A critical election

By Caroline Tolbert

When Democrat Hillary Clinton faced off against Republican Donald Trump in the election for 45th President of the United States, the debate broke viewership records as the most watched in U.S. history. Eighty million people tuned in, setting a new record in the history of televised presidential debates. Many millions more streamed the debates live online. On Spanish language television nearly five million viewers watched on Univision and Telemundo. (See this article for more.) 2016 is by any definition a critical election.

Clinton is the nation’s first major party female candidate. After a successful career as a lawyer, Clinton came to national prominence as first lady and through electoral politics built her path to the presidency. She has 25 years of experience in national politics, including eight years as first lady of President Bill Clinton, eight years as U.S. Senator from New York and six years as the 67th U.S. Secretary of State. Clinton broke the mold for first ladies by leading the President’s commission to establish national health care rather than engaging in traditional first lady activities. After leaving the White House she purchased a house in New York to establish residency. She won the U.S. Senate seat from New York (2001–2009). New York is one of the largest and most powerful states in the nation.

In summer 2008, Hillary Clinton was the front-runner to be the Democratic Party nominee for president, an open seat election after Republican George W. Bush’s term ended. Clinton had the most name recognition, money for campaigning, and standing in the polls. But a relatively unknown candidate, Barack Obama, a one-term U.S. Senator from Illinois, challenged her . Obama was a master campaigner, grassroots community organizer, and orator unmatched since President Lincoln. In the Iowa caucuses Clinton lost to underdog Obama, foreshadowing her eventual loss in the longest running and most contested Democratic presidential primary in history. My own work with Todd Donovan and David Redlawsk revisits this event and the significance of the Iowa caucuses in the election process. (See here for more details.)

After winning the presidency in 2008 as the nation’s first African American president, Obama named Clinton the 67th U.S. Secretary of State. In her four years in leadership (2009–13) she excelled as global ambassador, negotiating treaties, alliances, and trade as the nation’s leader of U.S. foreign policy. She implemented her vision of creating global community networks to solve policy problems. When Obama’s term ended, Democrats turned to Clinton as the heir apparent for the next president.

In the 2016 Iowa caucuses Clinton faced a tough competitor for the Democratic Party nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a liberal populist who mobilized the youth by focusing on the party’s failures to address economic inequality and political corruption. While Clinton lost to Obama in 2008, she beat Sanders in 2016. This early win in the nation’s first election eventually propelled her to victory for her party.

The Iowa caucuses also gave billionaire and real estate tycoon Donald Trump the momentum to contend for president. Taking second propelled him from an underdog candidate to the one who won the Republican Party nomination in a crowded field of 19 candidates. While Trump had no previous experience in public office or as a military general, his campaign blitz began with popular rallies at small community airports with the Trump emblazoned airplane as the backdrop. Known for his tough talk and Twitter rants, anti-immigrant and pro-business sentiment, Trump went on to win the New Hampshire primary and the Republican Party nomination.

Clinton and Trump ran against one another in one of the most unique U.S. presidential elections in our nation’s history. An outspoken conservative populist more closely resembling European nationalistic parties and candidates rather than mainstream conservatives, Trump excelled on the campaign trail. While not a natural campaigner, Clinton had the leadership experience, the money and a better-organized campaign.

The nation’s first female president or the nation’s first billionaire president is a choice that comes down to a vote of roughly 160 million Americans. It is an election that not only captivates the attention of U.S. citizens, but global audiences. Whether the answer is Clinton’s “Keep Moving Forward” or Trump’s “Make American Great Again,” an experienced inside the beltway politician know for compromise and negotiations or an outspoken populist candidate with an attitude who wants to turn the system around — the choice rests with the voters. Elections are what separate democratic countries from non-democratic ones. It is how citizens self-govern by electing leaders to represent them in government. Elections are the core of any democracy.

To learn more, join us for a 2016 Election Forum at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at the Old Capitol Museum on the University of Iowa campus.

Panelists include:

• Cary Covington, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa
• Donna Hoffman, Department Head and Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Northern Iowa
• Sara Mitchell, Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa
• William Reisinger, Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa
• Jim Leach, Visiting Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Iowa; Former Representative U.S. Congress
• Caroline Tolbert, Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa (Moderator)

Caroline J. Tolbert is Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa and a researcher in the Politics and Policy Research Program at the UI Public Policy Center. Her work weaves together a concern with diversity and inequality, elections and representation, and digital media and public policy. Learn more about Tolbert and her research here.