There’s something of a consensus forming that the “easiest” or least risky electoral path for the Democratic nominee in 2020 is to reconstruct the so-called “Blue Wall” in the industrial midwest. If the Democratic nominee wins every state Hillary Clinton carried in 2016, plus Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, that Democrat […] Read more »
Unlearning the Lessons of ‘Hillbilly Elegy’
J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy has been on The New York Times’ bestseller list for nearly two years, and deservedly, given how improbable the author’s odyssey has been. … The book is powerfully written and poignant—and for a year, I decided to give J.D. Vance a pass. It is important his […] Read more »
Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan Aim to Hobble Incoming Democrats
In both Wisconsin and Michigan, Democrats followed a similar formula last month to win the governorship and other key statewide offices: big turnout in urban centers and gains in white-collar suburbs. But in each state, Republican dominance of small-town and rural communities—reinforced by a highly partisan gerrymander of legislative district […] Read more »
In Trump country, Republican candidates this year fall flat
… A number of Republicans running for governor or senator in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, including several who hitched their wagon to Trump’s political movement, are behind in polls by double digits, a remarkable turnabout in swing states that were key to the president’s 2016 victory. … The dramatic […] Read more »
Conflicted Catholic Conservative Republicans
One-fifth of Republicans are conservative or observant Catholics and look like the history of industrialized America that took pro-life, socially conservative, patriotic Catholics into the Republican Party, particularly in the Midwest and Northeast. That is why we conducted one of our focus groups for the Trump-GOP project among Catholic conservative […] Read more »
Midterm Poll-iferation
Rack ‘em up! The Marist Poll and battleground state polling partner NBC News have completed a dozen state polls since the beginning of the summer. On tap this week – Missouri, Indiana, and Tennessee. On this week’s episode of Poll Hub, the team takes a close look at the dynamics […] Read more »