Since 2008, nearly every state moved right in both presidential and state politics

After President George W. Bush won reelection in 2004, there was a rumbling that the Republican Party had permanently broken the back of its opponents. Bush was underwater in his approval rating before the election, and his administration was hobbled by a slew of problems. But he won, convincingly — […] Read more »

A Third of Californians Approve of Trump’s Job Performance

Just a third of Californians approve of the way President Trump is doing his job, according to a statewide survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), with funding from the James Irvine Foundation. … As California leaders consider their responses to Trump’s early action on immigration, […] Read more »

Democrats have no quick fixes in their bid to regain ground lost

… Trump’s presidency has generated anger and energy across the country among those who oppose him and much of his agenda. Trump’s disapproval ratings are higher than for any new president. Republicans in Congress sometimes appear flummoxed, even alarmed, by what Trump says and does. Democrats see all this as […] Read more »

What Happens to the Democratic Party After Obama?

… Through two terms, Obama deepened the Democrats’ connection with a constellation of growing groups, namely minorities, the millennial generation, and college-educated whites, especially women. That coalition allowed him to join the ranks of Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt, the only Democrats to win a presidential popular-vote majority at least […] Read more »

The Case for ‘Normal’ Elections Under a President Donald Trump

What might the next few election cycles look like? There’s a tendency right now to think that the political system in the United States has gone off the rails into some uncharted territory. But there’s good reason to believe that the same rules that have governed it in the past […] Read more »