Participate in the political process and practice civic engagement

Ryan Foster is a recent Middle Tennessee State University graduate in journalism.

Midterms violate American citizens. The national GOP has put President Biden’s alleged failures at the forefront of their campaign strategy, while Democrats have resisted the defense.

The recent fall of Roe v. Wade delayed investigations into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Republican obstruction provided campaign material to Democrats in their congressional careers.

Major congressional careers were highlighted, such as U.S. Senate primaries in Georgia and Pennsylvania; while the narrow win of Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) against his progressive challenger, who has only garnered brief attention, shows the ideological tension of the Democratic Party today.

There is one theme shared by most of these campaigns: the presidential approval rating. What may be unparalleled at this time seems to be there are two presidential offices in this year’s election.

In line with the Republican Party’s rejection of the 2020 results – and more recently on the Texas GOP’s June 2022 platform – Donald Trump remains at the forefront of Republican politics. Although Trump’s efforts in Georgia to remove Gov. Brian Kemp, his endorsements have had a huge impact on congressional careers.

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As is customary for American elections, the current president still has an impact on congressional careers. The Democratic side is wrestling more with ideological battles in their primaries this year.

That asks: what about your governor’s race, your state legislatures and your local election?

More:Watch live: Governor and congressional candidate forum at the University of Tennessee Southern

Participate in state and local elections

Several governorship races have gained national prominence, most likely Georgia. New England will test the resilience of the moderate Republican against an advance on GOP nationalism.

Zooming out from larger media outlets, how focused are the state and local legislative races?

Whatever the opinion on the fall of Roe v. Wade, it serves as a reminder of the importance of activism and civic engagement in state and local government. The new decision from Dobbs moved the abortion debate from a right established by case law to a legislative issue; unless Congress can code Roe – which will surely require an end to the filibuster – abortion policy will be left to the states.

One aspect of government, which is selectively ignored in the partisan media, is the state -level responses to federal action or inaction. We see this about blue states and cities in sanctuary laws.

More:Find out about the Nashville school board candidates running in the Aug. 4 election Editorial

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A more recent example involves efforts by the Missouri legislature to undermine aspects of a bipartisan gun reform bill. Despite propagandist efforts to centralize every issue, 2020’s paves the way for state -level activists to inspire action.

Even with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal pandemic response was lowest; most COVID restrictions are set by states with some degree of compliance with CDC guidelines.

The state government must remain an important aspect of politics, and the time to stop observing it is over.

Ethan Gardner-a legislative staffer in Virginia-explained challenges such as apathy, ignorance and non-representation in the people’s legislature. Similar to its state, Tennessee’s status as a part-time legislature poses challenges to working class voters and candidates.