Politics
Project Vote 2018: The Future of America
Project Vote 2018: The Future of America is the latest partnership between PalacioMagazine.com and the Political Science classes of Professor Som Chounlamountry at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). The campaign for 2018 mid-term Congressional and Senatorial elections began on Wednesday, November 9, 2016. While the Republicans were able to capture the White House, they were also able to hold on their majorities in the House of Representative. According to Ballotpedia.com:
“The Democratic Party gained six seats in 2016, resulting in a 241-194 majority for the Republican Party. Eight of the 23 battleground districts flipped partisan control in 2016. Four other seats flipped as a result of redistricting. Incumbents did very well in 2016. A total of 380 of the 393 House incumbents seeking re-election won, resulting in an incumbency re-election rate of 96.7%. The average margin of victory in U.S. House races was 37.1 percent.”
In the United States Senate, there were thirty-four seats out of one-hundred up for election. Republicans were already in control going into the November contest with 54 Senate seats. They lost only seats allowing them to keep control. According to Ballotpedia.com, “Republican senators proved to be far less vulnerable than predicted.”
“Some reasons for the predicted vulnerability are as follows. The majority of seats up for election were held by Republican incumbents, many of whom were freshmen who were swept into office in the Tea Party wave of 2010. Additionally, the Senate election coincided with a presidential election, which has been a boon to Democratic candidates in the past decade. Democrats had made gains in the Senate in the last two presidential elections, while they had suffered losses in the years between.”
In Project Vote 2018, we’ll go through this all over again.
468 seats in the U.S. Congress (33 Senate seats and all 435 House seats) up for election on November 6, 2018. The website run by Nate Silver, fivethirtyeight.com, has been tracking polls over whether Democrats can retake the House next year. If the election were held today, Democrats would come out on top, 45.6% versus 37.7%. Not exactly a majority or an overwhelming win. Check out the poll HERE and you’ll see that the percentages have been swinging up and down. Dive down into the individual polls and the numbers are not universal. We’re not sure what that says about an election that is more than a year out.
PalacioMagazine.com is curious about that forthcoming election. We teamed up again with the Political Science classes of Professor Som Chounlamountry at California State University, Long Beach for Project Vote 2018.
Som Chounlamountry
Project Vote 2018:
…is a class project that will be conducted over the next three semesters including this Fall 2017. The goal is to track a Congressional and Senatorial race through its primary and eventually the election in November 2018. This Fall 2017 semester segment is to lay the foundation with research for the next two semesters.
A total of Seventeen students spanning four classes have volunteered for Project Vote 2018 with PalacioMagazine.com. Over the next two months, they will research and produce a text story along with a narrated PowerPoint presentation. PalacioMagazine.com will co-produce with the students a podcast documenting their efforts and lessons learned during Project Vote 2018. We hope they are lessons learned for the next two team of classes in the Spring and Fall of 2018.
Here are the Project Vote 2018 team members
We asked each of them to write up a brief bio answering the questions about their name, class, major, and when they expect to graduate. The last two were thrown in for fun.
- What is your name?
- Your Political Science Class
- Your major
- When do you expect to graduate?
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- What non-school related activity, at the moment, excites you? (e.g. watching or playing Sports, watching a specific Television show, playing a videogame, a hobby, a job, anything but drinking and partying.
- Ashley Smith is currently taking Professor Chounlamountry’s comparative political movement’s class/POSC 450. She’s double majoring in Sociology and Political Science and expects to graduate in spring 2018. She wants to be a policy maker or an author. She enjoys writing a book that might be published someday.
- Elizabeth Orozco is in her second year at CSULB with a Political Science focus on Global Politics Major. She expects to graduate in 2020, and join the work force as a Journalist, Podcast Commentator, or Analyst. In her spare time, she listens to Podcasts, compare newspapers/news articles, analyzing music lyrics, and binges on conspiracies. She’s into art, coffee, and cinematography.
- Erick Escobar is POSC 450 (1). He’s a Political Science Major planning to graduate in Spring 2018. Career goals? FBI/CIA Agent/ Sports Journalist. Favorite pastimes: Watching and playing football and basketball, fantasy football, hanging with friends, going to the gym, watching Game of Thrones
- Estela García is in Political Science Class POSC 450-3 with a double major in journalism and political science. She expects to graduate in Spring 2019 so she cam write for a news outlet, either online or print. Things she does for fun involve taking a break from school to watch the Dodgers play or going out and listening to live music around LA.
- Ginrich Moua is in Professor Chounlamountry’s POSC 450-01 class. His major is Political Science and plans to graduate in Spring 2018. Moua hopes to continue school up to a PHD so he can join the staff of CSULB’s professors. He currently works as a shift supervisor at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on campus. “Every day is always a new adventure with a great group of people I work with.” He’s active with hiking, swimming, playing volleyball, and playing tennis. Moua also enjoys spending a lot of down time to hang out with friends, watch TV shows/movies on Netflix, and playing various video games.
