Making Ideas Matter.
The Winston Group’s David Winston writes in today’s Roll Call about Joe Biden’s recent win in South Carolina and its implications going into Super Tuesday.
South Carolina was the first big inflection point of the primary season. It won’t be the last. Each of the top campaigns went into Super Tuesday with an advantage. For Mike Bloomberg, it was money. For Sanders, it was organization. For Biden, it was momentum.
Read the full piece here.
The Winston Group’s David Winston writes in today’s Roll Call about the divisions within the Democratic party and 2020:
If the primaries have shown us anything to date it is that the ideological divide within the Democratic Party, embodied by Pelosi’s strained relationship with AOC, is far from a temporary fluke. The party’s shift to the left is real and should not be underestimated.
Read the full piece here.
The Winston Group’s David Winston writes in today’s Roll Call about the economy and the Democratic Presidential Primary:
“By the time this column is published, New Hampshire will be over. But regardless of who wins the Granite State, or the nomination for that matter, every Democratic candidate has already embraced and is now saddled with an economic message that contradicts the general view of a majority of the electorate.”
Read the full piece here.
The Winston Group’s David Winston writes in today’s Roll Call about how, through impeachment, Democrats risk undermining voters’ faith in American democracy.
Critics who question the validity of an election without proof ought first to consider the harm an unsubstantiated claim might have on our democratic elections and the faith Americans have placed in them for almost 250 years. This is something both Democrats and Republicans have warned about in the past.
Read the full piece here.
In anticipation of our forthcoming 2020 Democratic Primary debate report, here are the Winston Group analyses of the 2016 primary and general election debates. Take a look, and keep an eye out here for our next report where we will analyze the current Democratic primary debates in anticipation of the 2020 general election.
The Winston Group’s David Winston writes in today’s Roll Call about whether Democrats have succeeded in convincing voters of the necessity of impeachment:
These numbers don’t mean the electorate’s concerns over the impeachment allegations have disappeared. But with the election just over nine months away, Democrats’ argument for it is steadily losing standing with voters at exactly the wrong time for them.
Read the full piece here.
The Winston Group’s David Winston writes in today’s Roll Call about some of the positives of the last month, despite the impeachment process in the background.
In fact, in contrast to the Democrats’ overwrought warnings, the world continued to turn, the sun came up every morning, and more than a few positives have characterized the last 28 days.
Read the full piece here.
Happy New Year! In his first column of 2020, the Winston Group’s David Winston writes about the Democratic Party’s progressive tilt and the need for both Democrats and Republicans to focus on building majority coalitions for the next elections:
Here’s what AOC and her like-minded progressives don’t seem to understand: That kind of rigid thinking doesn’t build winning coalitions. It’s what loses elections. A fact Republicans ought to remember as well.
Read the full piece here.
The 2018 midterm elections, for Republicans, is a story of missed opportunity. Holding the House was a tall order with history against the GOP as the party in power and the large number of Republican retirements But a path to preserving their House majority, even if a difficult one, did exist if the election became all about the economy. It didn’t.
This post-election analysis, based on exit poll data from the National Election Pool, done by Edison Research, and the Winston Group’s Winning the Issues post-election survey, done Election Night, assesses the 2018 campaign that began and ended with the fight for the election narrative.
There is no question that money was a significant disadvantage for Republicans in this election, but this report outlines the opportunities that existed which could have led to a much better result for them, especially in terms of what the electorate heard from both Republicans and Democrats. This report also shows that the election outcome was not the result of an ideological or party identification realignment, but instead a shift in vote preferences. This means that Republicans still have an opportunity to rebuild their majority coalition for 2020.
Read the full analysis here.
The WG’s David Winston discusses how Republicans can sell the tax reform plan after passage:
The 2017 Republican tax cuts will soon become law, but the debate over the GOP’s economic plan to jump-start a growth economy is just beginning. As often happens with tax cut proposals, it can be a tough sell initially for reasons beyond usual voter skepticism.