Descriptive Analysis of State Senate Elections

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Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT

Erika Taylin Hunter
Erika Taylin Hunter

My name is Taylin Hunter. I am currently a rising senior at Wesleyan who lives in Houston, Texas. I am a Government major with the History minor and International Relations Certificate. On campus, I am heavily involved with Alpha Delta Phi, one of Wesleyan’s co-ed Greek societies, and Prometheus Fire Arts and Performance. I am interested in education policy, the history of women in politics, and immigration.

Abby Sodie
Abby Sodie

Abby Sodie is a junior at Wesleyan and lives in Bethesda, Maryland. Abby is double-majoring in Government and Psychology and is a member of the Wesleyan Club Tennis team outside of class. Abby is very interested in American public policy and hopes to conduct further academic work on issues relating to increasing the oversight and accountability of the American government and improving the government’s overall democratic functioning.

Abstract: W

State legislators have the power to shape the policies, economies, and trajectories of their state for years to come. Following the 2020 election, many state legislatures will also be drawing the district lines for congressional and state legislative seats for the next decade. With this in mind, we sought to gain a deeper understanding of how competitive these races are, whether demographics vary depending on level of competitiveness of a district, and if there is a statistically significant relationship between demographics and competitiveness of state senate races.

We created a comprehensive data set of election patterns and demographic data for both Connecticut and Minnesota. In this poster, we examine the relationship between certain demographic characteristics of state senate districts (e.g., racial composition, median household income, education levels) and the their voting history in recent elections. Our goal is to better understand the demographic characteristics of the districts that are most likely to decide party control of the state senate in these two states.

Final-Poster-QAC-2020-Taylin-Hunter-and-abby-Sodie-2-Abby-Sodie

Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT

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