Beyond Red State and Blue State: Electoral Gaps in the 21st Century American Electorate

Beyond Red State and Blue State: Electoral Gaps in the 21st Century American Electorate explores the many demographic gaps that exist within the American electorate.   

This book is designed to explore the most important voting gaps in American politics today.  It shows that twenty-first-century Americans are divided on a wide range of political fronts that go far beyond the somewhat simplistic “red state, blue state” rubric that has become so popular in American political discourse.  Reality is far more complex.  The authors capture and explain this complexity through a collection of chapters by leading scholars of a range of voting gaps, including racial/ethnic gaps, the marriage gap, the worship attendance gap, the income/class gap, the rural/urban gap, the gender gap, and the generation gap.  Also included is a chapter by a leading political pollster and strategist, Anna Greenberg, on how campaigns use information about voting gaps.

Laura R. Olson is professor of political science at Clemson University.  Her research focuses on contemporary religion, civic engagement, and American politics, with special emphasis on the political attitudes and behaviors of clergy.  She is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of seven books, including Religion and Politics in America: Faith, Culture, and Strategic Choices (Westview, 2004) and many scholarly articles and book chapters.

John C. Green is Distinguished Professor of political science at the University of Akron and the director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. He has done extensive research on American political parties, campaign finance, and religion and politics. An author and editor of numerous books, his most recent publications include The Faith Factor (Praeger, 2007) and The State of the Parties (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).