States of Change: Two Perspectives on Demographic Change and American Political Campaigns

The States of Change: Demographics and Democracy project is a collaboration of the Center for American Progress, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the Brookings Institution. The project began in 2014 and has been generously funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

This year, in addition to producing a report on demographics and political representation gaps, the project commissioned two papers from political strategists on the impact of demographic change on political campaigns. The strategists, Anita Dunn and Alex Lundry, reflect on the role of demographics in the 2016 election and present their perspectives on how campaigns might respond to future shifts in the make-up of the electorate. The papers were initially released at the February 2017 conference and the final versions are now available along with a video recording of the conference.

Previously, in year one, States of Change examined the changing demography of the nation and projected the racial and ethnic composition of every state to 2060. The detailed findings, available in the initial report, were discussed at the project’s February 2015 conference. In year two, the project’s leaders commissioned six papers on the policy implications of the demographic changes, two each from different political perspectives on the significance of the changes for the family, for the economy and workforce, and for the social contract. A second report, released with those papers in February 2016, projected possible presidential election outcomes from 2016 to 2032 using data from the project’s first report.

States of Change will continue to examine the relationship between demographics and political representation, and the implications for our democracy.

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