Only about two handfuls of states are truly up for grabs when Republicans and Democrats square off in 2016 in their pursuit for the White House. They are the States in Play, the battlegrounds, the swing states – the states where both presidential campaigns will spend a lot of their time on the 2016 trail. But why these states? What makes them so special? And what do voters want there?
… Colorado – Iowa – Wisconsin – Ohio – Pennsylvania – New Hampshire – Virginia – North Carolina – Florida – Nevada …
States in Play – a project of the explanatory journalism endeavor CU News Corps at the University of Colorado Boulder – was a three-month reporting road trip to all these states. My goal was to explore and explain America’s political landscape via thought-provoking analysis paired with lots of engaging anecdotal and colorful stories (for example in my Anecdotal Evidence column).
Make sure to also read this story about my trip in the Spring 2016 Coloradan magazine.
Following is an overview of some of the stories I produced while on the road.
October 14, 2015: Reporter’s Notebook – #DemDebate – The spin room is a contact sport
September 27, 2015: A Grain of Salt – The problem with polls: Opinion researchers preach restraint for horse race journalists (The Colorado Statesman published this story on September 28)
August 27, 2015: “Telling it like it is” – Are we seeing a renaissance of the honest politician? A conversation with Brendan Nyhan – political scientist, media critic and New York Times contributor
August 21, 2015: WATCH: Pennsylvania presidential politics and the “brain drain” – A conversation with Dr. G. Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin & Marshall College Poll
August 15, 2015: State afFairs – The political magnitude of fried Snickers and fair-y insouciance
August 8, 2015: Anecdotal Evidence, debate edition – Elephant-watching in Cleveland (The Colorado Statesman published a version of this story on August 10.)
August 4, 2015: Race to the Ranch – Iowa pizza chain is a must-stop for GOP presidential candidates on campaign trail
August 1, 2015: The interviewee strikes back – Des Moines clothing store makes fun of the Iowa caucus media frenzy
July 29, 2015: Family business – Being blue in staunchly conservative northwest Iowa
July 26, 2015: What happens to political debate if we live only among like-minded people? A conversation with author Bill Bishop (The Colorado Statesman published this Q & A on July 28.)
