The national convention for the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, is underway in Houston this week. Mark Jones, Baker Institute fellow in political science, recently talked to KUHF Houston public radio about what GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney… Continue Reading
Ted Cruz surprised many election pundits by forcing a July 31 runoff with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the Republican senatorial nomination. Cruz, however, trailed the lieutenant governor by 144,422 votes in Tuesday’s ballot tally. How does Cruz, who was been out spent by Dewhurst 5 to 1, mount an successful runoff campaign? Continue Reading
With May 29 now in the rearview mirror, here I offer a few selected observations on the results of Tuesday’s Democratic and Republican primaries. Continue Reading
Baker Institute political science expert Mark P. Jones had an op-ed in this weekend’s Chronicle about the significance of today’s Texas primary.
If you haven’t voted yet, Jones makes a strong case for why you should cast a ballot.
Only one out of every 10 Texans of voting age is expected to participate in the first round of the Democratic and Republican primaries that conclude on Tuesday. This is unfortunate, because due to the prevalence of safe Democratic and Republican legislative seats throughout the state, an overwhelming majority of our elected representatives in Washington, D.C., and Austin are effectively chosen in their party’s respective primary.
Yesterday, Texas governor Rick Perry publically stated that he is seriously contemplating running for re-election as governor in 2014. Of course, this and related statements by Perry regarding re-election may very well simply be part of the governor’s strategy to… Continue Reading
With a national financial crisis and the ongoing European crisis fresh on the minds of U.S. voters, it’s no wonder that so much of the discourse surrounding presidential candidates this election cycle has focused on the economy. In a Feb. 7 presentation to the Baker Institute Student Forum, Lynn Vavreck, associate professor of political science and communication studies at UCLA, demonstrated how candidates’ campaign messages might affect the link between the state of the economy and election results, as demonstrated by several economic forecasting models. Continue Reading
Today, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) refused to grant pre-clearance to the Texas Voter ID law approved by the Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry last spring. The law requires voters provide a valid government issued form of photo identification (driver’s license, state issued voter identification card, U.S. passport, concealed weapon permit, military identification) in order to cast a ballot at the polls. Continue Reading