This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘How election day unfolded in the US’
Sonja Hutson
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, November 6th, and this is your FT News Briefing.
Americans closed out a hard-fought election yesterday. And I’ll take you through the numbers of what has been the most expensive presidential contest in US history. Plus, Germany is racing against the clock to pass a new budget.
Guy Chazan
The problem is that the government has submitted a draft budget to the German parliament, but there is an enormous hole in it.
Sonja Hutson
I’m Sonja Hutson, and here’s the news you need to start your day.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Voters across the US yesterday raced to cast their ballots in what has been billed as the most consequential election in decades.
Jen Eldridge
A lot of different emotions, a lot of different opinions to the point where I can’t talk about it with my friends or family or co-workers.
Sonja Hutson
And it has been a political rollercoaster, to say the least.
Xander Dunn
It’s just such a divisive time. And to be honest, I’m looking forward to everything just being over.
Sonja Hutson
People in battleground states have faced the most pressure from this election. My colleague Steff Chávez was out talking to voters in Wisconsin yesterday, and she joins me now to tell me what she saw and heard. Hi, Steff.
Steff Chávez
Hi, Sonja.
Sonja Hutson
So how were people feeling about the election in Wisconsin?
Steff Chávez
I think there were all sorts of emotions and it ranged from, you know, real hope and confidence in, you know, people’s specific candidates, but also genuine anxiety and fear.
And so how has the vibe been this election?
Jen Eldridge
Really intense.
Steff Chávez
So I went to one polling place in downtown Milwaukee, which is a Democratic stronghold. I met Jen Eldridge, a 44-year-old woman who was casting her ballot for Kamala Harris, and she identified herself as an independent voter.
Jen Eldridge
So I’m one of those voters that you want on your side because I can go either way. I vote for the candidate that closely represents my values.
Steff Chávez
She said the most important thing to her in making her choice was reproductive freedom.
Jen Eldridge
Women’s issues and women’s rights. My reproductive rights are very important to me.
Steff Chávez
Which is really getting at a major theme of this election. It is one of the Democrats’ strongest issue, and Harris is counting on women in particular to turn out to vote and maybe even flip their votes to try and get some of their reproductive rights back.
Sonja Hutson
So, you know, you mentioned that Milwaukee is a Democratic stronghold. Where else did you go in the area to talk to voters who maybe leaned a little bit more Republican?
Steff Chávez
So I went out to Waukesha county, which is one of the Milwaukee suburbs. While I was there, I met Jeff Powell, a life-long Republican, who had such a hard time deciding who to vote for, that he made a game-time decision in the voting booth.
Jeff Powell
I kept mulling it back and forth, but I finally voted.
Steff Chávez
He said that he really didn’t like either candidate.
Jeff Powell
For a nation that’s as prosperous and educated as our nation is, we got two delinquents that are running for president.
Steff Chávez
He wouldn’t tell me who he voted for, but he said that the most important factor in his decision was immigration, but also things like the growing budget deficit and education.
Jeff Powell
This election is probably the most divisive election. I’ve been voting since I was 21.
Steff Chávez
I also met a couple, Drew and Mike, who had their eight-day-old baby with them at the polling place.
They both voted for Trump. They said the most important reasons were the economy and immigration.
Drew and Mike
Just putting our country first. We got a lot of issues outside of our country that are important, and we need security here first.
Steff Chávez
The economy and immigration are two of the Republicans’ strongest issues. Despite the fact that Trump has struggled on the abortion topic, Republicans are hoping that can propel him to victory.
Sonja Hutson
Now, Steff, one big concern leading up to this day has been acts of political violence. You know, I’m in downtown DC and there are tons of buildings that have been boarded up over the past couple of days. Have we seen reports of violence or intimidation at polling locations around the country?
Steff Chávez
Yes, there have been. Multiple polling stations in the swing state of Georgia had to close temporarily yesterday while police investigated bomb threats. And the FBI warned of similar threats from Russian email domains to voting sites across the US. And as you said, Washington, DC has also been on high alert. Police arrested a man at the US Capitol who they said was in possession of a torch and a flare gun.
