Chico Times

With a recent Gallup poll showing that 56% of registered U.S. voters feel they are financially better off than they were four years ago, President Donald Trump is beating out all past presidents going back as far as Ronald Reagan in terms of economic confidence from voters.

Added to that, as early voting locations see long lines and absentee ballots come rolling in to local elections offices, the U.S. is already seeing a record electorate turnout, according to coverage by The Hill.

While election forecasts still consistently show former Vice President Biden holding the lead he has had over Trump since January, given the experience of last election, many still wonder whether those polls will give any kind of meaningful insight into where the election will go.

Even more so, what is the motivation for those who agree with Trump’s principles, but live in locations where they are too outnumbered to swing their state his way?

Kimberly Hogan lives in northern California, a state that hasn’t supported a Republican for president since Reagan’s second term. Yet, even in 2016, 38.3% of Californians who bothered to vote weren’t represented by their state’s electoral votes going to Hilary Clinton.

Hogan told the Chico Times she will vote in every race in the Nov. 3 election, and that all of them are important.

“The presidential race is very important to me, but equally as important are all of those down ballot votes,” she told the Chico Times. 

Hogan said that she is very interested in the outcomes of the California Assembly and local elections.

“There’s a lot going on in my hometown right now,” Hogan told the Chico Times. “It’s starting to actually get out of the peoples’ control, to where a lot of decisions are not being made in the best interests of the citizens.”

Hogan said she is concerned about trying to get people into the state and local positions of power who will exercise that power in the interests of the people, rather than misusing that power.

Hogan said that on of the pressing local problems is an appointed city administrator who is not being held accountable for his actions.

“It’s important that we get council members in there that are willing to hold him to account,” Hogan told the Chico Times.