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Ron DeSantis at podium at CPAC.
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Instead of Boosting Democracy, Primary Elections Are Undermining It

Why our politics are growing ever more extreme — and democracy itself is under siege.
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson

Sunrise at Monticello

Jefferson and his connection to partisanship in early America.
Cartoon of politicians arguing

The Gilded Age’s Democratic Contradictions

How the late 19th century’s raucous party system gave way to a sedate and exclusionary political culture that erected more and more barriers to participation.
Bush and Obama

The GOP Test

History is asking only one question right now as Trump refuses to concede. Will the Republicans decide they are no longer an American political party?
A drawing of George Washington surrounded by seals representing the states.

The Constitutional Convention Debates the Electoral College

How the founders settled on the system we love to hate today.
Broadside showing the Louisiana Returning Board entitled "The Political Farce of 1876," published by Joseph A. Stoll, c. 1877.

Undecided Candidates

An excerpt from the diary of presidential hopeful at the outset of the contested election of 1876.
Joe Biden.
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What’s Driving So Many Republicans to Support Joe Biden?

The collapse of the Republican Party.
Black and White photo of JFK and Richard Nixon

The Time Nixon’s Cronies Tried to Overturn a Presidential Election

The gambit was cynical and disruptive, but in the end it didn’t work.
A close up of an electoral map from Scribner’s Statistical Atlas of the United States

The Electoral Punt

It can be hard to know what the Founders intended when they didn't know, either.
People in formal wear sitting in chairs, listening to a person behind a desk

Will We Ever Get Rid of the Electoral College?

The system that is nobody’s first choice.
Legislators at the podium during a joint session of congress to tally presidential electoral votes in 1969.

How the Electoral College Was Nearly Abolished in 1970

The House approved a constitutional amendment to dismantle the indirect voting system, but it was killed in the Senate by a filibuster.
Tiled pattern of 2020 presidential campaign signs.

How Candidate Diversity Impacts Color Diversity

We looked at 271 presidential candidate logos from 1968–2020 to find out how race and gender intersect with color choices.

One Week to Save Democracy

Lessons from Frederick Douglass on the tortured relationship between protest and change.

Alternate Histories

A conversation with John Nichols about the night in 1944 that altered the trajectory of the Democratic Party.

When Centrists Sounded Like Bernie

If the Democratic Party won’t listen to the left, it should at least listen to itself from 30 years ago.

4 Contested Conventions in Presidential Election History

Having a single candidate by the time of the convention has been a key stepping stone for a party’s victory. But it hasn't always worked out that way.
Bernie Sanders campaigning
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What Winning New Hampshire — and its Media Frenzy — Could Mean for Bernie Sanders

The New Hampshire returns tell us a lot about the leading candidates.
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A Century of Reforms Made Iowa and New Hampshire Presidential Kingmakers

But did they backfire?
Map of 1796 presidential election electoral votes by state.
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The Founders Knew That Foreign Interference in U.S. Elections was Dangerous

The origins of our efforts to keep foreign countries out of our elections.

When Adding New States Helped the Republicans

DC statehood would be a modest ploy compared with the mass admission of underpopulated western territories.

Grover Cleveland and the Democrats Who Saved Conservatism

They stood against Tammany Hall, the centralized presidency, and profligate spending. Today's Right should give them another look.

How the Republican Majority Emerged

Fifty years after the Republican Party hit upon a winning formula, President Trump is putting it at risk.

How Did the Presidential Campaign Get to Be So Long?

U.S. presidential elections didn't drag on so long before the late sixties.

Antislavery Wasn’t Mainstream, Until It Was

After Republicans lost their first election in 1856, Democrats declared slavery opposition radical and fringe. Then came 1860.

Women’s Issues Within Political Party Platforms

Every four years, political parties document their positions in written platforms. How often do women's issues appear in the text?
Bernie Sanders

The Transformation of Bernie Sanders

How the Vermont senator went from a third-party independent to a 2020 frontrunner.
partner

James Madison Responds to Sean Wilentz

Madison's Notes of the Constitutional Convention answer a current argument on the Electoral College.

The Electoral College Conundrum

There’s no consensus on abolishing the Electoral College, which has countered the popular vote in two of the past five presidential elections.

Was Gary Hart Set Up?

On his deathbed, GOP strategist Lee Atwater admitted he staged the events that brought down a Democratic presidential candidate.
The Writing Master, by Thomas Eakins, 1882. Painting of a man wearing glasses and writing with a pen.

Yawns Innumerable

The story of John Quincy Adams’ forgotten epic poem—and its most critical reader.

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