How I got here

I graduated from college during the 2016 presidential election season. Before that time, my closest connection to politics was thinking about how we currently had a black president and remembering what that meant to my father. When I started college I was a business major trying to decide between finance and entrepreneurship. However, I could not help but be pulled into the race due to the fascinating circumstances surrounding it. I decided to take the only political science course available during my first semester. Although it was an international relations course, I was exposed to the way political science operates. I decided to change my major halfway through my first semester.

I could not help but be fascinated by the circumstances of the election. Why was the incumbent party nominating the former Secretary of State while the opposition party was nominating a political outsider? What demographics made up the primary electorates for each candidate? How did that election compare to previous presidential elections? There was so much to unpack that over the course of my studies I, like many other political analysts, spent an enormous amount of time trying to understand that election and its implications.

I feel really good being able to look back at that time after having studied political science. I now have a much more comprehensive understanding and can critically analyze different aspects of that election from a variety of lenses. Of course, as a good political scientist, I now have more questions than answers.