Category Archives: political parties

Resurfacing–Mississippi and LA organizing stories

October 21, 2023, 2:12 pmcampaigns, political parties, Uncategorizedgovernance, Political OrganizingTabatha Abu El-Haj

The 24-hour news cycle is brutal even on the Election Law Blog, so I want to use the relative quiet of the weekend to re-surface those articles that I “highly recommend”–to borrow Larry Solum’s phrase. “Black Voters Have New Power … Continue reading

House hobbled. Can we call it a crisis of governance yet? And is the Republican Party really a party anymore?

October 20, 2023, 12:27 pmpolitical parties, political polarizationHouse SpeakershipTabatha Abu El-Haj

“House Republicans vote to drop Jim Jordan as speaker nominee.” And to be frank, we should be glad of that. As Representative Pete Aguilar said on Tuesday, elevating Jim Jordan, “a vocal election denier and an insurrection insider… Continue reading

“Third Party Candidates Shouldn’t Get Their Hopes Up”

October 18, 2023, 4:10 amballot access, political parties, third partiesTabatha Abu El-Haj

Andy Craig offers a thorough explanation of why a random third party run is unlikely to be successful, even if the candidate has name recognition and some popularity. Think Joe Manchin or Larry Hogan. Craig could have gone further: It… Continue reading

“Jordan falls short of speakership on first vote”

October 17, 2023, 12:20 pmpolitical parties, political polarizationgovernance, House RepublicansTabatha Abu El-Haj

Washington Post and pretty much everyone else is reporting that Representative Jordan received 200 votes in the first round, well short of the 217 he needs. (Democrat Jeffries received 212). The drama will continue.

Voters “get talked to, but not talked with.”

October 17, 2023, 4:59 ampolitical parties, redistrictingelection timing, party politics, voter turnoutTabatha Abu El-Haj

The newest episode of Our Body Politic also has an excellent interview with Los Angeles City Council Member Nithya Raman about politics in Los Angeles. Raman describes, among other things, a kind of retail, door-to-door politics that involves both listening… Continue reading

“Trump Could Clinch the Nomination Before the G.O.P. Knows if He’s a Felon”

August 31, 2023, 7:06 amelection subversion risk, political partiesRick Hasen

NYT: By the time Donald J. Trump is sitting at his federal trial on charges of criminally conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, he may have already secured enough delegates to effectively clinch the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination. The… Continue reading

“The False Promise of Party-Centric Reform”

August 30, 2023, 6:49 amalternative voting systems, political partiesRick Hasen

Seamus Allen: But what change to pursue? For the vast majority of the public, the end goal is clear: we want a democracy that provides representation for all. To accomplish that, the US needs to adopt some form of proportional… Continue reading

“How Trump’s Election Lies Left the Michigan G.O.P. Broken and Battered”

August 29, 2023, 6:59 amfraudulent fraud squad, political partiesRick Hasen

NYT: The Michigan Republican Party is starving for cash. A group of prominent activists — including a former statewide candidate — was hit this month with felony charges connected to a bizarre plot to hijack election machines. And in the… Continue reading

“How Trump is rewriting the GOP’s rules to win in 2024”

August 4, 2023, 8:06 ampolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

Politico: “Trump’s team has worked behind the scenes to ensure delegate selection rules play to their favor — or, in their rivals’ telling, to ‘rig’ the system.”

APSA and Protect Democracy Report on Political Parties

July 12, 2023, 3:55 ampolitical partiesDan Tokaji

APSA and Protect Democracy have issued a new report entitled “More than Red and Blue: Political Parties and American Democracy.” From the press release: A new report released today by the American Political Science Association (APSA) and Protect Democracy… Continue reading

“Iowa GOP sets Jan. 15 for first-in-the-nation caucus, starting 2024 race”

July 9, 2023, 8:25 pmpolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

WaPo: Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses will be held on Jan. 15, state Republicans voted on Saturday, kicking off the 2024 presidential nomination process. The vote by the Iowa Republican Party’s state central committee, which scheduled the contest on the Martin… Continue reading

“The Associational Rights of Political Parties”

July 7, 2023, 7:35 amcumulative voting, political parties, primaries, third partiesNew ScholarshipTabatha Abu El-Haj

Sharing a chapter I have written for The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law (Eugene Mazo, ed.) (2023, forthcoming). The chapter, among other things, stresses the ways that the U.S. Supreme Court’s current approach to the associational freedom of political… Continue reading

“Our two-party political system isn’t working. The fix? More parties.”

July 5, 2023, 7:31 ampolitical partiesRick Hasen

Lee Drutman WaPo oped (adapted from his new report, “More Parties, Better Parties: The Case for Pro-Parties Democracy Reform.”) It’s presidential campaign season, so pick your panic: The No Labels organization threatens to run a centrist such as… Continue reading

“The Democratic Party promised to overhaul its primaries. Doing that has been anything but simple”

July 3, 2023, 7:36 ampolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

AP: New Hampshire is in open rebellion. Georgia is all but out. South Carolina and Nevada are on board but face stiff Republican pushback. Michigan’s compliance may mean having to cut the state legislative session short, despite Democrats controlling both… Continue reading