Counter Realignment
Political Change in the Northeastern United States

Counter Realignment explains how the Republican Party lost the northeastern United States as a region of electoral support.

Howard L. Reiter (Author), Jeffrey M. Stonecash (Author)

9780521186810, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 31 January 2011

208 pages, 49 b/w illus. 17 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.33 kg

“Reiter and Stonecash explore profitably a seldom studied antithesis to the Solid Democratic South trending Republican—the Northeast shedding strong Republican ties over the 20th century to become heavily Democratic in the elections of the 1990s and 2000s. They investigate this historical arc by focusing on social and demographic changes that netted Democratic gains and discussing the strategic choices of Republican elites that worked to erode support in the region. This well-crafted work on partisan trends in the Northeast has much to offer those who seek to understand the dynamics of political change.”
—Harold W. Stanley, Southern Methodist University

In Counter Realignment, Howard L. Reiter and Jeffrey M. Stonecash analyze data from the early 1900s to the early 2000s to explain how the Republican Party lost the northeastern United States as a region of electoral support. Although the story of how the 'Solid South' shifted from the Democratic to the Republican parties has received extensive consideration from political scientists, far less attention has been given to the erosion of support for Republicans in the Northeast. Reiter and Stonecash examine who the Republican Party lost as it repositioned itself, resulting in the shift of power in the Northeast from heavily Republican in 1900 to heavily Democratic in the 2000s.

1. Party strategies and transition in the Northeast
2. Party pursuits and the sources of change
3. The first Republican losses: Democratic gains in the 1930s
4. Searching for a majority: the rise of conservatives and second Republican losses
5. Interpreting the Goldwater election and pursuing the South
6. Social change, party response, and further Republican losses
7. National parties and the position of the Northeast
8. The process of change and the future.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Politics & government [JP]