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Hi, all. For about the last 6-8 weeks (??? time is tough to gauge right now), @RMarshallFNP and I worked on a series looking at the current political landscape of the county. The last part of a three-part series ran in today's @frednewspost
The central question Ryan and I answered (kudos to him for suggesting we dig into this) was: how did Biden win the county by nearly 14,000 votes last year, when Trump carried the county by 3,000 votes in 2016? A close to 17,000 vote swing is significant in a county our size.
Our series attempted to answer that question, and others about the county's political landscape. In the first story, we introduce the premise: https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/trending-blue-changing-demographics-increased-turnout-helped-flip-frederick-county-in-2020/article_f3b53636-9124-5787-83fa-1af8a575a248.html
The second story looks at if growth in certain parts of the county contributed to the swing: https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/trending-blue-frederick-countys-growth-opened-door-for-electoral-shift/article_779d8d9d-c030-5cb3-b2e9-95cb66935edc.html
Lastly, we talked to people at the grassroots level, along with political scientists and current and former local elected officials about the county's political future: https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/county-over-party-after-unprecedented-election-year-questions-about-countys-political-future-remain/article_b94dfd79-72e5-54cf-99fe-8fe2eef04bef.html
I am critical (perhaps overly so) of nearly everything I write, but this series by Ryan and I turned out OK, I think. A lot of stuff we reported did not make it into the story, and I want to thank all of our sources for their time.
In total, we talked to more than a dozen people and analyzed more than 80 precinct election returns in 2016 and 2020. I hope the journalism we did helps inform county residents, and perhaps more importantly, encourages them to participate in local and state issues.
Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank @RMarshallFNP, our editors, photographers @FNP_Cullen and @FNP_Green and our design team (Bill Watts, Samantha Bangh, @joeferrarofnp and others) for pulling it all together. This was a team effort, and I am lucky to be on this team.
