Top 50 Districts Where Young People May Impact Congressional Elections
In February 2016 we released our exclusive Youth Electoral Significance Index (YESI), a statistical model-driven ranking of the states and congressional districts where young people have the highest potential to play a critical role this November.
We recently updated our rankings for House races in order to produce a new YESI Top 50 that pinpoints the congressional races across the nation where the youth vote may be especially crucial.
The Iowa 1st, Colorado 2nd, Maine 2nd, Iowa 3rd, and Minnesota 2nd top our list.
In this new analysis, we highlight districts in key states like Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia, and review the various characteristics (demographics, youth voting history, competitiveness, and more) that add up to the potential for young voters to decide elections.
Read more, and find all of related data and analysis at the CIRCLE 2016 Election Center.
Do States Require Students Learn about Political Parties & Ideology?
A new working paper from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and published by CIRCLE, finds that state social studies and civic education standards often fail to prescribe that students grapple with the connections between issues, ideologies, and political parties that undergird modern American politics.
The study, led by Paula McAvoy, finds that only eight states’ standards explicitly require that students learn about the ideological underpinnings of the two major political parties. Just one state, Rhode Island, comes close to explicitly requiring that students explore where their own beliefs fit within the ideological-partisan landscape.
Read more.
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CIRCLE and the Washington Post Talk Youth in Politics
CIRCLE is excited to collaborate with The Monkey Cage, the Washington Post’s award-winning blog about political science research, on a series of election-themed posts about young people’s political engagement.
The first two posts in the series, “How social media helps young people — especially minorities and the poor — get politically engaged” and “Does arguing about politics turn young people off? Surprisingly, no.” highlight studies that examine critical questions about how young people receive, engage with, and react to information about political issues.
Stay tuned for more on the Monkey Cage blog!
CIRCLE in the News
In the past month, CIRCLE data and analysis have been prominently featured in various news outlets:
– CBS News: “Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren make the pitch to millennials for Clinton“
– Los Angeles Times: “Hillary Clinton has millennials’ support, and now she’s trying to make sure they vote“
– McClatchy DC: “Why the election map has a built-in, and growing, Democratic bias“
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