Presidential Election 2024: Read Up!

The upcoming presidential election is unique in many ways. We are living through history! Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman to serve as Vice President of the United States, is also the first Black and Asian American to run for President of the United States. On the other side of the ballot, at 78 years old, former President Donald Trump is the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history. If elected, he will be the second president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. (Grover Cleveland was the first.) And there’s so much more to know about both candidates! 

 

To learn more about the Democratic candidate, read Harris’s memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, to hear in her own words what the Democratic nominee believes are our strengths and our similarities as Americans.

 

In Kamala’s Way: An American Life, author Dan Morain describes Harris’s professional rise from deputy district attorney to attorney general of the state of California and then to the office of Vice President of the United States.

 

Esteemed journalist Bob Woodward wrote a trilogy of books about President Trump’s administration. Trump generously gave Woodward access to his staff and sat for several hours of conversation with Woodward to provide material for the series. Read Fear: Trump in the White House ; Rage ; and Peril (coauthored by Robert Costa). 

 

 

 Authors Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns focus on the last year of the Trump–Pence administration, 2020, and the first year of the Biden–Harris administration, 2021, in This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future.

You may also want to learn about the candidates’ running mates. J. D. Vance, running on the Republican ticket along with Trump, wrote a memoir in 2016. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis was popular when it first came out and is once again in high demand.

 

Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota running as the Democratic candidate for vice president, is not (yet) the subject of a book. However, you can access headlines about him and other top news stories in a helpful resource offered by Mercer County Library System. Ground News, accessible through the Libby app, presents headlines across the political spectrum for each topic. Readers are encouraged to read several articles per topic, from different news sources, to sift through the bias and make up their own mind on the topic. 

 

Do you need motivation to get out and vote? Try reading Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America, by politician, lawyer, and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams; One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy, by Historian Carol (Elaine) Anderson; or Democracy Awakening, by historian Heather Cox Richardson.

Of course, the New York Times is always a good resource for keeping up with campaign polls, current events, and opinion pieces. You can access the New York Times through Mercer County Library System from home, as well as at the library.

Register to vote by October 15, 2024 to vote in this year’s election - NJ DOS - Division of Elections - Register to Vote!  You may also pick up a registration form at any library branch.

To learn more about voting in Mercer County, visit the Mercer County Clerk’s Elections webpage.  You may also view sample ballots here.

Additional information may be found at the Mercer County Board of Elections.  If you are not sure where your polling location is, check their Polling Locations & Secured Drop Box Locations page.

 

The election is right around the corner—read up!

 

Ground News - Mercer County Library System

New York Times - Mercer County Library System

- Mary, Hickory Corner Branch