… Across the country, immigrant-rights advocates report mounting disillusionment with both parties among Latinos, enough to threaten recent gains in voting participation that have reshaped politics to Democrats’ advantage nationally, and in states like Colorado with significant Latino populations. High hopes — kindled by President Obama’s elections and stoked in […] Read more »
Is the GOP backpedaling on the ‘GOP’?
A year ago this month, the Republican National Committee released its post-2012 election political autopsy report: the “Growth & Opportunity Project.” The “GOP”—a quite clever acronym, indeed—was the national party’s response to critics, both internal and external, about what ailed the party and what it could do to cure itself. […] Read more »
What Arizona Can Tell Us About the Fault Lines in American Politics
Arizona hasn’t produced many competitive elections lately, but it retains a knack for crystallizing the most volatile fault lines in American politics. In 2010, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer’s signing of the stringent anti-immigration measure known as SB 1070 dramatized the colliding worldviews of a Democratic coalition centered on younger minorities […] Read more »
California Democrats Worry About Voter Turnout as They Gather for Convention
You’d be hard pressed to find a state deeper blue than California. Democrats dominate statewide politics, Jerry Brown seems headed for an easy re-election, and Republicans have had a tough time fielding credible statewide candidates. Yet, as Democrats gather in Los Angeles this weekend for their annual party convention, there […] Read more »
Why Texas Could Flip Quickly From Red to Blue
For students of politics and demographics, Texas has the look of a state in transition. The Lone Star State is a Republican Party stronghold, and also is home to a growing number of Hispanics, who tend to vote Democratic, as 2012 showed. Despite Texas’ large Hispanic population, GOP presidential candidate […] Read more »
For Republicans, a Hard Line on Immigration Comes at a Cost
… “They keep coming,” began a 1994 TV ad for Gov. Pete Wilson of California, a Republican, showing illegal immigrants running across the Mexican border as the governor he pledged to deny them state services. It helped galvanize white voters for the embattled Mr. Wilson, who won re-election. But his […] Read more »