The editor of the Guardian US on what it’s like to cover an atypical election with many possible outcomes
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I wonder how many people remember John Delaney? The former congressman became the first Democrat to announce that he would challenge Donald Trump for the presidency. He did so on 28 July 2017, just six months after Trump took office, demonstrating that these days US presidential races are marathons that last years.
Under normal circumstances, that marathon would end at around midnight on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November of the election year, ie tomorrow. Typically, political reporters plan their holidays for the second or third weeks of November.
But not this year. Because no one quite knows when this election will end. Or how.
Last week I had a discussion with one of our editors. They wanted to know if we had any bullet-proof vests, since the reporter covering events in the crucial swing state of Michigan – birthplace of the US militia movement – wanted to prepare for any possible outcome. And that included rightwing paramilitaries protesting the electoral result.
A bullet-proof vest to cover elections in the US? Really? Yes, really. Those same paramilitaries appeared on the steps of the Michigan state capitol in May to protest the governor’s lockdown restrictions. A month earlier President Trump had railed against the Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders and tweeted ‘LIBERATE MICHIGAN’. And last month the FBI arrested more than a dozen people who were accused of plotting to kidnap the Michigan governor and overthrow the state government.
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