As the field of Democratic candidates has grown, the list of theories about how to beat Trump has grown even larger. Some people seem to want a candidate who can be as rude and mean to Trump as Trump is to just about everyone but Ivanka. Others think it’s time […] Read more »
Where Do Voters Get Their Ideas About Electability?
… Democratic voters have largely accepted the argument that Trump is a unique menace to the nation whose electoral career has benefited from the existence of racist and sexist attitudes in the public. And many have drawn a natural inference from this premise: the Democratic Party should maximize its chances […] Read more »
There’s No Good Way to Determine Electability Other Than Holding Elections
There’s been a ton of talk lately about the “electability” of the various candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential field. Pundits have weighed in on who’s electable, who isn’t, and why this is a difficult concept to examine. Others have argued the concept itself is basically a dodge, an attempt […] Read more »
Red, Green, and Blue: The Partisan Divide on Environmental Issues
This Element explores the growing party divisions on the environment in the United States. It draws upon quantitative and qualitative data from several decades of national and state politics. The study contributes theory to the party position change literature, showing that interest groups change parties, but in turn are changed […] Read more »
Assessing electability: Like nailing Jell-O to a wall
We’re not exactly sure when the awkward word “electability” really entered the national lexicon, but the concept — voters and party bigwigs making a pre-election assessment about who is likeliest to win — is surely as old as democracy itself. CONT. Kyle Kondik, Sabato’s Crystal Ball Read more »
The Democrats Are Still the Party of Obama, Part 2 (Joe Biden Edition)
After the 2018 midterm elections, much of the national media suffered from a collective misunderstanding of the Democratic Party. Multiple news stories described a party that was moving sharply to the left under the newfound leadership of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow Democratic Socialists. But Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t very representative of […] Read more »