Democrat or Republican, if the upcoming mid-year election on November 6th is your first time voting, it will probably get confusing as you stand at the polls–how do you know you are choosing the right candidate?
If you are still not sure where you fall on the spectrum of political party, there are hundreds of thousands of online tests and surveys you can fill out to help place yourself in a category of political interests and help you make the right decision in where to start when choosing a candidate.
If you have a favorite politician, there is a good chance they have made their views surrounding the upcoming candidates pretty clear. It would be beneficial to check their websites, social media, and official platforms to look at their interests in the upcoming candidate options. President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama have both released their list of endorsements for the mid-year election as well, so if you favor either of these two, it would be highly recommended to check out their lists as well. (Attached below!)
You should start out by looking at the candidates within your own state. Start small and work your way up: local issues, county issues and finally state issues. Educate yourself on everything happening around the area in which you live first, as these decisions that you make on local issues and politicians can help to build a platform of what you want out of a politician at the next level as well.
Understandably, these lists of candidates can be intimidating–they are long and there are a lot of people on these lists, and although going through each one individually seems tedious and a waste of time, it is so necessary. However, there is a way to break it down a little bit and make it a more practical process.
By this point in time, there are already favorite candidates on both sides of the spectrums, so it would be more beneficial to you and your schedule to check out the top three or four options from your side of the spectrum, as well as three or four of the more moderate candidates (yes, do this even if you are strongly pulled to one wing over the other–you never know who could surprise you).
Along with this, check out the opposing side’s top candidates to see what you are up against. This could help change your vote if one of their viewpoints is extreme enough or if you stand for something very strongly that the opposite candidate is threatening.
For example, if you are a big advocate for environmental protection and climate change, and the opposing top candidate is very turned off to advancing anything regarding this subject or even faces hurting your cause, you might pick the candidate on your side who vouches very strongly towards that viewpoint rather than the one you originally thought you’d choose who still has the environment on their agenda but not as a top priority.
Overall, when choosing a candidate from either side for the upcoming mid-year election, make sure it is someone who has all (or almost all) of your common political interests in mind, as well as the best interest of democracy and the American people on their agenda.
Happy voting! Here are some resources to get you thinking…
President Trump’s Mid-Year Election 2018 Endorsements
Former President Barack Obama’s Mid-Year Election 2018 Endorsements