Races, Reforms, & Policy: Implications of the 2014 Midterm Elections

The midterm elections of 2014 saw the culmination of long-term trends in American politics and laid the groundwork for Republicans’ successes in 2016. To what extent were the results the product of shifting partisan and demographic trends, and to what extent did policy questions drive the results? What can 2014 tell us about midterm elections generally? In this volume, leading scholars look at this election in its broad strokes, in case studies of key races, and in terms of policy questions such as immigration, health care, the environment, and election administration itself. Chapters also address the important issue of voter wait times for democratic outcomes. The authors demonstrate that while the 2014 midterms were in many ways typical, important variation emerges at the level of individual races.