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The 2020 candidates running for office are Incumbent Doug Jones (D) and Tommy Tuberville (R)

In the past ,Doug jones held the seat in the 2017 and is running as a incumbent for 2020

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Doug Jones- U.S. Senator (Assumed office: 2018)  and U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Alabama - Appointed (1997-2001)

Tommy Tuberville- head coach for  college football teams between 1995 and 2016, including at Auburn University and the University of Cincinnati. No political background

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The primary Race and Background information

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The primary Race and Background information

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The Primary was cancelled and Doug Jones advanced.

Tommy Tuberville ran against Jeff Sessions in the Republican Primary Race. Tommy Tuberville won 60.7% of votes defeating Jeff Sessions with 39.3% of votes in the Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate Alabama on July 14, 2020.

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What is the demographic makeup of Alabama?

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What is the demographic makeup of Alabama?

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The racial demographic of alabama is held mainly by 5 groups which are: White,(65.3%),Black or African American (Non-Hispanic) (26.6%),White (Hispanic) (2.35%), Two+ (Non-Hispanic) (1.87%), and Other (Hispanic) (1.58%). 5.3% of the people in Alabama speak a non-English language, and 98% are U.S. citizens.

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The voting laws and requirements in Alabama

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The voting laws and requirements in Alabama

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Alabama offers online voter registration. You can register by mail to vote in Alabama by printing a voter registration form, filling it out, and mailing it to your local Board of Registrars. You can also register to vote in person if you prefer. To vote you must be a citizen of the united states,resident of alabama and your county by registration deadline, 18 years old on or before election day, not be barred from voting by reason of a disqualifying felony conviction, or if you have been convicted, you must have had your civil rights restored,not have been declared mentally incompetent in a court and swear or affirm to "support and defend the Constitution of the U.S. and the State of Alabama and further disavow any belief or affiliation with any group which advocates the overthrow of the governments of the U.S. or the State of Alabama by unlawful means and that the information contained herein is true, so help me God"

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Evaluating three public opinion polls on the decision of Tuberville versus Jones Session majority of all three public opinion polls have outcomes with tuberville winning by landslides. For a poll on October 5th 2020,Tuberville won by 12% with Registered voters sampled: 1,072 and a Margin of error at 95% confidence : ± 4.0 points. A survey of 801 Alabama voters conducted October 11-14 shows Democrat Doug Jones holding a one-point lead over Republican Tommy Tuberville, 48%-47%. In the most recent poll concluded on October 16th, Jones has shown up in the lead but only by one point.Evaluating these three public opinion polls it is accurate to say that this election will be a close one when looking at the statistics of sample size and margin error.

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Tuberville’s list of major endorsements is short but powerful. He has been endorsed by he conservative Club for Growth, National Association of Gun Rights , the Alabama Farmers Federation (ALFA)and the most powerful endorsement being the support of Donald  Trump. While Tuberville's opponent Sessions has gained endorsements from 500 endorsements from military veterans who join a laundry list of other endorsements that includes 13 sitting and former U.S. senators, 19 law enforcement leaders, faith leaders, conservative media personalities and notable organizations like Eagle Forum and the Family Research Council Action PAC.

These Endorsements matter because they may act as a guide to some voters who are not as involved with facts and statistics as others. With support of a celebrity or current/past politician that was in favor of the majority of the voter population, a candidate could bag many voters just off of the fact one supports them.Although with the current age being socially active online some studies have shown that endorsements might not matter as much as some think. “A study in 2004 by Alan Gerber of Yale University found household political mailings to increase vote probabilities for a given candidate by a measly 0.2%. Another study tested the entire suite of campaign outreach tools — canvassing, mailings, phone banking, and TV and online advertising — and found the cumulative effect of such efforts to be virtually zero.”

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The state of Alabama voted in majority for Donald Trump 62.08% and Hilary Clinton received 34.36% of the vote.

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What interest groups have jumped into this race?

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What interest groups have jumped into this race?

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Looking at interest groups for the senate of alabama, a majority from the compiled list of groups are washington based interest groups and labor unions that contribute money from both within and outside the state.

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What are some majors issues relevant to this election?

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What are some majors issues relevant to this election?

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Three of the major issues often discussed for this election is social justice reform, climate change, and abortion

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The Alternate Perspective of our prediction.

