How extremist conspiracy theories about immigration and demographic change can fuel violence

The recent series of shootings and attempted bombings across the globe show how fears about racial and ethnic change can motivate violence. In El Paso, a gunman killed twenty-two and injured twenty-four others. He appears to have been motivated by the belief that there is an active plot to exterminate […] Read more »

The power of Texas in presidential politics

Latinos attract less attention than they otherwise merit in American politics because almost half of Latinos live in the two biggest states, neither of which is a presidential swing state: comfortably blue California and reliably red Texas. In the first half of this third, two-part post in my series about […] Read more »

Six maps that reveal America’s expanding racial diversity

In less than one year, the 2020 census will record just how much more racially diverse the nation has become, continuing the “diversity explosion” that punctuated the results of the 2010 census. While less authoritative than the once-a-decade national headcount, recently released U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2018 make plain […] Read more »

Texas Is Changing—Quickly

… The fundamental force that has shaken the GOP’s hold on Texas is that for the first time in decades, voters there are behaving in patterns familiar from other states. Democrats are showing gains in the state’s diverse, well-educated metropolitan areas, even as Republicans retain a crushing lead in small-town, […] Read more »