Ray La Raja
@raylaraja
UMass political scientist, co-director @UMassPoll, elections, pol parties, campaign finance, Mets fan and Iron Chef contender
"We need to stop making election days solemn, individualist affairs, and more communal celebrations that bring people together," @raylaraja and @b_schaffner write. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/…
Please share this fact sheet about Ukraine with anyone who needs it
Low turnout in primaries and lack of competition in general elections needs more attention. And for some insights and suggestions see recent book here: rienner.com/title/Electora…
Only a small fraction of Americans vote in #primary elections. @nytimes analysis found that on average, just 57,000 voters cast their primary ballot for the winning candidate across 9,000+ federal and state elections in 2024. By @NYTnickc and @miwines: nytimes.com/2025/02/23/us/…
Neither full-throated resistance nor attempts to stay on the sidelines are viable responses. The parallels from conservative responses to mainstream media are not encouraging: insidehighered.com/views/2016/10/…
Very honored to be co-editors with @LarryDiamond & @RickPildes on this new book--and to work with all the authors of its chapters: @leedrutman, Rob Boatright, Frances Lee, @raylaraja, all of whom will be discussing the book at this event on Tuesday: aei.org/events/elector….
aei.org/events/elector… I encourage you to join an upcoming event hosted by AEI (online too), with election experts talking about proposals to reform the electoral process, especially to combat extremism.
This is an important development -> notus.org/congress/blue-…
Fellow @UVA grad @brithume just called concern for democracy a “BS issue” because 1/6 only lasted a few hours & checks/balances held. So, because Trump's series of attempts over two months to stay in power despite losing the election failed, he shouldn’t be punished for trying.🤔
Top of Mind producer Samuel Benson was shocked to hear political scientist @raylaraja’s solution to America’s money in politics problem, but it turned out to make more sense than he expected. Discover solutions with Top of Mind at the link in our bio.
Party strength matters…
reminder that this election is a toss up largely because Democratic party elites were strong/willing enough to push their unpopular candidate out of the race while Republican elites have been unable to rid themselves of their unpopular candidate for 3 consecutive cycles
🧵MASSive new national voting-age pop @UMassAmherst @UMassPoll release as we approach Election Day! Telling results on the horserace (Harris +2), gender gap, the disappearance of the emotions gap & the spectre of violence looming over this election... umass.edu/news/article/h…
🤔Are Americans’ attitudes toward local issues structured ideologically or to national policy ideology? ➡️@b_schaffner J. H. Rhodes & @raylaraja find that only a smaller subset of attitudes about local issues appears distinctively local cambridge.org/core/journals/… #FirstView
#OpenAccess from @PSRMJournal - Are local policy attitudes distinct? - cup.org/4fpc7Rv - @b_schaffner, Jesse H. Rhodes (@umasspolsci) & @raylaraja #FirstView
we now have estimates for key states AZ: Trump 51/Harris 47 GA: Trump 51/Harris 46 MI: Harris 51/Trump 46 NV: Harris 51/Trump 47 NC: Trump 50/Harris 48 PA: Harris 49/Trump 48 TX: Trump 51/Harris 47 WI: Harris 50/Trump 47 Full results here: cooperativeelectionstudy.shinyapps.io/stateprezapp20…
just released: national estimates from CES pre-election interviews with over 70k american adults National LVs (Oct. 1 - 25): Harris: 51% Trump: 47% Dynamic crosstabs: cooperativeelectionstudy.shinyapps.io/prez2024pre/ Release: sites.tufts.edu/cooperativeele…
The @UMassPoll teamed up w/ the @LWV for a look at U.S. democracy. Our national voting-age pop poll (w/ an oversample of women) finds enthusiasm, but a crisis of confidence in elections & lots of support for ditching the Electoral College. @UMassAmherst umass.edu/news/article/n…
So glad to partner with @UMassAmherst poll on this headline— and a ton of exciting other democracy data— with a 2x oversample of women in this poll!
A new national University of Massachusetts Amherst x LWV Poll has found that women overwhelmingly want the US to move away from the Electoral College and toward a national popular vote for presidential elections. lwv.org/newsroom/press…