Stands on social issues tear at the two main conservative bases

The ideological rifts breaking apart the Republican Party have moved into the states, where business leaders and evangelicals who have long coexisted in the GOP are suddenly at war over social issues such as gay rights and religious freedom. … Rather than unifying around a message and strategy to win […] Read more »

Donald Trump leads in California primary race but threatens a GOP fracture

Riding a rebellion fueled by opposition to illegal immigration and pessimism about the nation’s future, Donald Trump leads a scrambling duo of competitors less than three months before California’s Republican presidential primary, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times statewide poll has found. CONT. Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times Read more »

Past Terrorist Attacks Helped Trump Capitalize On Anti-Muslim Sentiment

Before President Obama made a statement on the terrorist attacks in Brussels today, presidential contender Donald Trump had already weighed in: first on Twitter and then on Fox News and NBC, which interviewed him by phone. Trump would “close up our borders” in response to Brussels, he said in the […] Read more »

Muslims, Protestants and Jews share common concerns in 2016 election

This election season, Muslims face a slate of Republican candidates who demand curbs on immigration and compete over how tough they’d be on Islamic terrorism, if elected. But a new survey finds U.S. Muslims are looking at American society and its future much the same as their non-Muslim neighbors. Like […] Read more »

Exit polls and the evangelical vote: A closer look

As Donald Trump has racked up big wins among self-described “born-again or evangelical” Christians in many of the early primaries and caucuses, some religious leaders, political analysts and researchers have questioned whether many of these self-described evangelicals actually are evangelical Christians. … While it is impossible to know for sure […] Read more »