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The Alternate Perspective of our prediction.

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The jones would win because of the corona virus situation, because the management has been viewed poorly on the republicans hands, they would favor a democrat to deal with the management of this. Another way COVID-19 could work in favor of Jones is that the increase in absentee voting is allowing people who work long jobs and can't usually make it to the polls, now have the ability to vote, which is never before seen. Also, presidential voting always has a higher turnout than midterm elections, and this year is predicted to be a record breaking year when it comes to voter turnout. Because voter turnout like this has never been recorded, especially with the new “blue wave” of voters, it is difficult to truly predict a reliable outcome.

Even though voter turnout is unpredictable due to the coronavirus, it is still unlikely that jones will win. He made it on a “miracle win” in his 2017 election, his approval rating, last taken in october 2019 shows that jones has a 41% approval rating with 36% disapproving. Though this does not seem drastic, his republican counterparts have much lower disapproval ratings. For example, the republican senator Richard Shelby has a 45% approval rating with 30% disapproval. This demonstrates Jones' chance if victory remains low.

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What are their positions in regard to the issues

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What are their positions in regard to the issues

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? Doug Jones has a strong desire for change when it comes to social justice. He had a viral ad campaign detailing the murder of george floyd, and the attrocities of polce brutality. Also, as a former U.S. Attorney he made a name for himself by prosecuting Ku Klux Klan members. There is not much information on social justice reform but since he is inline with all of his party’s ideals, I think it is safe to assume that he is stagnant on new laws or the recognition of inequality. Jones supported U.S. participation in the Paris climate agreement and speaking about the need to rein in climate change. Tuberville does not accept mainstream climate science and has expressed his beliefs of a conspiracy theory about the Green New Deal and the coronavirus pandemic; cites that god controls the climate. When asked, jones responded abortion “is a deeply personal decision between a woman, her health care provider and her faith.”Tuberville is “all for” a law banning abortion in all non-medical circumstances, including sexual assault.

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What does their platform represent and how do they stand in ideology?

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What does their platform represent and how do they stand in ideology?

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Doug Jones is more moderate where he stands on popular issues. He supports abortion, he supports Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act and says “health care is a right”, he supports the second amendment right- though he says  there needs to be limitations, he is all supportive of the LGBT community and their rights, and believes a tax bill is needed.

Tommy Tubberville is pretty ideological when it comes to fitting his party platform. He is against abortion, he believes in securing the borders, lower taxes and less spending, he fully believes in the second amendment, he believes that obamacare must go, and also wants the investigators for president to trump to be investigated.

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After looking at the statistics of the election,we predict that Tuberville will win the upcoming election, but if Jones did,this would make him the first incumbent to win re-election to the Senate since 1992, which seems highly unlikely. Tuberville’s win seems more likely because he is republican in a red state, he has no rocky political past for the public to criticize ( he has spent his professional career as an esteemed football coach for auburn university), he also may benefit off of trump's endorsement.

Our evidence supporting our thesis is that alabama is a largely red state, and according to their midterm elections, the wave of activism when it comes to democratic voting has not swayed these red voters, republicans swept the win for statewide offices, Besides Jones winning in 2017, the state had not elected a democrat to statewide office since 2008, these trends do not support the victory of Jones.

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What is the demographic makeup of Texas 7th?

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What is the demographic makeup of Texas 7th?

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The Texas 7th Congressional District has  a population of about 762,826 people. The racial demographic is white (39%), Black (15%), Native (1%) Asian (12%), Hispanic (30%) , Other (1%) and Two+ (2%).

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The 2020 candidates running for office are Incumbent Lizzie Pannil Fletcher (D), Westley Hunt (R), and Shawn Kelley (L).

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Lizzie Fletcher- before being elected to congress, she was a Lawyer. She is running for re-election to the U.S House to represent Texas 7th Congressional District.

Wesley Hunt- has no political office history. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and has 3 masters degrees from Cornell University. He served in the US Army for 8 years, including one combat deployment to Iraq. Previous to campaigning, he worked in real estate.

Shawn Kelley- no political informtion given.

