Democrats have had eyes on this seat ever since the 2016 election returns came in. They ran a candidate with no political experience against a nine-term, conservative Republican incumbent who had never faced a significant challenger in this formerly ruby-red seat. The Democrat won. This is the story of Texas’s 7th congressional district, where Democrat … Read more
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is one of the most polarizing figures in Iowa politics. Over the past few years, King has spent quite a bit of time in the national spotlight; he has become known for formerly displaying a Confederate flag on his desk office, retweeting neo-Nazis, and touting derogatory views on immigration and LGBTQ … Read more
One of the most remarkable election victories this season was that of Democrat Kyrsten Sinema who won the U.S. Senate seat in Arizona vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. Sinema, who represents Arizona’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, went head-to-head in a heated race against Republican Martha McSally, the representative … Read more
In 2017, Massachusetts experienced 1977 opioid overdose deaths. While this figure is certainly high, it actually represents an 8 percent decrease in overdose deaths from 2016, indicating that Massachusetts has begun to make ground in combating the opioid crisis. This progress can likely be attributed to a number of policy initiatives that the state has … Read more
In his state visit to India in 2010, President Barack Obama hailed the Indo-American relationship as “one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century.” The statement was hardly exaggerated. India’s sheer size and location makes it an obvious choice for the United States to realize its goal of maintaining a balance of power in … Read more
After bringing a Senate race in a traditional Republican bastion down to the wire, it’s not surprising that a growing chorus is calling for Rep. Beto O’Rourke to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. His campaign’s near-success, along with his charismatic personality and compelling background, has led people to label him a “Democratic … Read more
The African-American Monument in Savannah, Georgia features a family of slaves; memorials like this one can serve as a form of reparations. In the early months of 2008, my grandmother Inge — then in her late seventies — petitioned the City of Vienna, Austria, for restitutions. Her paternal grandmother’s property, Inge’s childhood home, had been … Read more
Following the 2018 midterm elections, HPR Associate Managing Editor Jacob Link sits down with Joe Heck, former Republican congressman from Nevada, and Amy Dacey, former CEO of the Democratic National Committee and former executive director of EMILY’S List, to discuss the election outcomes and what they mean for the future of America. http://harvardpolitics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Midterm-Podcast.mp3
Hundreds of Bostonians took to the Common on Thursday to advocate for the protection of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Many see Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ resignation as Trump’s newest attempt to exert control over the investigation. Amid chants of “Enough is enough!” and “Come on Congress do your job!”, children colored-in handmade protest signs … Read more
“Tell me, how large is the population of your country?” the representative from China asked Christiana Figueres, the representative from Costa Rica, during a lunch break at the Kyoto Protocol negotiations in 1997. They had just spent the morning debating the establishment of the Clean Development Mechanism, which would allow developing countries to earn tradable … Read more