“I told you so.”

There’s no better mark of success than when your analytic forecasts come true. You wouldn’t listen to a weatherman who constantly gets the forecast wrong; analysts should be held to the same standard.

In the brief iteration of 2020 sans pandemic, there was a wide-open Democratic presidential primary, the most crowded—and unpredictable—in years. With competing visions for the party, various stakeholders wanted to know what different potential administrations might look like. Illumina sensed a business opportunity and tasked me with the assignment. Being the political junkie that I am, this put me over the moon.

Then came COVID-19. The crowded debate stage was quickly whittled down to Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden. Then Biden consolidated his support, and the scope of my project changed: how, exactly, had the pandemic changed the election? What policy changes could we expect from a Biden administration? And what would four more years of Trump look like? I answered those questions, and many of my predictions have held true midway through President Biden’s first term.

I researched, wrote, and designed these reports in Adobe InDesign entirely myself. My supervisor provided final edits.