May 20, 2026 6:30 PM –7:30 PM
AMERICA 250 - THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1800, AMERICA'S FIRST CONTENTIOUS POLITICAL CONTEST
Local history speaker and artist, Jack Puglisi will present a talk and discussion on the presidential election of 1800. This race between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two of America’s most renowned founding fathers, was the first hotly contested political race in America’s history. Its importance resonates to this day with the birth of the two-party system, the role of media in elections and the tradition of the peaceful transfer of power between two conflicting political ideologies. Many aspects of this story may seem strangely familiar in our own time.
