This is the second episode in our three-part series on the election of 2024. Today, we’re looking at voters in the battleground states. In a nation of “red” states for Trump and “blue” states for Harris, what are voters thinking in the “purple” bellwether states of the “Rust Belt” and “Sun Belt”? We'll get the historical backstory to shifting political coalitions, economic and racial insecurities, and the selections of J.D. Vance and Tim Walz. If you want to understand why your fellow citizens sometimes view the world so differently from yourself, then maybe this episode is for you. In other words, let’s go to the battleground to find common ground on what matters most to these voters. As always, we’ll ground our discussion in the historical record.

Host: Andrew J. Falk

Guest: James Allison, III

Past is Prologue is a humanities podcast that provides the public with the background behind the day's headlines, and offers much-needed context to understand the significance of current events that people observe around them. It seeks to contribute to the public conversation in an engaging, informative, accessible, and constructive way. It's produced by the Department of History in the College of Arts & Humanities at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. We welcome your inquiries and feedback at pastpodcast@cnu.edu.