Election 2016 | Comparing the Candidates on the Issues

By Michael Gonchar
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
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Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

With all the mudslinging, name calling, attack ads and horse-race theatrics, the real issues at stake in this election easily get lost.

What do Ted Cruz or Hillary Clinton really believe about education policy? What are Donald J. Trump’s, Bernie Sanders’ and John Kasich’s positions on United States foreign policy?

In this lesson, students research the candidates’ stances on important issues and share their findings with the class. Then, we suggest a variety of activities to bring their research alive, such as holding a mock caucus or candidate debate.

Warm Up: What are the issues you care most about in this election? Look through this list of issues (PDF) and circle the five topics most important to you.

Then, compare your top issues with a partner’s list, choose two and research the candidates’ positions on them together.

Note: If the class does not organically choose a wide range of issues to research, teachers may want to help steer pairs to select certain ones if there is too much overlap.

Issue Research Activity: Pairs should research two issues to find out what each candidate believes is best for the country. You can use the resources below. Then, fill out a chart for each issue (PDF).

All Candidates:

Hillary Clinton (Democrat)

Ted Cruz (Republican)

John Kasich (Republican)

Bernie Sanders (Democrat)

Donald Trump (Republican)

Next, share your findings with the class. One way to do this is to create a “gallery” by taping the research handouts to the wall or desks and letting students circulate around the room. Another way is to have each pair present its findings to the class. A third way is to do a “speed dating” activity, where students have to circulate around the room, quickly gathering information about all the candidates on multiple issues.

While students gather information from the other pairs, they should take notes using our “Comparing the Candidates” (PDF) chart or, if they need more room, in their notebooks.

When they are finished and have an understanding of where the candidates stand on a variety of issues, students should answer the question: With which candidate do you most agree? Why? Be sure to use evidence from your issue research to support your opinion.

Finally, they might enjoy seeing if online “matching” interactive tools, like any of these below, match them to the same candidate they chose after doing the research:

Making the Election Come Alive

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Below, we suggest six ways you can turn the issue-research activity into a simulation, performance or project. You might consider choosing one activity for your class or combining them into something larger. For example, students could make voter guides, then hold a debate, and conclude with a mock election.

Mock Primary Election: After research partners present their findings, the class can hold a vote by secret ballot. Which of the presidential candidates do they want elected? Then the teacher can tally the votes and announce the winner.

Mock Caucus: The class can simulate a caucus, where students try to convince other students to support their chosen candidate in a “cocktail party” or “speed dating” format. Then, students should form groups around the room based on the candidates they support (similar to the Iowa Democratic caucus). The candidates’ names should already be posted in designated spots. Similar to the Iowa Democratic caucus, if a group isn’t considered “viable” (teachers can determine how small is too small), those students have to switch to another candidate. In the end, the candidate with the most supporters wins the caucus.

Issue Debate: Now that students know where the candidates stand on the issues, they can hold a debate. Working in five different groups, with each group representing a different candidate, students prepare their responses to a series of debate questions based on the issues the class researched. As part of their preparation, students should also come up with questions to challenge their opponents.

Next, one student from each group can perform the role of the candidate in front of the classroom in a debate. If you want more students to have the opportunity to perform, you can play “freeze debate,” where either the teacher, or perhaps a student, can say “freeze” and another student from each group needs to step into the debate, replacing the students “on stage.”

Mock Campaign: Working in teams, students can create campaign marketing materials to promote their candidate. Groups can make posters, buttons, pamphlets or even TV commercials.

Voter Guide: Working in groups of five, with one student representing each candidate, students can create information guides to help voters decide between the different candidates. They can include a statement from each campaign capturing the gist of a candidate’s pitch, and then compare the different points of view on a variety of important issues. Here is a Voter Guide Manual(PDF) from the League of Women Voters that takes you through how to do this, step by step.

Volunteer for a Candidate If this lesson gets students excited about the candidates, let them know that high school students can often help out locally on campaigns and help them find information on how. Here, for example, is a description of common volunteer roles on political campaigns from Youth Service America.

Visit our Election 2016: Our Teaching and Learning Homepage to see all of our election-related resources.