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Mind the Gap: A Look Back on the Big Election Year

Two weeks after Election Day in the United States, it is time to take stock: What happened during the final weeks; Who will be the next president of the USA? What is the fallout so far, and what price did they have to pay for their victory? We will ask just how big “the gap” is as we look back on a turbulent election year 2024. Voter expectations have been high, (especially among minorities and younger generations), and some of them will not have been met, possibly with dire consequences. These, and other lessons, could be valuable for Germany, as it enters its own big election year 2025 - or not so much?

Join us on November 20th as we reflect on potential and real “gaps” within in the US and in the transatlantic arena with Politico politics reporter Emily Schultheis, and TV-journalist, moderator, and content creator Tessniem Kadiri.

This talk is part of our trans-Atlantic series “Across the Pond” in collaboration with Open Embassy for Democracy (OPEM) and University of Cologne New York Office. Curated and moderated by Tobias Endler.

 

Biographies

Emily Schultheis is a reporter with POLITICO’s California-based ballot measures team. She came to Los Angeles from Berlin, where she reported on the rise of far-right parties and elections across a dozen European countries for POLITICO, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The Associated Press, The New York Times and others. Emily was a 2023 Livingston Award finalist for her profile of an Austrian doctor plagued by anti-vaccine trolls and has held reporting fellowships from the Institute of Current World Affairs, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the International Center for Journalists and the East-West Center.

Before moving to Berlin in 2017, Emily covered U.S. national politics for POLITICO, National Journal and CBS News. A San Francisco Bay Area native, she holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.A. from Central European University.

Tessniem Kadiri is a TV reporter & presenter for the socio-political ARD children's and youth format, presenter and author of the TikTok news channel "nicetoknow" (WDR Newsroom), and freelance journalist residing in Cologne. She became interested in journalism at age 15, when she stood in front of the microphone for the youth editorial department of my local radio station for the first time. Since then, her passion and involvement in journalism, media, and broadcasting has only grown, and has also gone on to learn and speak 5 languages - German, Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.

 

This event is part of a series of online talks with young voters from both sides of the Atlantic:

Across the Pond – Politics, Power, Participation
Young Voters Talk

Politicians are being attacked, elections are deemed “rigged”, democratic institutions are called into question, checks and balances seem to cause constant gridlock, and extremists are gaining ground… 2024 looks like an election year that seemingly doesn’t offer much hope for the future - neither in Europe, nor the United States. In this series, we will hear from young voters from both sides of the Atlantic who share their ideas about how to move forward. More…