Sonja Hutson
And, you know, this also makes me wonder how confident people feel in this election process in general. Did you get a sense of that in talking to people in Wisconsin?
Steff Chávez
Nobody that I talked to really voiced concerns about the safety of their own ballot. However, the concept of election integrity has definitely been a really important issue throughout the country. Randy Marquardt, who is the Republican chair of the Washington County Republicans here in Wisconsin, told me recently that he has had to spend a lot of time reassuring Republican voters in his county that the election system is safe. And also both Democrats and Republicans pushed early-vote campaigns really hard, particularly in Wisconsin. And so a lot of people from both parties voted early here.
Sonja Hutson
Steff Chávez is the FT’s Washington reporter. Thanks Steff.
Steff Chávez
Thanks, Sonja.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Sonja Hutson
A record amount of money was spent in this year’s presidential election. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have burnt through more than $3.5bn combined in the race. That’s according to the FT’s analysis of campaign filings. So, where did all this money go? Well, almost half was spent on ads in seven swing states. The campaigns have flooded Pennsylvania the most. They put over $400mn to work there. To put that into perspective, that is more than all of the non-swing states combined. Filings also show Trump’s campaign groups spent $100mn on the former president’s recent and ongoing court cases. That’s 14 per cent of his total spending. And Harris outspent Trump on media and ad buys by roughly 25 per cent.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in the middle of a rock and a hard place. He needs to pass a budget by next week. But an argument between his coalition partners over how to do that has threatened to bring down the entire government. My colleague, Guy Chazan, has been following all the drama and he joins me now. Hey, Guy.
Guy Chazan
Hi.
Sonja Hutson
All right. So tell me where the budget discussions stand at the moment and what the major sticking points are.
Guy Chazan
Well, the problem is that the government has submitted a draft budget to the Bundestag, to the German parliament, but there is an enormous hole in it, because what happened recently is that the government downgraded its economic forecasts for this year and also for next. And that meant that it now expects less tax revenue than it did before when it actually came up with this draft budget. So there’s a big financing gap which no one knows how to plug. Basically, we have three parties in this government — Social Democrats, Greens and liberals. All three have different remedies for how to close this gap, and they’re kind of mutually incompatible. But that’s not the only problem.
Sonja Hutson
Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about the political landscape here.
Guy Chazan
Well, what’s happened is that these three parties, they were always sort of uncomfortable, awkward bedfellows. And what we’ve seen in the last couple of days is the rather unedifying spectacle of all three parties presenting their own proposals for how to get Germany out of this current mess. And it’s creating a lot of chaos and a lot of angst in the German political system, but also in German business. And people are just like shaking their heads in disbelief that there can be so much disunity within this government.
Sonja Hutson
Well, what’s at risk then, if the coalition parties can’t come together ahead of the budget deadline next week?
Guy Chazan
Well, I think what will happen is that the coalition will break down if there’s no breakthrough on the budget. Scholz, the chancellor, has been saying, look, we’ve all got to put our heads together and come up with a solution here. We owe it to the country. The economy minister said something very similar. He said, you know, this is really the worst possible time to break up the coalition, with all the insecurity, all the instability in the world right now. But the smaller partner in the coalition, the liberals — it’s a party called the Free Democrats, the FDP — they are really at the end of their tether. And there’s a very, very strong likelihood that the FDP could just abandon the coalition, and then that could trigger the dissolution of the Bundestag, the parliament, and new elections.
Sonja Hutson
OK. Wow. So there’s definitely a lot of uncertainty right now in Germany, which makes me wonder, what is the wider impact of this instability on the European Union more broadly?
Guy Chazan
Well, I mean, it has enormous impact because, you know, people have always looked to Germany for leadership in Europe. You know, it’s the biggest economy in the Eurozone. It’s the kind of industrial behemoth of Europe. And what’s happened now is that that anchor of stability has gone. Germany is just now wracked by political instability. And there’s real fear that the country that is so indispensable could be without a government within weeks.
Sonja Hutson
Guy Chazan is the FT’s Berlin bureau chief. Thanks, Guy.
Guy Chazan
Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Sonja Hutson
You can read more on all these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Check back tomorrow for the latest business news.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login