Elections 2024: WHYY News’ Special Coverage radio show
What questions do you have about the 2024 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.
As the polls closed on Tuesday, Nov. 5, WHYY News produced a live news program on 90.9 FM, putting local and national races in perspective, including the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Tom MacDonald, WHYY News fill-in host and reporter, hosted the news special. WHYY News radio reporters presented real-time updates on the top of the presidential ticket. The program also featured insights into the Senate and Congressional races in New Jersey and Delaware.
The program brought real-time updates through the early hours of the voting tally, including an excerpt from Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's press conference in which he confirmed that a bomb threat had been made at a polling place in Philadelphia that led to the detention of an individual. No credible threats were made.
WHYY News New Jersey State House Reporter David Matthau reported from Democrat Andy Kim's campaign headquarters as the Associated Press called the New Jersey Senate race for Kim.
Amanda Fitzpatrick, WHYY News reporter, provided highlights from the scene of Democratic Senator Bob Casey's headquarters in Scranton, Pennsylvania while WESA Reporter Oliver Morrison and WGAL-TV Reporter Barbara Barr provided dispatches from Republican challenger David McCormick headquarters in Pittsburgh.
WHYY News Multiplatform Politics Reporter Carmen Russell-Sluchansky reported on whether disparaging words about Puerto Rico and Latinos at a Trump rally in New York City had an effect on voters in Reading, Pennsylvania, a majority Latino city in the Commonwealth.
"He's talking about our ancestors, our families, our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles," said Eva Clemente, a Democratic voter, who grew up in Puerto Rico. She is referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's comments about Puerto Rico being a floating island of trash. "To me, it was very hurtful to hear him say that about our island."
Misael Nieves, a Republican voter, said he was also offended, but still planned to vote for Trump.
"I do feel like his campaign party should have addressed it immediately," he said. "It doesn't take my focus off of the end game ... to get our country back to where it needs to be financially, security and everything."
WHYY News Senior Reporter Susan Phillips looked at how abortion access weighed on the minds of voters. She also discussed the contrast between Trump and Harris on environmental policy.
