… In 2016, a high water mark for female candidates overall, there were 167 female major party nominees for the United States House and 16 for the Senate — well fewer than half the number of candidates vying for one of those spots now. While some of the cycle’s high-profile […] Read more »
How Wobbly Is Our Democracy?
… We should not take democracy for granted. There is nothing intrinsic in American culture that immunizes us against its breakdown. Even our brilliantly designed Constitution cannot, by itself, guarantee democracy’s survival. If it could, then the republic would not have collapsed into civil war 74 years after its birth. […] Read more »
Ending Gerrymandering Won’t Fix What Ails America
Gerrymandering. It’s become the embodiment of so many of the evils in the U.S. political system. Frustrated by the lack of competitive elections? Blame gerrymandering. Appalled by the growing number of ideological extremists in Congress? Blame gerrymandering. What about congressional gridlock? Gerrymandering did it. But gerrymandering — the drawing of […] Read more »
Forget Senate negotiators — House conservatives could have the last word on immigration
Again and again, constituents at Rep. Glenn Grothman’s town hall meetings this week wanted to talk about DACA, “chain migration” and “the wall” — the right half of the vocabulary of the fierce immigration debate now playing out in Washington. … In an interview, Grothman described the tilt in his […] Read more »
The Numbers to Watch Ahead of November
There seems little point in spending a lot of time trying to assess the political implications of what turned out to be a relatively brief government shutdown. The initial reading of the deal is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell got the better of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, but it […] Read more »
Health Care Ranks Among Voters’ Top Issues for the 2018 Midterm Elections, But It’s a Lower Priority Among Voters in Battleground States and Districts
Health care and the economy and jobs top voters’ list as “the most important issue” for Congressional candidates to talk about ahead of November’s midterm elections, but the lineup shifts among voters in states and districts with competitive elections, the January Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds. When asked how important […] Read more »