There are more than a million and a half people in metropolitan Milwaukee, yet few can expect to cast a truly meaningful vote in a congressional election in the fall. They likely won’t cast a meaningful vote in a state Senate election this fall either. Or a state Assembly election. […] Read more »
The Racial Tensions Lurking Under the Surface of American Society
… Well before the election of the first black president in 2008, the condemnation of direct and open expressions of racism had become a social norm. While the fading acceptability of openly racist attitudes is to be celebrated, it clearly does not mean that race no longer matters or that […] Read more »
The Big Reason Republicans Should Hope Jeb Bush Runs
Florida has been an afterthought in electoral politics over the last few cycles, but it is positioned to return to the forefront. No state looms larger as the Republican Party mulls its future. It’s not just because two of the party’s top presidential hopefuls — Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio […] Read more »
Midterm Election Turnout Isn’t So Different From Presidential Year Turnout
Spend enough time around pundits and you’ll hear somebody say, “It’s all about turnout.” Who shows up to vote, and those voters’ demographics, is the great mystery of any election. The conventional wisdom is that the demographics of the voting pool are friendlier to Democrats in presidential years than they […] Read more »
Democratic, Republican voters worlds apart in divided Wisconsin
In the acrid and escalating clash between red and blue America, there is no battleground quite like metropolitan Milwaukee. Spectacularly divided, remarkably mobilized, frequently fought over, its politically lopsided communities have been veering apart for more than 40 years. Democrats and Republicans aren’t just strangers to each other in their […] Read more »
Bursting the Democrats’ Midterm-Turnout Bubble
The Democratic midterm turnout problem is no secret. Young and nonwhite voters tend to stay home in off-year elections, leaving the electorate older, whiter and more Republican than in a presidential election. … Strong turnout operations can help Democrats at the margins. The Democratic turnout problem, however, is not marginal. […] Read more »