Posts by Melissa Amarawardana
Biden can’t avoid a precarious balancing act. His voter base requires it.
David Lauter | July 2, 2021 The past week of posturing over the infrastructure deal that the White House negotiated with a bipartisan group of senators illustrates the difficult balancing act that has defined President Biden‘s tenure: Placate centrists and risk alienating progressives; nod to the left and risk attack from Republicans. So far, Biden has navigated the tightrope…
Read MoreThe Most Complete Picture Yet of America’s Changing Electorate
Republicans and Democrats have amassed divergent coalitions that will make coming elections especially competitive—and bitter. Ronald Brownstein | July 1, 2021 Can big data explain the passion and vitriol of American politics? Like almost everything else in modern life, the choices are multiplying for analysts looking to understand how the key groups in American society divide…
Read MoreBiden Gained With Moderate and Conservative Voting Groups, New Data Shows
President Biden cut into Donald Trump’s margins with married men and veteran households, a Pew survey shows. But there was a far deeper well of support for Mr. Trump than many progressives had imagined. Nate Cohn | June 30, 2021 Married men and veteran households were probably not the demographic groups that Democrats assumed would…
Read MoreProgressives’ Urgent Question: How to Win Over Voters of Color
A years long challenge for the left was starkly illustrated this week as its hopes faded in the New York mayor’s race. Lisa Lerer | June 26, 2021 Can progressives win broad numbers of the Black and brown voters they say their policies will benefit most? That provocative question is one that a lot of…
Read MoreHow Democrats can defy history in 2022
Ronald Brownstein | June 22, 2021 The huge voter turnout over the past three elections could scramble the usual dynamics of midterm voting — potentially providing Democrats their best chance to avoid losses next year that could cost them control of the House, the Senate or both. The president’s party has almost always lost ground in the…
Read MoreSchmidt: The rest of us can learn from couples coping with political, faith, racial differences
Lynn Schmidt | June 15, 2021 My father was the son of Polish immigrants. He was a Roman Catholic. My mother was the daughter of Solvak immigrants. She was a Byzantine Catholic. He grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey. She grew up in South Philadelphia. They were told, by my paternal grandparents, that they…
Read MoreOut-of-Touch Media Elites Are Ignoring Working-Class Biden Voters
Eric Levitz | June 15, 2021 In the primary’s early days, the media treated him like an afterthought. At cocktail parties in Martha’s Vineyard and happy hours in the East Village, economic and cultural elites agreed that the candidate was more of a has-been — or a punch line — than a serious contender for the presidency. After…
Read MoreBiden is getting a big bounce with Hispanics
Harry Enten | May 29, 2021 Hispanic voters were one of President Joe Biden’s biggest weaknesses in the 2020 election. Although sources differ on his exact margin, Biden’s advantage with Hispanics was the worst for a Democratic presidential nominee since 2004 — even as he had the strongest performance overall for a Democrat since 2008. A look…
Read MoreDon’t Sleep on Asian American Voters
The bloc’s power is growing fast. That could be bad news for the GOP. RONALD BROWNSTEIN | May 20, 2021 When Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and other prominent Democrats appeared online at a major fundraiser last night, they spotlighted one of the least discussed lessons of the 2020 election: Asian Americans are poised for a…
Read MoreThe 2020 Election Was a Breakthrough Moment For Young Voters
Charlotte Alter | May 18, 2021 You probably don’t think of 2020 as a generational change election. It resulted in the presidency of Joe Biden, the oldest man ever to take the oath of office. The dramatic week of vote counting, and the subsequent attempts by a sitting President of the United States to subvert…
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