What Happened to Mountain Republicans in the South?

Even when Democrats dominated the so-called Solid South, the GOP showed strength in mountain areas of the region. Northwestern Arkansas, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and western Virginia all had substantial Republican sympathies. But now that the national Republican Party has transitioned from the Party of Lincoln to the party […] Read more »

Among White Americans, Limits to Empathy for Poverty-Related Issues Run Along Class Lines

A survey released today by PRRI finds that white Americans’ support for policies to address poverty is limited in different ways by education level—by perceived social distance to racial minorities among non-college-educated whites and by lower commitments to equal opportunity among college-educated whites. The survey was conducted by PRRI, a […] Read more »

Differences, in black and white: Rural Americans’ views often set apart by race

… A new nationwide Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted this spring finds that although rural Americans are more likely to see their communities as neighborly, safer and having better public schools than people in large cities, those opinions come with wide racial disparities. Black rural Americans — most of […] Read more »

How race and identity became the central dividing line in American politics

In 2016, race and identity has emerged as the central dividing line in American politics. Though race has always lived close to the surface of politics in the US, it has rarely been so explicitly front and center in political campaigns. So how did this happen? The easy answer is […] Read more »

How Republican candidates can survive the Trump Train wreck

Republicans running for election this year have watched the wheels coming off the Trump Train with increasing alarm. How can Republican candidates in down-ballot races survive such a calamitous nominee at the top of their ticket? To win, Republican candidates need the votes of Trump Republicans and Never Trump Republicans, […] Read more »

Will Trump’s anti-Latino statements hurt the GOP?

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently worried publicly that Donald Trump’s attacks on Latinos could damage the Republican Party, saying that when the 1964 presidential nominee, Sen. Barry Goldwater, voted against the Civil Rights Act, it “did define our party, for at least African American voters, and it still does […] Read more »