Given six choices of a type of place where they could live, 27% of Americans choose a rural area, more than any other option — although this is down from 35% in 2001. Another 21% currently favor life in a suburb of a big city, while 12% would choose a […] Read more »
Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan Aim to Hobble Incoming Democrats
In both Wisconsin and Michigan, Democrats followed a similar formula last month to win the governorship and other key statewide offices: big turnout in urban centers and gains in white-collar suburbs. But in each state, Republican dominance of small-town and rural communities—reinforced by a highly partisan gerrymander of legislative district […] Read more »
Are Rural Voters the ‘Real’ Voters? Wisconsin Republicans Seem to Think So
In much of Wisconsin, “Madison and Milwaukee” are code words (to some, dog whistles) for the parts of the state that are nonwhite, elite, different: The cities are where people don’t have to work hard with their hands, because they’re collecting welfare or public-sector paychecks. That stereotype updates a very […] 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 »
One thing saving California Republicans from annihilation? An earlier wave of misunderstood migrants
With Orange County now blue, the last remaining Republican holdouts in California look pretty similar. Among their shared characteristics? Many were top destinations for Dust Bowl migrants of the 1930s. So-called “Okies” and “Arkies,” sporting once-insulting nicknames that Okies later reclaimed as their own, fled the natural and man-made ecological […] Read more »
In Mississippi Senate Race, the Suburbs Won’t Save Democrat Mike Espy
Democrats swept back control of the U.S. House this month due to dominance in suburban districts. But in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate runoff Tuesday, Republicans have two big advantages. Not only is Mississippi one of the country’s least suburban states, it’s also sharply divided by one of the few factors that […] Read more »