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After searching for public opinion polls based on the Texas 7th district race but with how public opinion polls about election turnout for the Texas senate  the democrats are quite optimistic in results of gaining a win this 2020 year.Hunt's campaign released an internal poll Friday that gave Fletcher a 2-percentage-point lead, within the margin of error. Although this is an unofficial public poll it seems this race will only be won by a landslide.

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The voting laws and requirements in Texas 7th

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The voting laws and requirements in Texas 7th

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The voter registration deadline is October 5th. There is no online registration or same day registration. The early voting starts October 13th. Absentee/mail in voting deadline is November 3rd (postmarked) and November 4th (received). Voter ID is your photo ID.

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“Alabama.” Data USA, datausa.io/profile/geo/alabama. 
Bradner, Eric. “Where Doug Jones Stands on the Issues.” CNN, Cable News Network, 27 Nov. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/11/27/politics/doug-jones-on-the-issues/index.html. 
“The Center for Responsive Politics.” OpenSecrets, www.opensecrets.org/races/industries?cycle=2020. 
DataDhrumil. “Alabama Polls.” FiveThirtyEight, 30 Oct. 2020, projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/alabama/. 
jsharp@al.com, John Sharp |. “Do Endorsements Matter in Alabama's Senate Race?” Al, 8 July 2020, www.al.com/politics/2020/07/do-endorsements-matter-in-alabamas-senate-race.html. 
“Political Endorsements.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Oct. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Political_endorsements. 
“Tommy Tuberville.” Ballotpedia, ballotpedia.org/Tommy_Tuberville. 
Travers, Mark. “How Valuable Are Endorsements In Politics? 3 Lessons From Political Psychology.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 2 Mar. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2020/03/02/how-valuable-are-endorsements-in-politics-3-lessons-from-political-psychology/. 
“TUBERVILLE ATTENDING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S REPUBLICAN NOMINATION ACCEPTANCE SPEECH AT THE WHITE HOUSE.” Tommy Tuberville For U.S. Senate, 27 Aug. 2020, tommyforsenate.com/tuberville-attending-president-donald-trumps-republican-nomination-acceptance-speech-at-the-white-house/. 
“United States Senate Election in Alabama, 2020.” Ballotpedia, ballotpedia.org/United_States_Senate_election_in_Alabama,_2020. 

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In the 2016 Presidential Election, 1,293,650 people in Harris county voted.   while the voter turnout for the 2012 Mid term was 1,173,117 people. The Texas 7th Congressional District has  a population of about 762,826 people. The racial demographic is white (39%), Black (15%), Native (1%) Asian (12%), Hispanic (30%) , Other (1%) and Two+ (2%).

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the alternative perspective to our prediction .

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the alternative perspective to our prediction .

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Hunt has more funding than Fletcher. Hunt recently received a late in the game $2.8 million dollar fundraising haul, compared to Fletcher's total $1.3 million. This could help hunt stay in the race longer and give him more opportunity to take on new issues. despite all of this,

Hunt is backed by trump. This can be a negative because his approval rating has drastically plummeted in the suburbs, where much of his original voting demographics came from. Hunt needs these votes, especially because inner city houston is largely a blue area.

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What are some majors issues relevant to this election?

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What are some majors issues relevant to this election?

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abortion, taxation, and the new green deal, are some of the larger issues in which the candidates are debating. there stances are strictly in line with their parties.

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what interest groups have jumped into the race?

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what interest groups have jumped into the race?

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Looking at interest group spending for the 2020 Texas 7th district election, none of the spending or group names that have support for any of these candidates has been made public.

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The Primary Race and Background information 

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The Primary Race and Background information 

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Lizzie Fletcher (67.9%)  defeated Laura Moser (32.1%)  in the Democratic primary runoff for the U.S. House Texas District 7 on May 22, 2018.

Wesley Hunt defeated the other candidates, Cindy Siegel (27.2%), Maria Espinoza, Kyle Preston, Jim Noteware, and Laique Rehamn with a majority vote of 61%.

Shawn Kelly advanced from the Libertarian convention for the U.S. House Texas District 7 on March 21, 2020.

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What does their platform represent and how do they stand in ideology?

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What does their platform represent and how do they stand in ideology?

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Lizzie Fletcher is more ideological on where she stands with popular issues. Her stances on voting: is to make it easier for all, she supports planned parenthood and wants to keep it, she voted to impeach Trump, she wants to pass the DREAM Act, and she wants to ban all military style assault weapons.

