With the election being so close, the question on the minds of many Americans is, “what now?” In response to this sense of uncertainty, here are my five predictions of what may occur during the next week: The first prediction is that WikiLeaks will release something new, to influence undecided voters as they make their decision of if they will cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton. A prediction like this is easy to make. It is very unlikely that any new leaks will cause diehard Clinton supporters to switch sides, but whatever WikiLeaks has left to release, it will serve as the tipping point for many undecided voters.
The second is that social media will see a lot of posts and videos pleading for people to go out and vote. The call for more voter participation is far from new, but this election will definitely see an influx lot of announcements and statements released. Celebrities, politicians and journalists will be making these pleas to the American people because while polls may indicate certain congressional or presidential candidates are leading, voter turnout will cause the real results on Election Day.
Thirdly, residents of New Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania will see a wave of grassroots activism as people go door-to-door while simultaneously being exposed to more TV advertisements focusing on senatorial races. With Democrats only needing a net gain of five seats to control the Senate, the congressional races in the states listed above will be crucial for both parties. Some polls are showing that the Democrats will pull off the switch, but other projections say they will only take three or four seats. Nonetheless, the states where the candidates are in close races will see the highest amounts of party-affiliated canvasing and attack ads.
Fourthly, I predict that Clinton’s campaign will go from playing offense to playing defense. The FBI recently announced that the investigation into Clinton’s email server is being reopened. This development will spell trouble for the Clinton campaign, especially when coupled with whatever information dumps Wikileaks has left. Thus, we will see her start to play defense in speeches and in the press releases that her campaign will give in response to those developments.
The final prediction is that Donald Trump, unlike Clinton, will refuse retract claims that the election is rigged or to change his campaign game plan. Trump will continue to see more allegations against him for sexual misconduct and business wrongdoings. There will likely be a sound bite or video released of him saying another controversial statement. This hasn’t fazed him in the past, and as previously noted, these things will only cost him the vote of people who are still undecided.
At this point if someone is set on voting for Trump, it is unlikely that anything new will be able to convince them not to. Trump will ultimately just brush off these roadblocks and blame them on people working against him, and he’ll continue to repeat his assertion that these elections are rigged.
In the end – whether these predictions occur or not – there is one thing that can be said for certain: while a lot may have already happened during this election cycle, there’s definitely more in store.
Adam Brownstein is a member of the Hofstra College Republicans.
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