… But here’s one such theory, as described by a New York Times article published Sunday: Perhaps Cantor’s defeat — and the near-defeat of Republican Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi — has something to do with migration patterns. If more people are moving into areas where they are less familiar […] Read more »
Population Shifts Turning All Politics National
… For all the talk about how partisan polarization is overwhelming Washington, there is another powerful, overlapping force at play: Voters who are not deeply rooted increasingly view politics through a generic national lens. Friends-and-neighbors elections were already a thing of the past in congressional campaigns. But the axiom that […] Read more »
What Eric Cantor’s Defeat Means for Hillary Clinton
… The Virginia Republican’s defeat virtually extinguishes the already flickering chances that House Republicans will pass immigration reform before the 2014 election, and even dims the odds that the chamber will take action before 2016. And that significantly improves prospects in the next presidential election for Clinton, or any other […] Read more »
How the Politics of Nostalgia Sank Eric Cantor
… Like Tea Party challengers across the country, Brat sought to make immigration reform a defining issue in the campaign, accusing Cantor of supporting “amnesty” for immigrants in the country illegally, even though Cantor opposed the comprehensive, bipartisan Senate bill and only supported (but did not bring to the floor) […] Read more »
Virginia Exurbs Prove Fertile Terrain for David Brat
College professor David Brat’s primary win in Virginia’s 7th congressional district caught the political world by surprise, particularly the man he defeated, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. But a close look at the VA-07 terrain shows that Mr. Brat had a few points in his favor going in. The seventh […] Read more »
Why the White Working Class Matters
… Many observers have posed an intriguing question: Can Democrats win national elections with their growing national coalition—Millennials, minorities, grad-school-educated whites, and so on—without targeting or addressing the needs of white working-class voters? Implicitly, they are asking whether Democrats can build a national majority by primarily addressing the identity and […] Read more »