The first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took place last week. Shana Gadarian, Merle Goldberg Fabian Professor of Excellence in Citizenship and Critical Thinking and associate dean for research, discussed the optics and strategy with Al Jazeera.

“One of the things I think the split screen was able to do was to show Harris looking really composed. She was looking right at Trump and she wasn't going to let up,” says Gadarian. “And I think part of the strategy wasn't really about him at all. It was about ‘I can hold the stage. I can be presidential. I can be commander in chief.’” 

In the USA Today article, “'A long relay race': Hillary Clinton on passing the torch to Kamala Harris - Interview,” Gadarian says, “A lot of it is about Clinton normalizing that women run for national office. We got to skip all that conversation of, like, are we ready for a woman candidate?”

Gadarian discusses anxiety in politics in the USA Today article, “The Anxious States of America: We searched for Hope. Here's what we found.”