As we enter a two-year presidential cycle, the parties stand at very different places. Republicans appear unified behind President Donald Trump, while Democrats are about to begin a contest for a 2020 nominee that will inevitably degenerate into Democrats attacking Democrats. But while the GOP is unified, the party just […] Read more »
Trump to the rescue? Presidential campaigning and the 2018 U.S. Senate elections
“If I didn’t do those stops we would definitely not have control of the Senate. It would be a question, so what are we up, three? Two or three. We would be down five or six or seven. And they know that. Nobody has ever had a greater impact.” — President […] Read more »
How George H.W. Bush enabled the rise of the religious right
Following Wednesday’s state funeral for George H.W. Bush at Washington National Cathedral, the former president’s casket will be flown to Houston where a memorial service will be held at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church the following day. Unlike his son George W. Bush, the elder Bush, a lifelong Episcopalian, was less […] Read more »
North Carolina Republicans Targeted Voter Fraud. Did They Look at the Wrong Kind?
It was a triumphant moment for North Carolina Republicans in 2013 when they enacted one of the nation’s most aggressive voter-identification laws. The measure would combat voter fraud, they argued — though, as federal courts later ruled, it would almost certainly reduce African-American Democratic turnout. At the same time, the […] Read more »
2018 Midterms: A Missed Opportunity for Republicans
We’ve assessed the 2018 campaign that began and ended with the fight for the election narrative. Our conclusion: This was not a base election. Independents decided the outcome, breaking for Democrats by 12 points. It was a missed opportunity. By “we” I mean the Winston Group, which on Tuesday released […] Read more »
The 200 Districts That Withstood The Blue Wave — And What They Have In Common
We’ve spilled plenty of digital ink on where Democrats made gains in the House, so now we are going to look more closely at the 200 seats the Republicans won. And we’ll use how a district voted for President Trump in 2016 in addition to a district’s population density as […] Read more »