For those outside the Beltway and not consumed with political news, it’s easy to forget that there’s a presidential election this year. While society-changing, earth-shattering events such as the coronavirus pandemic, mass unemployment, and violent protests have taken center stage, the 2020 election itself is a bit of a snooze.
President Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden certainly respond to the catastrophic events as they try to sustain their campaigns. But the election itself is not driving the news, a dramatic change from previous years.
An April Pew Research Center survey found that 52% of people in the United States were paying close or fairly close attention to news about presidential candidates, significantly down from the same point in the 2016 cycle when 69% said they were paying close or very close attention to the presidential candidates. Meanwhile, 87% in the April survey said that they are paying close or very close attention to the coronavirus pandemic.
A former D.C. political digital operative now based on the Pacific Northwest put it bluntly: “Truly, who can really be thinking about the election when the pandemic is happening and it feels like society is ripping apart at the seams?”
To some political observers, dynamics in the election are downright dull compared to the rest of current events.
Shutdowns starting in March prevent the candidates from having organic, headline-grabbing interactions with voters, and events for gaffe-prone Biden are particularly staged and sanitized. Biden, who has spent most of the coronavirus pandemic at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, has a hefty 8.6% lead over Trump in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.
Unlike the 2016 election cycle, there are no leaks or internal emails to drive attention back to the campaigns themselves. Politically incorrect statements from Trump no longer shock as they did in 2016.
Even seasoned political operatives and activists confess that the Trump-Biden contest slipped their minds.
Caroline David, a conservative activist in North Carolina who volunteered on presidential campaigns in 2012 and 2016, fired off a tweet at the end of May: “Yeah I forgot about the presidential election.”
While the tweet was partly facetious, David told the Washington Examiner that the election was “definitely in the back of my mind.”
“I’ve definitely been paying more attention to the news on COVID-19 as well as watching the fallout of George Floyd’s death,” she said. “And recently, Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest has captured a lot of my attention.”
Aside from mass catastrophic events overshadowing electoral politics, the personalities of this year’s candidates could be part of why the election does not have a prominent place in the public psyche.
“There’s a sense of outrage exhaustion when it comes to Trump,” said the former digital operative, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. But when it comes to Democratic nominee, “Biden, when put on center stage, falls apart.”
“That’s what makes it boring,” the person added about the election.
With just over 100 days until the November election, there is time for the focus to shift back to the 2020 campaign. Biden is expected to announce his running mate in the coming weeks, and both parties have their national conventions in August, though in significantly scaled-down confabs.
But for now, the presidential election is simmering on the back burner while the national news oven is on fire.
