How to survive election week 2024: Lessons from last time
No matter who Americans cast a ballot for, election anxiety seems inescapable this year, exacerbated by razor-thin races in key swing states, the specter of another Donald Trump campaign effort to overturn the results and increasingly violent political rhetoric. Based on conversations among Times staffers, though, at least one contributing factor has been underappreciated: time.
Meaning, the amount of time it took for Joe Biden to be declared the winner in 2020. The amount of time we spent glued to TV news and social media watching the results trickle in. The amount of time we spent on tenterhooks, uncertain what might happen next.
If there’s one silver lining to a repeat performance, it’s that election night turning into election week won’t be quite so “unprecedented.†(Good news for those who’ve come to hate that word in recent years.) To help you navigate the 2024 edition, we asked a group of writers and editors from The Times to look back on each day of election week 2020, from the rise of the “chartthrobs†to Four Seasons Total Landscaping, and try to identify what lessons we might apply this time around.
So, here’s the L.A. Times guide to surviving election week 2024. Godspeed.
The polls are close, the lawyers are ready and the networks may be in for marathon coverage yet again. Here’s how TV news outlets are preparing this time around.
Our columnist looks back on the press conference in which Donald Trump kicked off his effort to steal the 2020 election for clues about what to expect from the Big Lie 2.0.
A Times staffer who helped popularize the term explains why he plans to steer clear this year — and why you should consider limits on your news consumption too.
In 2020, election-tracking organization DecisionDesk HQ made waves by becoming the first to call the race for Biden. Here are its tips for handling another close race.
The Trump campaign’s bizarre Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference in 2020 may have felt like a bizarre joke, but its consequences still live with us today.
![[20060326 (LA/A20) -- STATING THE CASE: Marchers organized by unions, religious organizations and immigrants rights groups carry signs and chant in downtown L.A. "People are really upset that all the work they do, everything that they give to this nation, is ignored," said Angelica Salas of the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights. -- PHOTOGRAPHER: Photographs by Gina Ferazzi The Los Angeles Times] *** [Ferazzi, Gina -- - 109170.ME.0325.rights.12.GMF- Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times - Thousands of protesters march to city hall in downtown Los Angeles Saturday, March 25, 2006. They are protesting against House-passed HR 4437, an anti-immigration bill that opponents say will criminalize millions of immigrant families and anyone who comes into contact with them.]](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/722dda1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1983x1322+109+0/resize/840x560!/format/webp/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fzbk%2Fdamlat_images%2FLA%2FLA_PHOTO_ARCHIVE%2FSDOCS%2854%29%2Fkx3lslnc.JPG)
