TOPIC: The Rural-Urban Divide and the 2024 Election 

SPEAKER: Chelsea Kaufman, Assistant Professor, Wingate University

Chelsea provide an overview of how political attitudes and voting behaviors have varied across rural and urban areas over the last several election cycles and discuss what this might mean for 2024, especially in “swing states” like NC.

BIOGRAPHY

Chelsea Kaufman is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wingate University, where she has worked since 2018. She teaches courses such as American Government; US Campaigns and Elections; The US Presidency; Public Opinion; and Voting Rights Past and Present.

One of her passions is encouraging civic engagement, especially among her students, and she is a Steering Committee member for the Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights (https://facultyforvotingrights.org/).

Her research focuses primarily on the rural-urban divide in the United States and has been published in The Journal of Rural Studies and Rural Society.

Originally from Pennsylvania, she completed her undergraduate degree in her hometown at Pennsylvania Western University – Clarion and then went on to complete her Ph.D. at Purdue University in 2017. She lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and their pets (2 cats and 2 dogs).