- Jose Reyes is also enrolled in Comparative Political Movements at Cal State Long Beach with Professor Chounlamountry. He’s currently on his fourth year majoring in Political Science. Expected to graduate in the spring 2018. Once he’s finished with school, he would like to work for the Department of State as a Regional Security Officer. In the past two years, he’s begun backpacking
- Julian Pineda is in Professor Chounlamountry’s Political Science 450 class, section 4 with a major is International Studies. He plans on graduating in Spring of 2019. By the time he’s 27, Pineda expects to be an FBI special agent. His favorite pastimes include anything outdoors from swimming to rock climbing.
- June Yoo is also student in POSC 450 Sec 03 – Comparative Political Movements with Professor Som Chounlamountry. His major is Political Science and is scheduled to graduate in the Spring, 2019. After graduating from CSULB, his plans include law school and then becoming a government attorney as a district attorney or working for the U.S. Department of Justice. Yoo’s hobbies include Tennis and he is in the school organization, Model United Nations.
- Kevin Konig is a student in Political Science 450 Section 2 majoring in Political Science and Economics. He plans to walk the line in Spring 2018 and finish his classes abroad in Venice next fall. Konig plans a career in either the private or public sector as an economist. Pastimes include fantasy football with roommates, playing guitar, Disneyland, and watching The Office.
- Leslie Leon, a student in POSC 450 Comparative Political Movements section 1 class, is currently majoring in Journalism and Political Science. She plans to graduate either in the Fall, 2018 or Spring, 2019. As of now she’s hoping to work in a media or fashion/beauty company in the social media department. Leon’s hobbies are writing, taking pictures with blogging on the side.
- Lillie Rellin is enrolled in POSC 450 – Comparative Political Movements taught by Professor Som Chounlamountry. Her major is political science and she looks forward to graduating next Spring. Rellin’s goals are law school and a career as an attorney but, as she says, “…the future always changes.” Her favorite activity is playing basketball and she volunteers as a youth team coach through her church.
- Oliver D. Hernandez is a Political Science major, with an emphasis in Global Politics and minoring in International Economics. Currently enrolled in Political Science 450, this is his last semester here and expects to graduate at the end of the year. Hernandez sees a career ahead for himself working for the U.S. State Department. He “love[s] looking and interpreting data, both in politics and in the economy in order to predict what possible outcomes may arise.”
- Pauline Laguitan is a Political Science Major with a concentration on Global Politics and English, Creative Writing. She’s currently enrolled in POSC 450-01 with Professor Som Chounlamountry and expects to Spring, 2018. “As of right now, I don’t have any specific goals or other than to maybe write and hopefully get some of my works published.” Laguitan adds that doesn’t currently have any career aspirations beyond, “…making enough money to be self-stainable and sufficient.” She’s fond of recreational reading, mostly fantasy or sci-fi fiction “really any reality that is different or eschewed from our own.” Laguitan also enjoys writing fanfiction.
- Raul Gomez is majoring in Political Science and expects to graduate Spring, 2018. Currently enrolled in POSC 450-3, he hopes to be a lawyer when he grows up (Inside joke). At the moment, his only hobby is working on his car.
- Stephanie Lutfi is a Political Science major currently enrolled in POSC 450 Section 4 at CSULB. She’s scheduled to graduate in the Spring of 2018. Her career goal is to be a lawyer. Hiking with friends “excites” Lutfi.
- Hugo Fernandez is a Political Science student in Professor Som Chounlamountry’s Comparative Political Movements course with plans to graduate in Spring, 2018. “After graduating, my plan is to work as a teacher while going through a credential program to teach in Special Education.” Fernandez has three passions: Sports, Barbecue, and Woodworking.
- Jonathan Cordova is a Political Science Major in the Comparative Political Movements class of Professor Som Chounlamountry and scheduled to graduate in Spring, 2018. When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, Cordova wrote, “A person which has a career that they enjoy.” Cordova watching sports, e.g the NFL, MLB. He also likes to ride dirt bikes, spend time sight-seeing, playing video games and cooking.
Follow Project Vote 2018
If you would like to follow us during Project Vote 2018, here are some great websites and articles that talk about the current and future state of politics and the 2018 elections.
- Ballotpedia https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page
- Real Clear Politics https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
- Fivethirtyeight.com https://fivethirtyeight.com/contributors/nate-silver/
- Cook Political Report http://cookpolitical.com/
- Political.com http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/28/roy-moore-republicans-democrats-2018-nightmare-243222
- 6 Political Newsletters Political Consultants Read Before Breakfast
- TheHill.com
- wakeuptopolitics.com (Oh, this is a good one. Edited by a teenager)
- Opensecets.org
- Insideelections.com
- Rollcall.com
- Democrats are winning some impressive statehouse elections. What does that mean for 2018?
- The decimation of the Democratic Party, visualized
- Barack Obama Won The White House, But Democrats Lost The Country
- United States Congress elections, 2016
- United States Senate Elections, 2016
