Political Junkie

Two weeks ago, I took a trip to the Swamp for the first time since my internship ended 18 months ago to attend The National Journalism Center’s Alumni Networking Happy Hour . I like it down there, particularly because of the people; a great group of conservatives live there.   It looks like my decision to make the trip has already paid off. In addition to making new friends, I became aware of a great job opportunity in the state of Virginia, where I lived for three months during my internship, that I likely would not have found out about otherwise. Should I end up returning to the Swamp, which I hope happens sooner than later, I would elect to live in Virginia.   After all, living in Washington, D.C. costs a lot of money.  In addition, practically speaking, it makes the most sense for me to live in Virginia if I want my vote in the Presidential election (as well as statewide elections) to make the most difference. If I chose to live in the District of Columbi...

While the Democratic Party’s anxiety about the possibility of losing the 2020 Presidential Election seems like a reaction to its lackluster crop of candidates, their fear may have more to do with the environment that they will have to run in than any dissatisfaction with the batch of candidates vying for the party’s nomination.   The Democrats have a lot to worry about in 2020 but perhaps they fear most of all the possibility that the 2020 Presidential Election will focus on a phrase coined by Bill Clinton in 1992: “the economy, stupid.” Moody’s Analytics recently released a set of models predicting the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election based on economic data. Moody’s Analytics uses three different models to predict the outcome of presidential elections and three different turnout scenarios within those models.   The pocketbook model takes into account gasoline prices and nominal house price growth, the stock market model focuses on the performance of the S...

As a Rhode Islander, it gives my great pride to say that my governor holds the title of “most unpopular governor” in the United States, according to Morning Consult .   Just kidding.   For the past several surveys conducted by Morning Consult, I have found myself sandwiched in between the most unpopular governor in the country, recently departed Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy, and the most popular governor in the country: Massachusetts’ Republican Governor Charlie Baker.   In addition to her title as most unpopular governor in the United States, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo also has another title: Chair of the Democratic Governors’ Association . Each year, the Republican Governors’ Association and the Democratic Governors’ Association select a governor to oversee the gubernatorial elections taking place that year. The heads of the respective organizations work to ensure that their party wins as many gubernatorial races as possible. Raimondo should have ...

Earlier this month, President Trump tweeted out a county-by-county electoral map of the 2016 Presidential Election with the phrase “Try to impeach this” written across the middle of the country.   The map showed a lot of red with pockets of blue in the urban areas, college towns, and/or areas with high minority populations; making the argument that President Trump’s impeachment and removal from office would nullify the will of a massive amount of Americans across the country. However, perhaps unbeknownst to President Trump, the map does not accurately reflect the final county-level results of the 2016 Presidential Election.   I have included maps of both the actual county-level results and the county-level results portrayed in the map tweeted out by President Trump.   It should become quite obvious that the map of the actual county-level results came out much better than the map tweeted out by President Trump.  Not surprisingly, the fact chec...