Covid-19 And The U.S. Presidential Election 2020: The Shape Of Things To Come

The United States became the ground zero of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the nomination race for the presidential candidate in the Democratic Party reached its climax, with former Vice President Joe Biden, almost destined to clinch victory.

- Monish Tourangbam And Aakriti Sethi

As the sitting American President, Donald Trump received an all-round flake for inefficient and ineffective handling of the crisis, the rising infections and death tolls in the country, pushed certain states to postpone primaries and others to reconsider the means of conducting them. No amount of campaign strategies could have truly prepared the stakeholders for the consequences of such a crisis, a real black swan moment. The outcome of the Democratic nomination race remains more or sealed, with Bernie Sander’s withdrawal. Moreover, Sander subsequently supported Biden’s candidature; followed by former President Barack Obama backing his former running mate. However, the prevailing circumstances present uncertain challenges for the campaign ahead on both parties, and on the ways and means to conduct the national votes come November. A number of questions, pertaining to the technicalities of elections have come up, which will be fundamentally significant for the U.S. electoral process and outcome. Can the elections occur as scheduled? How will states conduct the remaining primaries in the times of social distancing? Moreover, how are the partisan forces influencing the election season?