Search query: iowa

Illinois should host the first presidential primaries if the goal is to pick a state that most closely matches the demographics of the country. And Vermont, the home state of Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders, should have minimal influence over the process because its makeup is least similar to the entire United States — meaning the results from that state would be hardly at all predictive of the nation's views. Those are among the conclusions out Thursday from the personal financial ser

In a country that often feels divided between two camps, the Republicans and the Democrats, independent voters could really be the future of politics in America. While polarized, if not combative, politics are nothing new (e.g., the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 that tore the nation apart), there is something undeniably different about the political climate that we have had for the last few years. Independents know it too, as made obvious by the substantial amounts of voters leaving bot

We’ve all heard of the debates between top democrats, but what about all the other candidates running for President? Elevate the Debate is a collaborative effort between Free and Equal Elections Foundation and Open the Debates, who have teamed up to produce at least two Open Presidential Debates this year, including a first-of-its-kind cross-partisan debate during the primary season on March 4th in Chicago at 2pm CST. There are 21 confirmed presidential candidates from across the political s

Look, I describe myself as a “humble libertarian.” So why would I see the opportunity in a Bloomberg/Tulsi ticket? Because it just makes sense. The reasons why Michael Bloomberg would be the strongest Democratic nominee in November (if he picks Tulsi Gabbard for his running mate) become obvious when you look at why Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016, and why a Bloomberg/Clinton would fail in 2020. The Case Against A Bloomberg/Clinton Ticket Over the weekend, reports emerged from so

We can all agree that Washington is broken. Gridlock ensues as the divide between the Republicans and Democrats reaches Grand Canyon size proportions. Watching the Republicans put party over country in their defense of Donald Trump during the impeachment trial showed how hyper-partisanship is withering of our democracy, even raising questions of whether our constitutional system can survive. I'm sure our Founding Fathers are turning over in their graves. Politics, and by extension, polarizatio

A legal challenge, filed by Level the Playing Field, and joined by the Green Party of the United States and the Libertarian National Committee, to the Commission on Presidential Debate's rulemaking and tax-exempt status will be heard by a federal judge in the DC Circuit on February 24th. The lawsuit, “concerns violations of federal law by two institutions the Democratic and Republican parties have used to perpetuate their duopoly: the Commission on PresidentialDebates (“CPD”), an organization t

The beginning of the 2020 presidential election was an unmitigated disaster. Results that should have been reported the night-of in Iowa instead took days as a result of technical issues with an app and inconsistent numbers being reported. Politicos were baffled while accusations of a rigged process arose after the candidate with the most votes didn’t leave with the most delegates. At the center of the controversy was independent US Senator Bernie Sanders, and suddenly the question became whet

First published at Real Clear Politics The national discussion on whether America is ready for a female president provides both insight and context to the challenges that face independent candidates. Columnist Rebecca Traister offered the insight that the question itself, and not the sex of the candidate, is the real barrier to the electability of a woman: she wrote What Traister recognizes is the important connection between who a voter wants to vote for and the perceived viability of that

The impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump is underway! And it is... intensely predictable. This is why more and more voters are becoming independent. Democrats Want Trump Removed *GASP* And Republicans (You Guessed It) Want Him Acquitted CNN's public polling finds voters are evenly divided between wanting the Senate to remove Trump from office, and wanting the Senate to acquit him. How curiously suspicious that Democrats overwhelmingly support removal and Republicans overwhelmingly

It was nearly four years ago that voters did the unthinkable. They rejected the party establishments’ favored candidates. And they did so to pick literally Donald Trump as America’s next president. That decision by the electorate completely blindsided Washington political operatives and the mainstream media analysts. How could Donald Trump have beat Jeb Bush for the Republican nomination in the first place? And then Hillary Clinton for the Oval Office? Trump was a total political outsider.