How to Build a Supermajority

For the past fifteen years, American politics has been in a perpetual state of hyper-polarization. Our two political parties trade narrow congressional majorities, make incremental policy changes, and then are swiftly voted out of power. This creates a cycle of stasis and stagnation that causes Americans’ already-low faith in their government and institutions to further deteriorate. The solution is to build a supermajority that can pass policy change that is durable and improves the lives of the American people.

We aim to show what it looks like to build a supermajority coalition, one that can win in broad swaths of the country and expand the map of competitive states outside the handful of battlegrounds. That means going beyond traditional polling to give leaders and policymakers a more textured understanding of what divides the American electorate, what unites them, and how issues can be best prioritized to build a durable governing majority.

We found that there are multiple paths towards a supermajority coalition. But the throughline is that these coalitions must include people with ideologically diverse viewpoints, especially on social issues. Only 14% of the electorate is completely conservative and 10% is completely liberal. There’s no secret coalition of highly ideological voters waiting to be driven to the ballot box; this is the heterodox American electorate.