Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

A new poll maps opposition to gerrymandering

Anti-gerrymandering protest at the Supreme Court

Nearly half of Americans said they strongly oppose gerrymandering in a new survey.

Olivier Douliery/Getty Photos

A new survey finds a majority of Americans oppose partisan gerrymandering, even as many remain unaware of how redistricting works in their own states.

Two-thirds of Americans told pollsters for The Economist and YouGov that states drawing legislative districts to favor one party is a “major problem” with just 23 percent saying it’s a “minor problem.” But 50 percent said they do not know whether districts are drawn by the legislature or an independent commission in their own state.


Even though half of Americans do not know how their districts are drawn, a majority still is opinionated about the process.

Twenty-eight percent believe districts are very or somewhat fairly drawn in their own states, while 36 percent believe they are somewhat or unfairly drawn. Just 35 percent said they were not sure.

Nearly half of respondents (48 percent) said they strongly oppose gerrymandering while another 12 percent said they are somewhat opposed. Only 10 percent said they strongly or somewhat support gerrymandering.

In addition, three-quarters said they are strongly or somewhat in favor of a transparent process for drawing districts, and 63 percent want the process run through a nonpartisan redistricting commission.

The poll, which was conducted Feb. 5-8 and included 1,500 U.S. adult citizens, asked whether the Supreme Court should uphold or strike down congressional districts that are designed for partisan purposes, even though the court ruled in the 2019 case Rucho v. Common Cause that it has no jurisdiction over such a political question.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

(Racial gerrymandering does remain within the federal court’s purview and is the subject of numerous ongoing cases.)

The redistricting analysts at FiveThirtyEight have been tracking the mapping process for congressional seats in every state. Even though Republicans have control over the process in most districts, Democrats appear to be coming out ahead so far.

The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, Electoral Innovation Lab and RepresentUs have created a redistricting report card, grading each state for partisan fairness, competitiveness and geographic features.

Of the 10 states that have been graded so far, four earned an A. Three of them (Arizona, Colorado and Michigan) have independent redistricting commissions. The fourth, Virginia, has a hybrid commission that includes some politicians.

Georgia was awarded a C, with Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon and Texas all getting a failing grade. Congressional districts are drawn by the legislature in each of those states.


Take Our Quiz On Gerrymandered Districts.


Read More

Houses with price tags
retrorocket/Getty Images

Are housing costs driving inflation in 2024?

This fact brief was originally published by EconoFact. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Are housing costs driving inflation in 2024?

Yes.

The rise in housing costs has been a major source of overall inflation, which was 2.9% in the 12 months ending in July 2024.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' shelter index, which includes housing costs for renters and homeowners, rose 5.1% in the 12 months ending in July 2024.

Keep ReadingShow less
I Voted stickers
BackyardProduction/Getty Images

Voters cast ballots based on personal perceptions, not policy stances

The Fulcrum and the data analytics firm Fidelum Partners have just completed a nationally representative study assessing the voting intentions of U.S adults and their perceptions toward 18 well-known celebrities and politicians.

Fidelum conducted similar celebrity and politician election studies just prior to the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Each of these found that perceptions of warmth, competence and admiration regarding the candidates are highly predictive of voting intentions and election outcomes. Given this, The Fulcrum and Fidelum decided to partner on a 2024 celebrity and politician election study to build upon the findings of prior research.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hand waving an American flag

"Freedom, a word that should inspire, has been distorted to justify the unchecked pursuit of individual interests at the expense of collective well-being," writes Johnson.

nicoletaionescu/Getty Images

Redefining America's political lingua franca

Johnson is a United Methodist pastor, the author of "Holding Up Your Corner: Talking About Race in Your Community" and program director for the Bridge Alliance, which houses The Fulcrum.

A seismic shift has occurred in America's race, identity and power discourse. Like tectonic plates beneath the Earth's surface, long-held assumptions are adjusting and giving way to a reimagined lingua franca for civic engagement. This revived language of liberation redefines the terms of debate. It empowers us to reclaim and reinvigorate words once weaponized principally against marginalized communities.

Keep ReadingShow less
Latino attendees of the Democratic National Convention

People cheer for the Harris-Walz ticket at the Democratic National Convention.

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Harris’ nomination ‘hit a reset button’ for Latinas supporting Democrats

As the presidential race entered the summer months, President Joe Biden’s level of support among Latinx voters couldn’t match the winning coalition he had built in 2020. Among Latinas, a critical group of voters who tend to back Democrats at higher levels than Latinos, lagging support had begun to worry Stephanie Valencia, who studies voting patterns among Latinx voters across the country for Equis Research, a data analytics and research firm.

Then the big shake-up happened: Biden stepped down and Vice President Kamala Harris took his place at the top of the Democratic ticket fewer than 100 days before the election.

Valencia’s team quickly jumped to action. The goal was to figure out how the move was sitting with Latinx voters in battleground states that will play an outsized role in deciding the election. After surveying more than 2,000 Latinx voters in late July and early August, Equis found a significant jump in support for the Democratic ticket, a shift that the team is referring to as “the Latino Reset.”

Keep ReadingShow less