as emails, sign up so you can easily forward to your networks and repost on social).
2. Educate yourself on Biden's plans and share what you learn with your network. Here is where you can research on your own.
3. Sign up to phone or text bank for Biden here (I've done this for months, it's very very easy and not scary at all).