Georgia’s political shift – a tale of urban and suburban change

Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator David Perdue wanted to avoid a runoff. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Jan Nijman, Georgia State University Over the past 36 years, the state of Georgia has voted for Republican presidential candidates in every cycle except 1992, when voters backed Bill Clinton. In the past 20 years, it […] Read more »

The Role Shifting Demographics Played In The Presidential Election

Latino voters helped to shape the presidential race in different ways. For the first time, Latinos became the second-biggest voting demographic after white people, and that has major implications. NPR News The OPINION TODAY email newsletter is a concise daily rundown of significant new poll results and insightful analysis. It’s FREE. Sign up […] Read more »

2020 exit polls show a scrambling of Democrats’ and Republicans’ traditional bases

When Barack Obama won his second presidential term eight years ago, the exit polls clearly showed that he benefitted from what I called the “new American mainstream”—the growing voter blocs of youth, people of color, and the college-educated. That calculus changed in 2016, when Donald Trump shocked the political world […] Read more »

Why the 2020s Could Be as Dangerous as the 1850s

If Joe Biden beats Donald Trump decisively next week, this election may be remembered as a hinge point in American history: the moment when a clear majority of voters acknowledged that there’s no turning back from America’s transformation into a nation of kaleidoscopic diversity, a future that doesn’t rely on […] Read more »

Why the GOP hold on Texas is loosening

The huge surge of early voting in Texas’ rapidly growing cities and inner suburbs likely marks the end of unchallenged Republican dominance in America’s second largest state — a seismic shift in the nation’s electoral landscape. Even if President Donald Trump retains enough rural strength to hold Texas in next […] Read more »

Beaver County, Miami-Dade tight for Trump days before election

As the 2020 campaign nears the final turn, journalists and analysts will be watching some places, like those that seem more likely to swing or hold important demographic groups, more closely than others for clues on how the vote may be unfolding. This week the Data Download takes a deep […] Read more »