Ronald Keith Gaddie

Lauren Cohen Bell

David Elliot Meyer

Incumbents don't lose. So how did nationally prominent House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lose a primary battle to college professor David Brat, an unknown political rookie? In Slingshot: The Defeat of Eric Cantor, authors Lauren Cohen Bell, David Elliot Meyer and Ronald Keith Gaddie take advantage of exceptional behind-the-scenes access to the Brat campaign to explain the challenger’s victory. They examine the essential need for elected officials to maintain strong support in their home districts and just how Cantor’s focus on climbing the party ranks in Washington contributed to his loss. They also show how local “rules of the game” —particularly voter mobilization in this case—affect elections, and they explore the continuing impact of the Tea Party and its role in the factionalism of current Southern politics. “This is a book that needed to be written. Eric Cantor’s defeat was not only shocking but it runs against everything we teach in our election courses. By extracting the lessons from Cantor’s defeat, Slingshot helps to inform our more general understanding of campaigns & elections.” -Professor Kirby Goidel, Texas A&M University

The Defeat of Eric Cantor

Slingshot

Charles S. Bullock

Shifting the focal point from incumbency to open seat competition in the U.S. House of Representatives is the task this book embraces. In the process, the authors demonstrate the importance of candidates and competition, and the role of money, gender, and special elections in determining how open seats get filled and when partisan changes occur.

Where the Action is

Elections to Open Seats in the U.S. House

Scott E. Buchanan

The death of Georgia governor-elect Eugene Talmadge in late 1946 launched a constitutional crisis that ranks as one of the most unusual political events in U.S. history: the state had three active governors at once, each claiming that he was the true elected official. This is the first full-length examination of that episode, which wasn't just a crazy quirk of Georgia politics (though it was that) but the decisive battle in a struggle between the state's progressive and rustic forces that had continued since the onset of the Great Depression. In 1946, rural forces aided by the county unit system, Jim Crow intimidation of black voters, and the Talmadge machine's “loyal 100,000” voters united to claim the governorship. In the aftermath, progressive political forces in Georgia would shrink into obscurity for the better part of a generation. In this volume is the story of how the political, governmental, and Jim Crow social institutions not only defeated Georgia's progressive forces but forestalled their effectiveness for a decade and a half.

Skullduggery, Machinations, and the Decline of Georgia's Progressive Politics

The Three Governors Controversy

Born to Run tells the stories of nine young politicians from all walks of life who enter into races at the state and local levels in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Georgia, Nebraska, and Maine. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Ronald Keith Gaddie

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