Studying the Election in Real-Time
“I believe that there is no such thing as an American presidential election,” Michael Kilburn said provocatively. “It’s a combination of 100,000 elections, all with different rules taking place on a very local level within the framework of each state.”
Amid a presidential race packed with more twists than a Netflix political thriller, Kilburn has spent the semester co-teaching IDS 201: The 2024 American Presidential Election alongside Ken Riaf.
Twelve Endicott students signed up for the incredibly timely interdisciplinary seminar where they’re learning about the electoral process and testing their own political views at the same time.
Riaf, a Gloucester-based attorney with decades of private practice experience in civil law, has a rich history of teaching seminars at Endicott, including Law in Literature & Film and American Government and Politics. He gladly joined forces with Kilburn to bring a deep real-world insight into how the electoral system and constitutional law often play out in the courtroom.
The duo’s course syllabus—written and published well before President Biden stepped down from reelection and the race took a new path altogether—offered an uncanny prediction for what was to come:
“…The American presidential election is an awesome spectacle of high and low, right and left, the noblest aspirations of civic duty, calling, and public service, and the basest motives of ego, pride, and cynical careerism. It is at once a deadly serious contest of will to determine the future direction of the nation and the world, and an absurdist reality show displaying the depths to which individuals will sink in pursuit of power.”
The course brings together students from diverse regions and backgrounds, including a State Department-sponsored exchange student from Nicaragua. Even Kilburn, a Canadian immigrant who recently became a U.S. citizen and poll worker, contributes a unique viewpoint.
As a group, they examine foundational legal documents, analyze real-time political developments, and conduct an election simulation that mirrors the current race.
Morgan Sebastian ’25 designed her own individual major in expressive art therapy and integrative health and wellness and wouldn’t ordinarily get the chance to take a class like this one.
“I signed up because I knew it would be an interesting opportunity to learn more about politics and topics that I am not familiar with or majoring in,” she said. “I have never taken a co-taught class before, so I figured this would be a cool opportunity to learn about a topic from two different professors with two perspectives.”
Guests who work in the political sphere come to class to talk about their real-life election experiences and roles, such as Senior Advisor & Director of Communications for Rep. Frank Pallone Tori Bonney ’06 as well as Bradley Crate and Charles Gantt from the Beverly-based campaign finance compliance firm Red Curve Solutions.
Students also attend campus live events, including Kilburn's October lecture, “2024: Into the Election-verse!”—which offered a strategic overview of the theory and practice of the electoral system in the U.S. The talk was part of the 2024 Halle Library Faculty Speaker Series and the Join the Conversation Series of Civics, which celebrates the power of dialogue to foster understanding, connection, and civic responsibility.
A safe place for testing out political views
In the first class session, students responded to an anonymous survey identifying their ideological position. The results showed that the class didn’t have a solid partisan side—with 40% of Gulls identifying as Republicans and nearly the same as Democrats.
The professors have created an inclusive and safe space for students—many of whom are first-time voters—to test out political views or share without fear of judgment.
A faculty sponsor for Endicott’s nonpartisan Political Action Committee, Kilburn categorically refuses to bring his personal political views into the classroom.
Riaf followed suit. “There is more contention in this election than in any other in my lifetime,” he said. He doesn’t want to add to it.
The only thing the two faculty would divulge is that their opinions and affiliations differ.
To illustrate that dichotomy, Riaf pointed to the historic train station at Prides Crossing just down the road from Endicott in Beverly, Mass.
Replicas of two famous benches sit on the platform, separated by a flag that waves in the Atlantic breeze like an advertisement for the American dream. “Republican” is stamped on one bench, and “Democrat” is on the other.
The two randomly choose personas to represent in individual class sessions, switching between liberal and conservative and everything in between to demonstrate to students how critical it is to think from someone else’s mindset.
“Ken and I are careful to leave our politics at home, and we’re also careful to make fun of both sides equally,” Kilburn said. “And in this race, there is plenty of material to pick over.”
Bringing a legal eye to primary documents
Students spent the first part of the semester digging into primary sources. They were given personal copies of the Constitution and challenged to go through it line-by-line to highlight the parts about elections. But they didn’t end up using much yellow ink at all.
“There’s hardly anything in there about elections. It’s just the sketch of a framework that has been clarified at the federal level but is mainly determined at the state level,” Kilburn said.
When they got to more recent documents like the 1965 Voting Rights Act, federal legislation that cites the 15th Amendment, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting, Riaf was quick to point out how it’s full of holes and romantic language that makes the law subject to interpretation.
“Being able to bring a legal eye to documents and materials we are looking at in class allows me to talk about specific cases and the statutory and legislative side of things. I want to demonstrate how there is always the law, the exception, and the exception to the exception,” Riaf said.
The election simulation that followed brought everything the class studied to life. Students were offered the choice of holding a two-party or three-party race. They opted to be randomly split into Republican and Democratic groupings, holding closed primaries.
Comparing political systems and perspectives
Their first assignment was to write and deliver a campaign speech. For Daylin Padilla Flores, a diplomacy and international relations major who came to Endicott after winning a competitive scholarship from the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua, powerful public speaking came naturally.
“Today, you people have the power to change your nation. For some time, our liberty and democracy have been threatened. We have to preserve it,” Padilla Flores’ Democratic nominee speech began convincingly. “When I was four years old, my mother had to make the toughest decision of her life to leave our country and migrate to give me and my sister a better life. That taught me that with hard work and resilience, anything is possible.”
Back home, Padilla Flores excels at Model U.N. simulations and was her school’s debate club vice president.
Before coming to the Nest, she and her friends spent a night in Nicaragua watching the fateful Biden and Trump debate, Googling the American electoral system, and trying to compare it to their country’s presidential republic in which the elected president serves as both head of state and government.
“We had so many questions, and I had nobody to ask about how the American system works, so when I found out I was coming to Endicott, I was excited to sign up for this class,” Padilla Flores said.
Now, the legacies of past American presidents are more than just facts to memorize. “I can see how the country got to this controversial point, and now I understand how it relates to history.”
As the simulation progressed, students were assigned campaign roles involving fundraising, media, and chiefs of staff.
For Aidan Ham ’25, an elementary education major writing his thesis about how social studies and civics are taught to elementary school-aged students in Massachusetts public schools, the course proved especially relevant.
“This class has taught me to understand politicians’ behavior better. They want to do what is best for their community, state, and the country, and the only way to do that is to play the game of politics and win,” Ham said.
He plans to teach but ultimately wants to work in school district administration—a job category that will require him to run in an election with a campaign of his own someday.
Heading into the semester, several of Ham’s classmates shared that they don’t hold strong political beliefs. Even so, Kilburn and Riaf are setting out to prove that being apolitical isn’t a dealbreaker to becoming a more involved citizen.
“You don’t have to be interested in politics—politics is interested in you, and if you know and understand the system, you’re going to be living better off,” Kilburn said. “The most important thing is to be an active participant and not just a bystander in the system that determines how you live your life; to not just understand and protect your rights, but to exercise them.”