In 2022 Emmanuel Macron, the President of the French Republic, sought re-election against opponents of various political persuasions. The challenge for Macron was to win another five-year term against a background of post-Brexit readjustment and the Ukraine crisis. The challenge for me, as the author of this article, was to see whether techniques adapted to Anglo-American partisan elections (see here and here) would cope with a Francophone election with different traditions.
Early in 2020 the 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump looked forward to the coming election. A billionaire property developer who had acceded to the presidency after a surprise win in 2016, he anticipated winning his second election as most sitting first-term presidents do. Then the pandemic happened.