HEPP Seminar Series: U.S. Elections 2024: The Story of Two "Populist" VP Candidates and the Rural Roots of the Political Moment

In an extraordinary development, two candidates claiming to represent neglected rural America are running for vice president in the 2024 U.S. election. JD Vance, a self-styled "hillbilly" with ties to rural Appalachia, is a leading ideologue of the right-wing and authoritarian vision of the MAGA movement or what journalists describe as the "populist" wing of the Republican Party. Tim Walz, the surprise pick of presidential candidate Kamala Harris, was born on a farm in Nebraska and for many years taught high school in the old Populist strongholds of the Great Plains and is the progressive Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor of Minnesota. The two men articulate sharply divergent versions of rural politics, both of which have deep historical roots in American history. Exploring these roots sheds light on the recent emergence of the sharp rural-urban divide in U.S. politics, and on the explosive polarization in the present electoral campaign. 

research focuses on populism and social and political movements in the United States. His award-winning books, The Populist Vision and Equality: An American Dilemma, 1866-1896, tell the history of the farmer-labor Populist movement of the late 19th century. He has also published on the right-wing and conservative movements of the 21st century. He is a professor of history at San Francisco State University. 

Event Details

26th August 2024

14:00 - 16:00 (UTC+3)

Join us at:

Tiedekuntasali 1066, Unioninkatu 37, Center Campus, University of Helsinki

Or