Archive for the ‘2014 House’ Category
For first time in 16 years, back-to-back cycles saw drops in raw turnout
April 2nd, 2015
Rhodes Cook, Senior Columnist, Sabato's Crystal Ball
For the first decade after Sept. 11, national elections showed a steady rise in voter turnout. The number of ballots cast in presidential elections jumped from 105 million in 2000 to a record 131 million in 2008, an increase of 25% in just eight years. Similarly, the midterm congressional turnout swelled from 66 million in […]
March 24th, 2015
UVA Center for Politics
The Surge, the University of Virginia Center for Politics’ postmortem of the 2014 midterms and preview of the 2016 presidential election, is now available. Edited by Center for Politics Director Larry J. Sabato and Sabato’s Crystal Ball editors Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley and published by Rowman and Littlefield, The Surge: 2014’s Big GOP Win […]
Why a party may well be better off losing the White House
December 4th, 2014
Larry J. Sabato, Director, U.Va. Center for Politics
U.Va. Center for Politics Director Larry J. Sabato is contributing a regular column to Politico Magazine. This week, he examines the presidential party’s penalty for holding the White House: losing ground everywhere else. This article originally appeared in Politico Magazine on Dec. 1, 2014. Think of the billions the parties must raise to elect a […]
November 20th, 2014
UVA Center for Politics
Today, Nov. 20, the University of Virginia Center for Politics will host the 16th annual American Democracy Conference. The conference, which will be held at Alumni Hall on the Grounds of the University of Virginia, will feature panels of leading journalists and political experts focused on the results of the recent midterm elections and the […]
November 13th, 2014
Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley, Sabato's Crystal Ball
After going over the results from last week, we had a number of bite-sized observations to offer — 14, to be exact: 1. The polls really were worse than usual This cycle featured the largest average miss by the two major poll aggregators, RealClearPolitics and HuffPost Pollster, in recent competitive Senate races. This isn’t a […]
November 13th, 2014
Glen Bolger, Guest Columnist, Sabato's Crystal Ball
Is there something magical and mystical about the number five in elections? After the tsunami of 1994, there were five straight elections that were “calm elections” (1996-2004) and then five straight elections that could be considered wave elections. (A valid argument can be made that despite the size of the Obama win, Democratic gains in […]
November 6th, 2014
Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik, and Geoffrey Skelley, Sabato's Crystal Ball
A version of this article originally appeared in Politico Magazine Wednesday evening. It might not have been 1994 or 2010, but 2014 was a wave all its own: A late-breaking surge that lifted Republicans to some surprisingly strong performances across the country. Notably, though, the argument for this election being a “wave” has more to […]
November 6th, 2014
Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik, and Geoffrey Skelley, Sabato's Crystal Ball
On Monday, we offered our final calls in all 507 of the Senate, House, and gubernatorial races. As of this writing, 490 of those races have been called for one party or the other, and we got 476 correct (97%). We did best in the category everyone was watching most closely, the battle for the […]
November 6th, 2014
Tim Storey, Guest Columnist, Sabato's Crystal Ball
After a day of double checking partisan composition numbers in the more than 6,000 legislative races this year, the extent of Republican success in this year’s legislative and governor’s elections is mostly clear. Suffice it to say, it was a banner election for the GOP. Republicans ran the proverbial table, taking the majority in 11 […]
Who we favor in all 507 of Tuesday’s Senate, gubernatorial, and House races
November 3rd, 2014
Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik, and Geoffrey Skelley, Sabato's Crystal Ball
If you’re in Charlottesville tonight, please join the Crystal Ball team — Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik, and Geoffrey Skelley — for a free presentation on the 2014 midterms at 7 p.m. in Wilson Hall, Room 402 on the Grounds of the University of Virginia. Visit the U.Va. Center for Politics website for more information […]
November 3rd, 2014
Tim Storey, Guest Columnist, Sabato's Crystal Ball
While the nation’s attention is fixated on the congressional and gubernatorial races, it’s important to remember that the vast majority of states this year will also decide their state legislative contests. Walking us through the state legislative picture once again this cycle is Tim Storey, one of the country’s top experts on state-level politics. Storey […]
October 30th, 2014
Kyle Kondik, Managing Editor, Sabato's Crystal Ball
Republicans and Democrats on both sides of the House campaign are fretting. The elephants worry that they have not clearly put away any single Democratic House incumbent — which is true — and that they are going to underperform, not just by a seat or two, the goal of winning 245 seats set by National […]
October 23rd, 2014
Kyle Kondik, Managing Editor, Sabato's Crystal Ball
There are two vastly different lead paragraphs I could have used to open this story about the state of the race for the U.S. House. Instead of picking one, I’ll just include them both, and then try to explain the odd cross-currents we’re seeing in House races across the country. Lead No. 1: With 12 […]
New 2014 Senate and House ratings
October 16th, 2014
Larry J. Sabato and Kyle Kondik, Sabato's Crystal Ball
As we approach the home stretch, 2014 has turned into a tale of two elections. On the one hand, this is a classic sixth-year itch election where the incumbent president’s party is going to suffer losses in both houses of Congress. We’re just arguing about exactly how many. Overall, it is indisputable that Republicans will […]
MOOC also returns with new lessons
October 16th, 2014
UVA Center for Politics
Available now: The Kennedy Half Century in paperback, featuring new interviews, scientific studies, and empirical data. Among the new material contained in the paperback edition: A well-placed CIA employee reveals what really happened inside agency headquarters on Nov. 22, 1963. New analysis that further demonstrates the unreliability of the police Dictabelt audio evidence from Nov. […]