2018 Midterm Explainer: Farai Chideya on What Really Motivates Voters
In this one-of-a-kind Midterm Explainer, offered the eve of the midterm vote, Farai Chideya unravels the complicated tales that voter demographics tell and how that tale can spell out the fate of a given candidate.
In recent years, Chideya has been looking at the difference between simple voter behavior (did you vote and for whom?) versus intent. In 2016, in a series on voter demographics for FiveThirtyEight.com, Chideya interviewed many Trump voters who expressed anger or disdain [at their own nominee], including an Evangelical couple who said no Christian should vote for Trump during the primaries... but did so in the general election as the Supreme Court hung in the balance. The key is that important separation between behavior and intent. What it amounts to, via a cocktail of animus for other groups, economic anxiety and more, will determine who will take control of the House and the Senate for the second two years of the Trump term.
Farai Chideya is an author, researcher, and the journalism program officer at the Ford Foundation. She is the author of six books, the most recent of which is 2016's The Episodic Career: How to Thrive at Work in the Age of Disruption. In the past three decades she has combined media, technology, and socio-political analysis during a career as an award-winning author, journalist, professor, and lecturer. Before joining the Ford Foundation she was a fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, studying media coverage of the 2016 election.
During the 2016 election she was a Senior Writer covering politics and data at ESPN's FiveThirtyEight, and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. With deep knowledge in a variety of disciplines, including the future of work, politics, culture, race, and technology, Chideya frequently appeared on public radio and cable television, and has worked for CNN, ABC, and NPR, and appeared on numerous other networks. Chideya is also the former longtime host of National Public Radio's News & Notes. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Chideya graduated from Harvard University in 1990. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
In this one-of-a-kind Midterm Explainer, offered the eve of the midterm vote, Farai Chideya unravels the complicated tales that voter demographics tell and how that tale can spell out the fate of a given candidate.
In recent years, Chideya has been looking at the difference between simple voter behavior (did you vote and for whom?) versus intent. In 2016, in a series on voter demographics for FiveThirtyEight.com, Chideya interviewed many Trump voters who expressed anger or disdain [at their own nominee], including an Evangelical couple who said no Christian should vote for Trump during the primaries... but did so in the general election as the Supreme Court hung in the balance. The key is that important separation between behavior and intent. What it amounts to, via a cocktail of animus for other groups, economic anxiety and more, will determine who will take control of the House and the Senate for the second two years of the Trump term.
Farai Chideya is an author, researcher, and the journalism program officer at the Ford Foundation. She is the author of six books, the most recent of which is 2016's The Episodic Career: How to Thrive at Work in the Age of Disruption. In the past three decades she has combined media, technology, and socio-political analysis during a career as an award-winning author, journalist, professor, and lecturer. Before joining the Ford Foundation she was a fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, studying media coverage of the 2016 election.
During the 2016 election she was a Senior Writer covering politics and data at ESPN's FiveThirtyEight, and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. With deep knowledge in a variety of disciplines, including the future of work, politics, culture, race, and technology, Chideya frequently appeared on public radio and cable television, and has worked for CNN, ABC, and NPR, and appeared on numerous other networks. Chideya is also the former longtime host of National Public Radio's News & Notes. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Chideya graduated from Harvard University in 1990. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.