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Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump is dominating the GOP field right now, despite the fact that few took his candidacy seriously when he launched his campaign last summer. His anti-establishment appeal has not only won over many Republican voters, but despite having an unconventional campaign, he has one some high profile political  and business endorsements. Here is a list of his biggest endorsements to date: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Maine Governor Paul LePage (previ

Super Tuesday (March1) is one of the most heavily covered events in the presidential election process. With over a dozen contests and a quarter of the delegates up for grabs on the Democratic side and nearly 30 percent of the delegates on the Republican side, Super Tuesday can pave a clear path to the nomination for the candidate who can win the most states. How Political Parties Rig ElectionsIndependent Voter In fact, since 1988, every candidate who has won the majority of states on Super Tue

The Centrist Project today released the results of an online survey of 1200 likely Missouri voters in the United States Senate election in 2016 that shows 34.5% of voters would support an unnamed independent candidate, while 19.1% would support the Republican candidate and 19.9% would support the Democratic candidate. Twenty-six percent of voters said they would support “whichever candidate most closely aligns with their values.” The survey did not specifically name any potential candidates for

In 2004, the esteemed Catholic philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre wrote a popular essay lamenting the lack of voter choice in the impending presidential election. Rather than recommending that voters cast ballots for the "lesser of two evils," he admonished voters to abstain from voting altogether. Believing that voting for Bush or Kerry amounted to an endorsement of the unpopular and unrepresentative two-party stem, MacIntyre concluded, "In this situation a vote cast is not only a vote for a parti

The United States consumes more petroleum products than any other country in the world. Hand in hand with this high-octane intake are the heavy subsidies the United States government provides to petroleum companies -- allowing tax exemptions at almost every stage of the oil refinement process. It comes as no surprise that Big Oil does everything it can to advocate for these subsidies, since minor policy changes can have a huge impact on the cost of energy production, and of course profits. The

The Center for Public Integrity has evaluated all 50 states and found them lacking on issues of integrity and ethics, giving Alaska the highest grade of "C," while failing 11 other states. Each state was assessed the same, by measuring the states on 13 separate criterion, ranging from openness and access to records to management of state pensions. What this study really tells us is one of two things: 1) the states have a long way to go to improve their credibility and ethics with their citizen

The latest headlines on nonpartisan voting rights from across the nation. Enjoy. Young, Independent Voters Denied Full Access to Elections in Pa. Source: John Finnerty, The Herald My Take: From a state calling out more and more for an open primary, a bit of in-depth reporting about the effect on young voters who are more than likely to register as independents. Insight Kansas: More Voters, Better Representation Source: Burdett Loomis, Hays Post Loomis, a political science professor at th

We all know that the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution contains ten amendments. However, it is less well known that the Bill of Rights sent to the states for ratification originally contained 12 amendments. What we know today as the First Amendment – the one enumerating our basic freedoms of religion, speech, and so forth – actually appeared third on this list. The current Bill of Rights contains just ten amendments because the requisite number of states – three-fourths of those in t

I have been writing for IVN since the summer of 2014. Though my academic background is in political science, I can confidently say I have learned more about American politics in this one year of researching and writing for you (the readers) than I have in my six years in higher education. Over this time, I must confess, many of my beliefs have remained the same. I still believe that America, despite its history of having committed many unjust actions in its foreign policy, is and can be a posi

The nonpartisan or "top-two" primary in California is working and the Golden State has more competitive elections, has increased voter access and a better functioning legislature. Those are the key findings released today in a report from called A Quiet Revolution: The Early Success of California’s Top Two Nonpartisan Primary from Open Primaries. The authors of the report are Jason Olson, the president of Independentvoice.org, a San Francisco based organization of independent voters and Dr. Oma