Republicans broadly share a belief in smaller government, but they are sharply divided over issues including perceptions of Wall Street, the power of big corporations, the value of immigration and free trade, according to a new study of the contours of the American electorate. The findings provide timely insight into […] Read more »
Republicans: ‘Thank God for Mississippi!’
… Mississippi, a state often ignored by the national political world, managed to do something rarely seen in politics: Produce two upsets in the same race in a three-week span. And it bucked a trend of generally pathetic turnout in primaries nationwide to produce the second and then first-largest primary […] Read more »
Big Jump in Turnout Is Key in Thad Cochran’s Victory
Turnout hadn’t increased in a Senate runoff primary election in 30 years until Tuesday night, when a momentous surge of voters allowed Senator Thad Cochran to defeat Chris McDaniel, a Tea Party-backed state senator, in Mississippi’s Republican Senate runoff. … The Cochran campaign’s efforts to appeal to Democratic-leaning black voters […] Read more »
Support Is Thin for Tea Party, but It Retains Its Muscle
An upstart challenger wrestles a Republican primary victory from the House majority leader Eric Cantor. Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi faces a vigorous challenge for his seat in a runoff election Tuesday. The pressure on established candidates has many people asking: Is the Tea Party having another moment? A new […] Read more »
Many Republicans see tea party challenges as good for GOP
… About half of self-identified Republicans (47 percent) think tea party candidates running to unseat Republicans in Congress is a good thing for their party, but more than a third (35 percent) think it’s a bad thing. The percentage who view these challenges positively rises to 77 percent among Republicans […] Read more »
What We Can Learn From Eric Cantor’s Defeat
… In truth, when an election result hits “10 on the political Richter scale” of shock value, there usually isn’t just one reason for the outcome, but lots of them acting in concert. While surveying the wreckage, Cantor adviser John Murray acknowledged his boss’s loss amounted to “death by a […] Read more »