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Roll Call: Unhappy Independents Will Decide This Election
The rising power of independents has been trending in national politics for decades, writes The Winston Group’s David Winston in today’s column for Roll Call. Independents now wield indisputable clout. And they aren’t happy. In the most recent Winning the Issues survey (May 30-June 2), 71 percent of independents said the country, overall, was seriously off on the wrong track. Their take on the economy was equally grim, with 72 percent saying the economy was
Latest Posts
Who Are Independents?
Roll Call: An autopsy of the DNC campaign autopsy
Five Proposals For The Early Childhood Years
Policy and Politics
Who Are Independents?
We talk about independent voters on a frequent basis, and one of the questions we get most often is about understanding who independents are. In recent elections, there have seen sizable increases in voters identifying as independent rather than as Republicans or Democrats. In the 2024 election, independents surpassed Democrats
Texas Senate Tip Sheet: What Will It Take For Republicans To Hold?
With Ken Paxton’s victory in the Texas GOP runoff, this week we look at the vote history in the state and what it will take for Republicans to hold this Senate seat. The chart below shows exit poll data from past elections going back to 2016. Vote History • Republicans
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
Inflation Creeps Back Up: What Republicans Should Expect
In the last CPI report released last week, year-over-year inflation ticked up to 3.8% — the highest CPI of President Trump’s term. This is the highest CPI since May 2023, meaning that it is higher than when President Biden left office (3%). We have been tracking the cumulative effect of
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
Education Next: The Yale Report and the Value of the Liberal Arts
The Winston Group’s David Winston and Caitlin Peartree are out with a new essay at Education Next. In this piece, they consider the recent report on trust in higher education from Yale University and the importance of the kind of broad-based, liberal arts education an institution like Yale provides. A
Five Proposals For The Early Childhood Years
In the larger conversation about student achievement and outcomes, one important element is the experience of students before they ever enter a classroom. The early childhood years are a crucial window for brain development and other important skills. Research conducted by The Winston Group on behalf of the Clapham Group
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
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