North Carolina Senate Race Preview: The Forgotten Contest To Determine Control Of The senate

While other Senate races such as Maine and Arizona have received more attention, perhaps no Senate contest will be more consequential than North Carolina. With Democrats needing a net gain of +4 seats to win back control of the Senate, they will need to win any contest that they possibly can. A few conceivable paths have emerged for Democrats to regain control of the Senate but none of these paths can exist without winning North Carolina…

Illinois Congressional District 6 Preview: A Critical Test Of Democratic Strength In The Suburbs

In the 2018 Midterm election, Illinois’ 6th Congressional District was one of the most closely watched races in the entire country. The District was only about 2% more Republican than the country, as a whole, and Hillary Clinton won the District on the Presidential level in 2016. Situated in a “C” shape around Chicago’s western suburbs the 6th District was thought to be a bellwether for suburban districts across the country and it did not disappoint by almost perfectly mirroring the national vote…

Illinois Congressional District 14 Preview: Can Lauren Underwood Hold Off The Milk Dud?

With its exurban makeup, the 14th Congressional District of Illinois will represent a critical test for Republicans seeking to regain lost ground from the 2018 Midterm elections. The 2020 race between incumbent Democrat Lauren Underwood and perennial Republican challenger Jim Oberweis is expected to be one of the tightest races in the country…

Five Most Likely Vice-Presidential Candidates For Joe Biden

With Joe Biden announcing that he would choose a woman as his running mate, there are five women who stand out as his likeliest choices: 

WHY BERNIE SANDERS FAILED: PART 2

Part 2 of 2 of DriveTo270’s coverage of why Bernie Sanders failed to win the 2020 Democratic Nomination for President

WHY BERNIE SANDERS FAILED: PART 1

Part 1 of 2 of DriveTo270’s coverage of why Bernie Sanders failed to win the 2020 Democratic Nomination for President

THE REGIONAL PRIMARY SYSTEM: WHAT THE SYSTEM IS AND WHY DEMOCRATS NEED TO ADOPT IT

Iowa has highlighted how patently unfair and damaging the current system is for the Democrats… The solution to this damaging system and lack of uniformity is to split the United States into a Regional System. This Regional System would contain five voting regions with ten states each. For five weeks, beginning on the first Tuesday of February, one region and only one region would hold all of their primaries on the same date.

IOWA PROFILE: BERNIE SANDERS

No Democrat has had a better last three months than Bernie Sanders. After Sanders’ heart attack in early October, 2019, it appeared that his entire campaign might be in jeopardy. Elizabeth Warren was surging in the polls and threatened to take over the mantle as the liberal standard-bearer of the Democratic Party. As evidenced in the polls, at the time, it seemed as if the magic that had carried Sanders in 2016 was beginning to wane. Just three months later, however, Bernie Sanders have firmly established his place as the front-runner in the Iowa Caucus. 

IOWA PROFILES: PETE BUTTIGIEG AND AMY KLOBUCHAR

Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar are inextricably linked in most facets. Their base of voters may differ slightly with Klobuchar voters being more likely to have graduated college, but their appeal and folksy natures are quite similar. The two candidates have overlapping qualities that draw in voters not just for their personalities, but also for their perceived even-keel approach to politics.

IOWA PROFILE: ELIZABETH WARREN

In October, 2019, Elizabeth Warren was the front runner in the Iowa Caucus. Warren had come off a highly successful summer where she had offered a litany of specific policy positions that were well-received by Democrats and even some Republican voters…. Despite some issues, Warren still remains a force to be reckoned with in Iowa and should be discounted at your own peril…

IOWA PROFILE: JOE BIDEN

Iowa will not be kind to Joe Biden… On the surface the Democrat candidate seemingly best suited for success in Clinton County and thus the State of Iowa is Joe Biden. Biden has made a career for himself as a blue collar politician and a man of the people. His pro-union message would surely be thought to resonate with voters here. There’s one problem with this thinking though. Joe Biden is no longer a populist. While populism is an exceptionally broad term, it is hard to argue that Joe Biden is still a populist. Biden has positioned himself as a centrist and establishment Democrat who will take great care not to completely reshape the United States…

