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KBIA's coverage of all the elections going on in mid-Missouri and the nation for 2012.

MU Presidential debate expert says Wednesday's showdown could have impact

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This week on the show: What to expect during Wednesday’s Presidential debate. Plus, we talk with Republican women in Boone County.

According to a Rutgers University study, during every Presidential election since 1964, more women have turned out to vote than men. That proportion has been increasing significantly in the last few elections, in 2008, almost 10 million more women voted than men, out of about 130 million votes cast. And, again, according to Rutgers, ever since the 1980’s more women have identified themselves as Democrats than Republicans. So KBIA’s Jessica Reese decided to talk to Republican women here in Mid-Missouri – about what this important group of voters is thinking this election year.

Wednesday night President Barack Obama and Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney will face off in their first presidential debate. It’ll be the first of three debates leading up to the election on November 6th. University of Missouri professor of Communication Mitchell McKinney studies presidential debates, and in fact once he was a consultant for the Commission on Presidential Debates, which puts the debates together. He’s spent time studying the history of the impact debates have had in past elections – and says they actually were influential in the elections in 1960, 1976, 1980 and 2000. And he tells KBIA’s Zach Garcia, McKinney thinks they could be influential this year too.

To hear the full interview, listen to the second audio file above. The first piece of audio is this week’s show.

Ryan served as the KBIA News Director from February 2011 to September 2023
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