Wesley Hunt is also more ideological. He wants to secure our southern border because of the issue dealing with illegal immigration, he wants to lower taxes, he wants to reduce the cost of healthcare, and wants to prevent future spending: supports the Balanced Budget Amendment.

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we think lizzie fletcher will win the Texas seventh congressional district seat. She is the incumbent and In this district, John Culberson had won as the incumbent for 18 years, and before that bill archer remained the winning incumbent for 8 years. This shows a trend of incumbent wins. The incumbent usually wins in most elections because people typically do not like change. Fletcher is also a blue candidate in a blue city. Her main focus, health care, speaks well to her audience. Especially in times like these, healthcare is deemed very important to people in urban areas. Therefore she will likely gain leverage from her supporters once again.

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What are their positions in regard to the issues?

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What are their positions in regard to the issues?

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Fletcher believes abortions should be publicly funded, she thinks that is a non negotiable subject and is a right protecting women's health and prosperity. Hunt is prolife and thinks tax payers should not pay for abortions, he is highly against later term abortions. fletcher believes in taxation to reach greater heights, for example, she allocates the tax dollars into disaster relief for businesses and the help of local businesses to survive through the pandemic Hunt believes citizens are being overtaxed, especially in the middle class. He supports the 2017 tax reform bill which would save Americans an avg. of $2,500. Fletcher supports the new green deal, she believes Houston is key in being proactive in the change to clean energy, she believes in conservation before supporting the fossil fuel industry. Hunt is highly against the new green deal, in which he argues that Texas is the energy capital of America, and these jobs are needed to drive the energy driven economy of Texas as a whole.

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“2016 Presidential Election Results: Donald J. Trump Wins.” The New York Times, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/results/president. 
“2016 United States Presidential Election in Texas.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Oct. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_Texas. 
“Census Profile: Congressional District 7, TX.” Census Reporter, censusreporter.org/profiles/50000US4807-congressional-district-7-tx/. 
“John Culberson.” Ballotpedia, ballotpedia.org/John_Culberson. 
Livingston, Abby, and Patrick Svitek. “National Democrats Are Increasingly Assertive about Their Chances in Texas This Election - and They're Spending Accordingly.” The Texas Tribune, The Texas Tribune, 22 Oct. 2020, www.texastribune.org/2020/10/21/texas-congress-democrats-optimistic/. 
“Press Release.” Lizzie Pannill Fletcher for Congress, www.lizziefletcher.com/press_releases/congresswoman-lizzie-fletcher-launches-first-tv-ad-of-2020-your-part-2. 
“Texas' 7th Congressional District Election, 2020.” Ballotpedia, ballotpedia.org/Texas'_7th_Congressional_District_election,_2020. 
“Texas' 7th Congressional District Election, 2020.” Ballotpedia, ballotpedia.org/Texas'_7th_Congressional_District_election,_2020. 
“Texas Fraternal Order of Police Endorses Wesley Hunt.” Wesley for Texas, 15 Sept. 2020, wesleyfortexas.com/texas-fraternal-order-of-police-endorses-wesley-hunt/. 
“Texas Small Business Community Endorses Wesley Hunt for Election to Congress.” NFIB, 26 Aug. 2020, www.nfib.com/content/press-release/elections/texas-small-business-community-endorses-wesley-hunt-for-election-to-congress/. 

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In the 2016 Presidential Election, 1,293,650 people in Harris county voted.   while the voter turnout for the 2012 Mid term was 1,173,117 people.

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Lizzie Pannill Fletcher for Congress TX-07

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Change That | Lizzie Pannill Fletcher for Congress

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Lizzie Fletcher has a long list of endorsements such as Former President Barack Obama, Former Vice President Joe Biden, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, The Houston Chronicle, Planned Parenthood, Bold Democrats and much more.

Wesley Hunt is endorsed by President Donald Trump writing on twitter, "Wesley is strong on Crime, the Border, our 2nd Amendment, Trade, Military and Vets. Wesley has my Complete and Total Endorsement!" He has also been endorsed by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz along with National Fraternal Order of Police and The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

Shawn Kelley is endorsed by Off the Kuff. Many of Shawn Kelley's endorsements are not shown publicly on online and media outlets.