Since the 2020 election, there has been a significant re-evaluation of Latino voters’ partisan leanings and policy preferences. These voters — long assumed to be a permanent part of the Democratic coalition — supported Pres. Trump in larger numbers than expected. A “post-mortem” report, released this week by Equis Research, […] Read more »
Should Democrats stick to only saying popular things?
Should Democrats stick to rhetoric and positions that are popular in swing states such as Georgia and Wisconsin? Ultimately, I think the answer is “no,” but the question is worth exploring. Many in the party blamed the Democrats’ weaker-than-expected results in the 2020 elections on left-wing activists and politicians touting […] Read more »
How Democrats Can Win the Messaging War: Make Policies as Visible as Possible
After Democrats’ loss in Virginia last week, we’re just a year away from the 2022 midterms. Without a strong performance, Democrats could lose their majority in Congress, and with it the chance to pass ambitious progressive policy for years to come. Perhaps the strongest weapon in Democrats’ arsenal leading up […] Read more »
Could anti-Trump messaging be more effective in 2022 than in 2021?
A wise friend of mine recently observed that if Democrats can’t turn Virginia’s gubernatorial election into a referendum on former President Donald Trump, it’s hard to see how that strategy would work in swing states in 2022. It’s a very reasonable point, since Trump lost Virginia by 10 points last […] Read more »
The trout in the milk
Political practitioners find it amusing, and mildly threatening, that political scientists are still debating whether campaigns matter. Every consultant has tales to tell prospective clients about how their stratagem, or tactic, or ad saved the day and won the victory everyone else thought impossible. In truth though, much of what […] Read more »
How the Democratic Party’s campaign strategy is failing America
In polling places across America, the ground has shifted. The “ticket splitter,” who once ruled election outcomes, has almost disappeared. …Meanwhile, measurements of the effectiveness of political persuasion ads show a medium generating hardly any effect at all. … These two developments represent the most unnoticed earthquake in the history […] Read more »