Late last year a group of first-term House Democrats, anxious over the party’s fractious presidential race, convened a series of discussions intended to spur unity. … That effort was just one in a series of abandoned or ineffective plans to rally the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, and the […] Read more »
Why Some Suburban Women Are Wary of Bernie Sanders
In the Trump era, the suburbs have been Democrats’ surprising superpower. A revolt by college-educated voters, largely women, in suburbs from Virginia Beach to Oklahoma City, from Houston to Southern California, delivered the House majority to Democrats in 2018. Driven by anxiety over guns, health care and the environment, and […] Read more »
How to un-break the primaries
Many people in both major parties have soured on the presidential primary system. … From a historical perspective, the story of presidential primaries has largely been about the rise of voter power and the falling clout of party insiders; both parties still struggle with striking the right balance between those […] Read more »
Voters Who’ll Support Biden — But Not Sanders — Probably Really Do Mean It
… For the last 12 years, I’ve overseen a long-running panel survey of Americans’ political attitudes that sheds light on how their political views have evolved, and one of the questions I’ve consistently asked is who panelists would back in a general election. And as of our most recent survey […] Read more »
Five myths about elections
The way Americans pick their leaders, in high-stakes elections where candidates battle to distinguish themselves from one another, can feel nasty, fierce, aggressive and even desperate. In a democratic republic, that’s exactly as it should be. But the process is also plagued by myths and errors about how the system […] Read more »
Is the African American vote about to fracture or unify?
African Americans have long had a reputation for voting together, serving as a firewall for Democrats in general elections and collectively crowning the eventual nominee in Democratic presidential primaries. But that reputation is a product of party politics and a primary process that gives black voters little say until a […] Read more »