{"id":260,"date":"2019-02-27T15:10:51","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T20:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics\/?p=260"},"modified":"2019-02-27T15:10:51","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T20:10:51","slug":"immigration-debate-looms-large-in-california-republicans-re-election-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/immigration-debate-looms-large-in-california-republicans-re-election-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration Debate Looms Large in California Republican’s Re-election Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week we\u2019ve explored the relationship between the public and its representation at the state level. One noteworthy trend is that the partisan alignment of a district predicts votes of its congressperson (Casellas and Leal, 2013). Wong also found, in analysis of interior enforcement bills similar to the IIRIRA\u2019s 287(g) provision, that local Latino and Asian population correlate with decreased support for restrictionist policies (2014). Both findings fit into an overarching message of the week: that the primary goal of representatives is re-election.<\/p>\n

Keeping in mind these findings, it would be interesting to examine election and representation dynamics in a highly divided, significantly Hispanic district, where population-based cues are unclear.\u00a0This<\/a> article, written about former Congressman Jeff Denham (R) just months before the 2018 elections, highlights some of the difficulties of governing in such a district, and specifically illustrates Denham\u2019s actions on immigration. Denham\u2019s locality (with no clear partisan advantage, and a 40% Hispanic population) made representation difficult, which may have contributed to his centrist position on immigration. In the months before the election, Denham made headlines when he attempted to force the House to vote on several immigration bills via a discharge petition, a move that drew ire from his own party. The motion failed, and the subsequent immigration bill that Denham helped craft stalled. At home, Denham\u2019s opponent accused him of failing his constituents and only voting the party line. This type of response, and Denham\u2019s subsequent electoral loss, may represent yet another reason for continued immigration gridlock.<\/p>\n

Discussion question:<\/strong> The new congressman from CA-10, Josh Harder (D), won with 52.3% of the vote. Why might he have an easier or harder time keeping his constituents happy? How might increasing polarization or shifting demographics have portended Denham\u2019s defeat?<\/p>\n

Article Citation:<\/strong> CNN, Lauren Fox. \u201cImmigration Debate Looms Large in California Republican\u2019s Re-Election Bid.\u201d CNN. https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/07\/03\/politics\/immigration-california-republicans-jeff-denham\/index.html (February 25, 2019).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week we\u2019ve explored the relationship between the public and its representation at the state level. One noteworthy trend is that the partisan alignment of a district predicts votes of its congressperson (Casellas and Leal, 2013). Wong also found, in analysis of interior enforcement bills similar to the IIRIRA\u2019s 287(g) provision, that local Latino and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news-all","category-news-3a","category-news-wk4","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/immigrationpolitics-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}