How Bernie Sanders’ Online Army Crushed Elizabeth Warren

Despite their friendly demeanor onstage, however, animosity has been rising between Warren and Sanders’ most ardent supporters. Far-left publications such as Jacobin that were once open to Warren's candidacy have now turned against her. Jacobin Magazine, in particular, has been at the forefront of the attacks on Warren. Jacobin is very popular with the young socialist movement in the U.S…

TOP TEN WORST POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS OF THE 2010’s

There was nothing that could have prepared Delaware voters for the disaster that was Christine O’Donnell in 2010. O’Donnell’s comments on witch craft, masturbation, and the separation of church and state not only torpedoed her campaign, but also made her a national laughingstock…

A Look At Party Switching and Why Jeff Van Drew Will Not Win Reelection As A Republican

On December 14, 2019, it was reported that New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew, a Democrat, would switch parties and become a Republican. The report comes on the heals of Van Drew’s plan to vote against the impeachment of Donald Trump and the rejection of New Jersey Democrat party leaders to immediately support Van Drew’s reelection…. Party switching while in office is extremely rare as only eight member of the House and 4 members of the Senate have switched during the last 20 years.

Why Texas’ 3rd Congressional District Will Turn Blue in 2020

Texas’ 3rd District at first glance hardly appears to be a congressional battleground seat. Collin County, which holds the entire 3rd District has long been inhospitable ground for Democrats. The District which extends through Plano, McKinney and portions of Richardson and Dallas is covered in its entirety by the booming Dallas metropolitan area. Not a single Democrat currently holds a seat in any level of government in the county…

Kentucky Governor

Can Andy Beshear (D) Overcome Stiff Rural Headwinds To Win Kentucky’s Governorship?   

On November 5, 2019, almost exactly one year to the day before Donald Trump faces reelection, incumbent Republican Governor Matt Bevin will face off against Democrat Andy Beshear in a Governor’s race that could have massive implications for 2020. Kentucky’s previous Governor’s race, in 2015, foretold the mass rural exodus that would haunt Democrats and Hillary Clinton in 2016…..

2020 SNAPSHOT: OHIO

Make no mistake, Ohio is trending away from the Democrats. Of the states currently in the Leans Republican category, Ohio is likely to produce the largest margin of victory for Trump. Although Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown won reelection in 2018, the Democrats also lost the Governor’s race and several winnable Congressional races. In 2016, Donald Trump won Ohio by a 51.69% to 43.56% margin and there has been little indication that the Democrats…

2020 SNAPSHOT: PENNSYLVANIA

Of the blue wall states that Donald Trump won in 2016, Pennsylvania has to be the most puzzling of them all. Democrats had previously won every Presidential election in the state since 1988 and even flipped the Governor’s mansion from red to blue in 2014. In 2016, Trump rode massive rural support and Hillary Clinton backlash to victory. Ever since Trump won in 2016, however, it has been one disaster after another for Pennsylvania Republicans. First, Democrat Conor Lamb won a special election in Pennsylvania’s then 18th Congressional District in an upset over Republican Rick Saccone.

2020 SNAPSHOT: MAINE

Often a forgotten state in Presidential elections, Maine holds not one, but two special electoral college quirks that may decide the entire Presidency. First, Maine does not award their four electoral college votes as winner-take-all, like nearly every other state. Instead, Maine awards two of its electoral votes to whoever wins the majority of votes statewide and an electoral vote each for the respective winner of each of Maine’s two Congressional districts. That election quirk alone makes Maine compelling, since a candidate could lose the total popular vote and yet still pick up an electoral vote, as Donald Trump did in 2016. However, the most unique aspect of voting in Maine is its Ranked Choice System. Under Ranked Choice, voters rank their choices for President instead of just voting for one single candidate. If no candidate gets a majority of the vote…