USAPP - American Politics and Policy at LSE

College & University

This week the Republican Party held its national convention to nominate Donald Trump as the party’s presidential candidate. In this Q&A, LSE US Centre Director Professor Peter Trubowitz comments that the Republicans’ attacks on the Democrats as being soft on law and order issues at their convention is part of their attempt to win back white suburban voters. To see whether these attacks have found their mark, we should keep a close eye on Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President, Joe Biden’s favorability ratings in the coming days.

Republican politicians have been portrayed traditionally as having less concern for the environment, but what does the evidence say about the GOP and pollution? In new research, Luke Fowler and Jaclyn Kettler examined 20 years’ of data on state-level toxic waste releases. They found that there was likely to be more pollution when the US Congress and state Governorships were held by Republicans, and that pollution was lower when these institutions were held by Democrats.