State and local governments have a huge influence on citizens’ daily lives. They spend people’s tax dollars. They decide how schools operate and what constitutes a crime. And yet, few people seem to care these days. State and local elections aren’t drawing the interest from voters or the media that […] Read more »
Sometimes The Parties Do Decide, After All
In the wake of the 2016 presidential nomination process, it became fashionable to talk about the declining influence of the two major U.S. political parties on their voters. That’s for pretty good reason. The Republican nomination of Donald Trump, despite his tepid support from Republican elected officials and his frequent […] Read more »
The divided public heart
What drives political change – culture or economics? The surge of the Right in the United States and Europe in the past two years has renewed debate on this important question. On one side, the cultural determinists attribute Donald Trump, Brexit and the rise of European populist movements to nativism, […] Read more »
A Midterm Environment Is Beginning to Take Shape, but Beware the Late Decider
It’s June, five months out from the fall elections, and the midterm speculation has gone from a simmer to a slow boil. Over the past year, thanks to an expanding body of survey research, the political conventional wisdom has evolved from wishful thinking (the blue wave is inevitable) to educated […] Read more »
FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast: A Primary Night For Both Parties To Be Happy About
Establishment-backed candidates did well in primaries across the country on Tuesday, and there was good news for Democrats: The party will not be shut out of any House races in California. The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast team gathered to react to Tuesday’s results and discuss whether there are trends among the […] Read more »
Can Democrats Press Their Home-Court Advantage?
Over the past quarter century, the unmistakable trend in American elections is toward greater alignment between the way states vote for president and the delegations they send to Congress. After Democrats’ strong night in Tuesday’s primaries, the November midterms increasingly look like a test of which party can better defend […] Read more »