Guide to The Fifty: Great Lakes States
Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan
Ohio: ‘Redshift’ in polling
As the state moves further to the right of the rest of the nation, pollsters are having an increasingly hard time predicting election results as the shift is due to a changing electorate, rather than a shift in public opinion.
Indiana: The KKK in politics
Indiana’s ugly history of supporting the Ku Klux Klan provides an important look into the state’s ancestral connections to the Protestant church and its history with racism and xenophobia.
Iowa: The farm crisis of the 1980s
Fears of economic insecurity power the state’s reversion back to the right, putting a spotlight on voters’ willingness to turn away from social liberalism.
Wisconsin: Nationalization of politics/media
The nationalization of political parties combined with the erosion of local media sources makes rural voters in the state more likely to engage with issues that don’t directly affect their daily lives.
Michigan: Right-wing extremism
The state has a growing problem with domestic terrorism from white supremacists groups, many of whom are animated by inflammatory conservative rhetoric.
Previous Week: Black Belt States | Next Week: West Coast States