UI alums see contention, excitement while living in battleground Georgia

Two political science graduates now going to law school in Georgia talk about their experiences in the swing state.

Liam Halawith, Elections Editor

November 5, 2024

Fulton County democrats hold signs and give out stickers to encourage community members to vote during Election Day at Liberty Baptist Church polling location in Atlanta, Ga., on Nov. 5, 2024. Georgia is one of the predominant swing states that will help determine who wins the U.S. General Election. Voters spoke with The Daily Iowan about thoughts on candidates and deciding policy measures that ultimately led to them to vote for their choice.

ATLANTA — Two University of Iowa political science alumni say they have seen a contentious, but excited atmosphere in the battleground state of Georgia where they both now go to law school.

Halle Seydel, a third-year law student at Georgia State University, said it has been stressful to see the political atmosphere in Georgia this election. After growing up in San Diego, Seydel said she is used to being surrounded by people with similar viewpoints to her own.

“It’s sometimes stressful to not know which way the state is going to swing,” Seydel said. “But it’s also exciting. And I think I’m in Georgia at a time when things are changing.”

Yunseo Ki, a first-year law student at Emory University, said that after coming from the UI last year, she was used to being surrounded by people with similar opinions.

“I think probably the biggest difference is that people are a lot more vocal about their political opinions here than they have been in Iowa,” Ki said. “Previous to coming here, I was under the impression, for some reason, that everybody had the same opinion as me.”

Georgia is one of seven key battleground states in the 2024 presidential election. A New York Times/Siena College poll released just days before the election shows Harris leading in the state by just one point, pointing to a race that is virtually in a dead heat.

Georgia was a key factor in Joe Biden’s win in 2020 after he squeezed out a win in the deep-south state and collected the 16 electoral votes. He won the state’s popular vote by around a quarter of a percentage point, equating to roughly 11,000 votes.

Georgia was at the center of Trump’s false claims that there was mass voter fraud that led to him losing the 2020 election. Those claims were unfounded.

Seydel said that with this swing state status has come an onslaught of ads and media attention.

“I was just watching football this past weekend, which is a huge culture in the South, and at the commercial break all you see is the political ads, and the rhetoric behind the ads is extremely strong on both sides,” Seydel said. “They don’t hold back on either side, they go straight into the rhetoric that most inflames people’s emotions.”

Ki said that she has seen the ads everywhere, from on TV to on her Instagram reels.

“I feel like every part of media is just so hyper-consumed that I don’t get to go on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or even just online shopping or doing anything without being bombarded with these advertisements,” Ki said.