Avengers. PerSisters. The pink wave. And even badasses. These terms have been used to refer to the unprecedented number of female candidates who ran for elected office in the United States in 2018. Barbara Burrell explores this phenomenon—in the context of women's candidacies for election to the US House of Representatives—discussing who the women were, why they chose to run,    More >

Scholars and pundits alike have spent more than a little time speculating about why Hillary Clinton lost the presidency to Donald Trump in 2016. Their conclusions may differ, but few would disagree that Clinton's nomination by a major party changed the political landscape in significant ways—nor that the results of the 2016 election provoked a large number of women to run for office at    More >

What are the consequences of political polarization in the United States? Are citizens' interests adequately represented when divisive politics are the norm? What ideologies—and entrenched institutions—perpetuate these divisions, and what social groups are most affected? Answering these questions, Polarized Politics is a major contribution to our understanding of the causes,    More >

Current through the November 2012 elections, The New Southern Politics seamlessly integrates a thematic overview of the distinctive political, social, and economic life of eleven southern states with a detailed state-by-state focus. This new edition includes entirely new maps and the latest available data for Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South    More >

Why do some 30 million people in the United States give money to political candidates and causes—even though most individual contributions are irrational from the perspective of a strict cost-benefit analysis? How do campaign fundraisers tap into potential donors' motivations? Exploring three decades of historical data and also drawing extensively on the insights of contemporary campaign    More >

Do vice presidential candidates play any significant role in presidential elections? Challenging the conventional wisdom, Stacy Ulbig shows the important ways in which they do in fact affect election outcomes. She also assesses the impact of a range of vice presidential candidates and considers how the news media fits in the equation. Analyzing data from 1972 through 2008, Ulbig shows clearly how    More >

Clyde Weed recovers and analyzes the largely lost history of the Republican Party in the first half of the twentieth century. Exploring the internal dynamics of the GOP during those decades, Weed draws on a wide range of previously neglected sources to explore the fundamental transformation that the party experienced—and in the process to shed new light, as well, on the ideology and    More >

This guided tour of the inner workings of the election campaign process demystifies the often murky world of professional politics. Offering a unique blend of theory and practice, Inside Political Campaigns draws on the experiences of political scientists who have played such key roles as campaign managers, consultants, media advisers, and even candidates. First-hand accounts of races run at    More >

Even in local elections, money matters—but just how much? Drawing on multifaceted data from more than 700 races featuring 2,800 candidates, Brian Adams comprehensively investigates the role of money and the effects of campaign finance reforms at the local level. Adams covers mayoral and city council races across several election cycles, offering analysis of cities representing a range of    More >

Senator Hillary Clinton won 18 million votes in 2008—nearly twice that of any presidential contender in recent history—yet she failed to secure the Democratic nomination. In this compelling look at Clinton’s historic candidacy, Regina Lawrence and Melody Rose explore how she came so close to breaking the ultimate glass ceiling in US politics, why she fell short, and what her    More >

Choice Outstanding Academic Book! How do sleepy congressional campaigns become heated battles? What happens behind the scenes during pivotal moments? Sam Garrett explores the dynamic process of electioneering by focusing on the insights and activities of political professionals: the consultants, party officials, staffers, and others who make a career out of campaigning. As his analysis makes    More >

When it comes to legislative elections, entrenched incumbents typically face little competition, and excessive campaign spending often corrupts the democratic process. At the state level, a wide range of fixes have been introduced to remedy these problems—but do they actually make a difference? William Salka’s comprehensive analysis of election dynamics in 49 states provides a    More >

The Republican Party once enjoyed nearly unanimous support among African American voters; today, it can hardly maintain a foothold in the black community. Exploring how and why this shift occurred—as well as recent efforts to reverse it—Michael Fauntroy meticulously navigates the policy choices and political strategies that have driven a wedge between the GOP and its formerly stalwart    More >

How much money can a candidate for political office legally collect, and from what sources? What can and can't be said in campaign ads? Who determines the process of redistricting, and what is the overall effect on U.S. democracy? Law and Election Politics analyzes the rules of the electoral game, helping readers to understand how politics influences and is influenced by electoral laws and    More >

In eight of the past dozen presidential elections, TV networks proclaimed the winner while citizens on the West Coast, Hawaii, and Alaska were still casting ballots. Is this a problem? Do media projections decrease voter turnout? Carefully examining data from every presidential election held from 1960 through 2004, William Adams definitively answers both questions. Adams employs a range of    More >

Choice Outstanding Academic Book! After years of decline, why has party attachment become a strong force once again in US politics? Jeffrey Stonecash argues that the recent resurgence of partisanship is but the latest chapter in a larger story of party realignment —a story that reaffirms the centrality of political parties. Stonecash marshals rich data from more than a century of elections    More >

Blending insightful scholarship with a "nuts and bolts" approach, Campaigns and Elections examines the electoral process at the local, state, and national levels. The authors—leading scholars, political professionals, and election administrators—focus on such current issues as the use of pollsters and political consultants, campaign finance reform, partisan politics, and the    More >

Florida 2000 offers a clear, but also nuanced, account of the legal and constitutional issues surrounding the disputed presidential election. Combining original sources with analyses, Mark Whitman traces the major developments in the Bush-Gore struggle. Section introductions and commentaries synthesize the often complex material, while editor's notes provide context for each selection. The    More >

Cozy politics, Peter Kobrak contends, is shredding the already fragile fabric of political rapport between citizens and their government. Exploring the insidious system that encourages elected officials to cooperate with their supposed opponents—rather than with their own constituents—he reveals the enormous power that wealthy donors and interest-group supporters wield over    More >

While many commentators and political scientists dismissed Jesse Ventura's rise to the governorship as a fluke of celebrity, Jacob Lentz shows that it was Minnesota's unique electoral rules, coupled with on-target campaign dynamics, that enabled a third-party candidate to reach office. In this first complete account of Ventura's victory, Lentz draws on tantalizing details from the    More >