… The mounting backlash to President Trump that is threatening his party’s control of Congress is no longer confined just to swing districts on either coast. Officials in both parties believe that Republican control of the House is now in grave jeopardy because a group of districts that are historically […] Read more »
Passing the GOP tax bill is hard. Selling it to voters may be harder.
For Democrats, the $1.5 trillion Republican tax bill is the legislative embodiment of everything that’s wrong with Donald Trump: a faux-populist, debt-financed, me-first bill that benefits the wealthy at the expense of everyday taxpayers. Democrats think it will contribute to an anti-Trump backlash in next year’s midterm elections. And there’s […] Read more »
Inside the Alabama election, a lesson for the GOP in 2018
By most any political estimation, last week’s Alabama special Senate election was an outlier. Democrats generally don’t win statewide races in Alabama and Doug Jones likely wouldn’t have if a series of child molestation stories hadn’t surfaced about Republican candidate Roy Moore. But tallies out of Alabama’s biggest vote-producing counties […] Read more »
Democrats hold biggest lead in congressional preference since 2008
Fresh off their victory in Alabama’s special Senate election, Democrats now enjoy their largest advantage in congressional preference in nine years, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, signaling a dangerous political environment for Republicans entering next year’s midterm elections. Fifty percent of registered voters say they prefer […] Read more »
Don’t Let the Parties Off the Hook
… When the parties are functioning properly, they limit ballot access to fit candidates who are of good character and generally reflect the views of a significant chunk of the electorate. This is what makes parties essential to a well-functioning democracy, for it is only when voters have good candidates […] Read more »
Party Hoppers: Understanding Voters Who Switched Partisan Affiliation
Partisan affiliation is one of the most stable features of the modern American electorate. While individuals’ feelings toward politicians or their attitudes about policy can change quickly, partisanship is a deep-seated identity resistant to change. Within the last five years, however, we have observed a significant amount of partisan switching […] Read more »