Media sources - library databases
These databases contain articles from newspapers and magazines. Nexus Uni and Academic Search Premier contain other kinds of sources as well, but have filters you can use to limit your searches to news sources.
- Access World News This link opens in a new window Articles from 1,000's of newspapers around the world. Provides full text access to many local and regional newspapers in the U.S. Also contains magazine articles, transcripts, videos, and other sources.
- Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window Index to recent newspapers and TV or radio news reports. Includes the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, New York Times, and many regional or local newspapers. Full text television & radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, FOX News, NPR, etc.
- McClatchy-Tribune Collection This link opens in a new window The McClatchy-Tribune Collection contains recent articles from regional, national, and international newspapers published by the McClatchy company.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window Nexis Uni provides access to newspaper articles, magazine articles, and transcripts. It is also a key database for business and legal research, containing company reports, law journals, and statutes and cases from all 50 states. Also contains legal resources for Canada and the EU.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Good database for most research topics and contains lots of full text, peer reviewed articles. More than 18,000 of the journal titles indexed are peer reviewed and almost all of the full text is. Provides searchable cited references for more than 1,000 journal titles so you can easily see what sources a given article cites.
- Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) This link opens in a new window Provides access to articles from the Wall Street Journal Eastern edition as recent as 7 days old.
Media sources - on the Internet
Many news outlets with an established or emerging prominence within the political press are available online - newspapers like The Washington Post and The New York Times, magazines like The Nation and National Review, or websites like Politico or Daily Kos.
You can use Google Advanced Search to find articles within those publications about your candidate, provided the content is free online and doesn't require a log-in or subscription.
Enter search terms in the "all these words" and/or "this exact word or phrase" boxes. Use your candidate's name, or choose other words representing issues or geographic areas of interest to you.
Put a website, newspaper, or magazine's URL in the "site or domain" box.
Public opinion polls
These pages feature public opinion polls about candidates, elections, and political issues. All of them have at least some polling relevant to this year's primary elections.
- CBS/YouGov Battleground Lots of public opinion polls, and a feature that lets you search for candidates to find their "rating" and related surveys.
- RealClearPolitics latest polls Provides links to polls from several different agencies, including many state polls.
- Suffolk University Political Research Center Links on the right offer national polls and polls for some states.
- Marist Poll A selection of polls and analysis.
- Associated Press-NORC Center government, politics, and international affairs polls A selection of government, politics, and international affairs polls.
- Siena College Research Institute A selection of political polls.
- SSRS polls for CNN A selection of polls conducted by SSRS for CNN. You can search for a specific candidate or issue by adding search terms in the box near the top of the page; do not delete SSRS though.
- 2020 primaries and caucuses at CNN Map will presumably update with results once primaries begin. National polls sorted chronologically from a number of sources for the Democratic primary. Fundraising figures for Democratic and Republican primary candidates.
- Fox News Poll A selection of polls from Fox News.
- 2020 election at Pew Research Center Public opinion polls relevant to the 2020 election. Less about candidates than the electorate's opinions about issues, political parties, etc.
Background and biographical information about candidates
There resources are useful for finding biographical information about your candidate. They include information about things like previous offices held, careers before politics, educational backgrounds, families, etc.
- Congressional Directory Includes biographies of members of Congress, dating back to 1997. Organized by Congress. Within a Congress, look for the "Congressional biographies" section.
- National Governors Association directory of current state governors The NGA maintains a directory of current governors, which includes links to biographical information on each governor's official website.
- Ballotpedia 2020 presidential candidates Profiles of candidates including short biographies, endorsements, campaign ads, policy positions, and more
- The Almanac of America Politics Includes information about the lives and careers of current U.S. presidents, vice presidents, senators, and representatives. Published biennially, the 1972 through 2018 (current) editions are available.Call Number: General Collection JK1012 .A44
You can also, of course, search for your candidate's official website and find biographical information there.