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Roll Call: Louisiana case is the latest chapter in redistricting war
In his second column on redistricting for Roll Call, The Winston Group’s David Winston discusses the recent Supreme Court case on redistricting in Louisiana. He provides context for understanding the case by using the example of redistricting after the 1990 elections, and considers the impact of the decision on future redistricting efforts. If and how the Callais decision gets translated into the immediate redrawing of congressional districts in individual states is the big variable going
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Policy and Politics
The Missing DNC Campaign Autopsy
DNC Chair Ken Martin is taking heat from fellow Democrats for refusing to release the 2024 campaign autopsy. On a recent episode of Pod Save America, host Jon Favreau confronted Martin about the report. Martin said, “I don’t have a time machine…we can’t change what happened in ’24. The only thing
Senate Re-Election Survivors And Presidential Job Approval
Presidential job approval is always a key factor in a midterm, posing challenging headwinds to candidates from the president’s party. As polls show President Trump’s job approval is becoming more challenging, there are concerns the Senate is in play more than initially expected. However, Senate race history shows that presidential
Tuesday’s “Narrow Victory” In Virginia Is A Wakeup Call For Democrats
Tuesday’s redistricting election in Virginia was a win for Democrats, but the outcome was close. Since last November’s Democratic wins for governor and in the state legislature, the state’s progressives are feeling emboldened, but it wasn’t long ago that they had an unpleasant surprise with Terry McAuliffe’s 2021 defeat by
Progress On The Economy
One of the key questions going into the midterm election will be this: have Republicans made progress on the economy? Since November of last year, we have seen the direction of economy improve slightly from 31-58 to 36-51 in January. This is still a negative view, but going in the
Are Republicans Turning The Corner On The Economy?
The newest BLS numbers for inflation and weekly wages (from December) showed that November’s positive numbers were sustained. This change has largely been as a result of decreased gas prices, and has only emerged in the last two BLS monthly reports. As seen in our most recent survey for Winning
Republicans Are Betting On A Great Economy In 2026. Is That Enough?
Republicans are facing a challenging midterm environment, but they are banking on the economy improving and larger tax refunds coming in 2026. Democrats think that they don’t have to win on the economy, but only need to be competitive on the issue. Third Way’s EVP of public affairs, Matt Bennett, told
The Great Homework Debate
For many adults, homework may conjure memories of endless rows of math problems, perhaps multiplication or long division, and the prospect of a long night at the kitchen table. Or a worksheet of vocabulary terms or history concepts. Data, however, suggest that practices around homework may be changing for some schools
One Reason For Declining Public Trust In Higher Education
Last week, Inside Higher Ed released its 2026 Survey of College and University Presidents. According to their findings, just 16% of presidents say institutions have been moderately, very, or extremely effective in responding to the public’s declining confidence in higher education. Nearly one in two, 47%, say they haven’t been effective at
Do Voters Believe 40% of Fourth Graders Are Below Basic In Reading?
Our last newsletter asked the question: where is the political will to address the clear challenges we are facing in education? We speculated that voters might see the problem as so challenging, they don’t know how we would begin to solve it. Or, they may not be aware of the
Roll Call: The voters’ voice: Gerrymandering and the state of democracy
In the first of two columns for Roll Call, the Winston Group’s David Winston discusses the current state of redistricting (and gerrymandering), and the challenge of ensuring the central role of voters’ voices by producing maps that honestly reflect the electorate’s public will. Over the past decades, gerrymandering by both parties
Roll Call: Blue Wave? Or Red Save?
The Winston Group’s David Winston writes in today’s Roll Call about the difficulty of predicting wave elections for either party. Yes, we’ve seen a string of GOP losses in special elections, with the media contrasting the winning percentages against President Donald Trump’s performance in 2024. But political waves are more
Roll Call: Artemis II: Back to the Future
The Winston Group’s David Winston writes in today’s Roll Call about the Artemis II and the unifying optimism of its historic lunar fly-by mission. Given the nation’s current political and ideological division (Real Clear Politics average right track/wrong track is at 34 percent/59 percent), it’s been hard to imagine what