California Governor Gavin Newsom is confronting the toughest challenge Democrats may face in next year’s midterm election—and guiding his party toward a possible solution as the Republican-driven recall against him enters its final days. One key reason the president’s party historically fares so poorly in midterm elections is that its […] Read more »
The rise of the pro-choice majority
… The central question in the policy debate is not whether abortion is a good or bad choice, but rather who should make that choice — politicians or women, their doctors, and families. Public opinion is clear. A 2019, ABC/Washington Post poll found just 24 percent wanted their state to […] Read more »
Don’t Be So Sure a Supreme Court Backlash Will Boost Democrats
It took about a minute and a half between the Supreme Court’s decision to let a draconian, constitutionally bizarre abortion law take effect and the widespread conclusion that it would prove a boon to Democratic political hopes even as it provoked their moral outrage. … There is plausibility to this […] Read more »
UT/Texas Politics Project poll finds Texans dour and deeply divided
The latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll finds Texans in a dour mood colored by a resurgent COVID-19 virus, an economy recovering yet roiled by its impact, and state politics driven by increasingly entrenched and in many instances extreme partisanship, which is being accentuated by the Republican monopoly on […] Read more »
Texas Republicans Got What They Wanted. They Might Regret It.
… Most American voters have quietly understood for a long time that most politicians who claim to be “pro-life” are hypocrites. These politicians do not really mean what they say, or anyway, they do not really intend to do what they say. You might imagine that this assumption of hypocrisy […] Read more »
Four ways to think about Abbott’s and DeSantis’s 2022 prospects
Even pre-pandemic, Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida were obsessed with “own the libs” moves that at times broke with core democratic values, mostly notably DeSantis’s efforts to make it harder for felons to regain their voting rights. But covid-19 has shown the serious danger […] Read more »