This book places the 2014 elections in Florida in historical perspective and provides an analysis of the outcomes of each of the state and federal races held in that year: Governor, State Constitutional Offices, the US Congress and the Florida State House of Representatives and the State Senate. It draws on information from exit polls and data from state voter registration rolls and county and district election outcomes. It also utilizes campaign expenditure data from the files of the Florida Department of State and from the US Elections Commission. The book provides a discussion of the context within which the elections took place and of the strategies and tactics employed by the candidates. An explanation for the outcome of the gubernatorial race is provided through an analysis of voting coalitions that supported the leading candidates. It closes with an analysis of the competitiveness of elections in Florida.

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.

Traces how the Republican Party in the South after Reconstruction transformed from a biracial organization to a mostly all-white one.

Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor of Florida, spent years in the party’s inner circle. In this no-holds-barred memoir, he shows why he switched sides and became a Democrat. After serving as a Republican governor—one who was on the short list for the vice presidency in 2008—Charlie Crist made headlines when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate as an Independent. He was on the front page again when he endorsed President Obama in 2012 and spoke at the Democratic National Convention—and yet again when he officially joined the Democratic Party later that year. In The Party’s Over, he’ll make even more news when he reveals: The inside story of his 2010 Senate primary campaign against Marco Rubio, where he learned exactly how vicious the Republican leadership can be. His journey from inner circle to persona non grata, thanks to his literal embrace of President Obama. His very frank opinions on Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and other top-tier Republicans. Why he believes that Democrats have the right vision for Florida and the nation. • What he’s learned as a member of both parties and why he remains convinced that the two-party system can still work—with the right leadership. Rather than just rehashing his career, in this book Crist offers a focused indictment of the failings of the Republican Party, naming names and identifying where things went wrong. The Party’s Over is as far from “politics as usual” as you can get.

Prior to the 2020 presidential election, historians considered the disputed 1876 contest—which pitted Republican Rutherford B. Hayes against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden—the most controversial in American history. Examining the work and conclusions of the Potter Committee, the congressional body tasked with investigating the vote, Adam Fairclough’s Bulldozed and Betrayed: Louisiana and the Stolen Elections of 1876 sheds new light on the events surrounding the electoral crisis, especially those that occurred in Louisiana, a state singled out for voter intimidation and rampant fraud. The Potter Committee’s inquiry led to embarrassment for Democrats, uncovering an array of bribes, forgeries, and even coded telegrams showing that the Tilden campaign had attempted to buy the presidency. Testimony also exposed the treachery of Hayes, who, once installed in the White House, permitted insurrectionary Democrats to overthrow the Republican government in Louisiana that had risen to power during the early days of Reconstruction.

This book places the 2012 election in Florida in historical context and provides an explanation for the outcome of the races involved. The book offers descriptions of the races for President, US Senate, US Congress and the Florida State Legislature as well as explanations for the outcomes of these races. The description and analysis uses empirical data on voter registration, voter turnout, and exit polls taken by major national news organizations. Voting behavior in the presidential race in Florida is compared to that in other states.

The 2014 midterm congressional elections provided a view of the attitude of American voters in the sixth year of Barack Obama’s presidency. This book provides insight about the formative aspects of the 2014 campaign season as well as in depth coverage of key races for Congress. The first section has four chapters that cover the substance of topics that impacted this campaign cycle: the popularity and productivity of the 113th Congress, voter suppression laws passed in many states, the role of Super PACs and independent expenditures in the campaigns, and the use of social media by members of Congress running for reelection. Case studies follow the path of ten House and seven Senate races from inception to election postmortem. The chapters are narrative and provide analysis of an array of interesting and diverse contests from throughout the country. The authors provide succinct and highly readable chapters meant to illustrate the distinctive nature of the campaigns they are examining. Individual campaigns and elections are shown “up close” and be ready to compare and contrast because of the common format employed throughout the book. Taken together, the chapters reveal that the roads to Congress, while similar in so many ways, each follow a unique route to Capitol Hill.

This book offers a comprehensive examination of midterm elections from the lens of communications and media coverage. Using a wide variety of methods, this contributed volume covers the differences, similarities, and challenges unique to midterm elections.