Since first descending Trump Tower's golden escalator in 2015, President Donald Trump has been one of the most schismatic political figures in American history. The 2016 election set a modern record for electoral polarization, blowing open long-emerging divides between urban/suburban and rural voters and those with and without college degrees.
Yet the ensuing two presidential elections have produced a different and perhaps counterintuitive phenomenon: a slight decline in the geographic polarization of the electorate.
Trump’s inroads with voters of color, traditionally an overwhelmingly Democratic constituency, have made heavily minority districts less reliably Democratic. But it doesn’t mean these districts are now reliably Republican either (though some have become more competitive). Plus, even with the ebb in geographic polarization, voters are no more likely to split their tickets than they used to be, tamping down the number of truly competitive races.
Now that detailed results of the 2024 election are available, The Cook Political Report is pleased to introduce the 2025 Cook Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI℠) for all 435 congressional districts (our state-level PVI report was released last month and
What is The Cook Political Report?
The Cook Political Report is an independent, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the US House of Representatives, US Senate, Governors and President as well as American political trends.
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Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.