When it comes to choosing a party’s candidate in the voting booth, one pattern in modern American politics is so familiar it has become a truism: the rich vote Republican, the poor vote Democratic. And while the reality of the situation is much more nuanced, in broad strokes it has […] Read more »
A Closer Look at the Colorado Senate Race
Colorado was the state that got away from Republicans in 2010 when Michael Bennet, the Democrat, won a come-from-behind victory. Yet if any Republican Senate win in 2014 was symbolic of the completeness of that party’s victory on Nov. 4, it was Cory Gardner’s in Colorado. CONT. Nate Cohn, New […] Read more »
People who participate ‘beyond voting’ are different
… Voting has been stable or has declined in the past few decades, but there are new opportunities for participation beyond the vote. Not only petitioning and protesting, but new forms of involvement via social media have allowed citizens to become more politically active. In a recent study, we looked […] Read more »
Why white evangelicals rule the midterms
… Many outsiders assume that evangelical mobilization is a rather top-down affair: pastors and national elites tell evangelicals to get out and vote for conservatives. But I discovered that a much broader set of volunteer or “lay” religious leaders play a key role in weaving politics into local religious life. […] Read more »
Would A ‘Top-2’ Primary Election Help Reduce Gridlock?
Some ideas offered to curb the partisan gridlock that envelops Congress involve changing how voters select the candidates who appear on the November general-election ballots. One proposal is to eliminate separate party primaries–registered Democrats voting for Democrats, and registered Republicans voting for Republicans—and adopt a so-called “Top-2” primary, under which […] Read more »
On Points: Turnout 2014
The votes have been counted in the 2014 elections and the results revealed there were fewer to count than many had expected. In fact, the proportion of Americans legally eligible to cast ballots in this most recent election was the lowest in more than seven decades. Every fall of an […] Read more »