The biggest miss for our baseline model of congressional election outcomes is 1948, when Democrats roared back from losing control in the midterm. It is popularly remembered that Truman campaigned against a do-nothing congress. Taft-Hartley and Farm subsidy changes were also unpopular. What were the salient Rep stances that congress? Any other explanations for Dem overperformance?
the average candidate is much older than the average citizen & young candidates perform less well than older candidates in both primaries and general elections; average House member is 20 years older than average American
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026137942200110XPartisan polarization on education policy issues has increased as partisans have increasingly adopted their party's views
https://edworkingpapers.org/sites/default/files/ai22-690.pdfacross 1,953 colleges & universities, Republican student groups are nearly as common as Democratic student groups. Both tend to be located at larger, wealthier, public schools that offer political science majors
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/socf.12864?casa_token=eraJplExfnsAAAAA%3AKrwKgdwN8iT3yMz9VI-uCgDXIXnqpnvwi9oJ9MBybsqYD1_EMWB81frHHX3ThXy2C_N1cO1FAhEmNgRepublicans made gains in House races across the country, continuing to improve in areas with more non-white voters & more culturally conservative voters, but suffered in swing races, especially when running MAGA candidates against moderate Democrats
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/upshot/2022-republicans-midterms-analysis.html
2022 Review: How Republicans Lost Despite Winning the Popular Vote
There were several reasons Republicans struggled to translate votes into seats, including candidate quality and strength in the wrong places.
But conviction / naïveté that campus & academic association politics were key sites of contestation was much stronger then. Contemporary free speech debates also seem surprisingly tame in comparison. There's also been moderation / consensus on research methods & ties to politics
Enjoyed "The Lost Promise" on 60s campus radicalism & its legacy. Points to role of temporarily expanding academic job market & confluence of student protest with academics seeking to reshape social science & humanities disciplines.
https://www.hookedlansing.com/book/9780226200859How party leaders change Congress Where will new House leaders bring Democrats? How will the Speaker fight imperil House Republicans? How did Pelosi's tenure compare to Gingrich?
New Niskanen Center #ScienceOfPolitics podcast/transcript with Matthew Green
https://www.niskanencenter.org/how-party-leaders-change-congress/

How party leaders change Congress - Niskanen Center
Democrats and Republicans are electing new leaders for their parties in the U.S. House and Senate as a new era begins with the replacement of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. How much did Pelosi change Congress? How are new leaders likely to corral their factions and set a new tone?
Niskanen Center
Political Scientists Involved in Redistricting
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Political Scientist,States Where Involved,Type of Involvement,Links to Articles or Activity
Google Docs