| Voter Participation Data Center

March 4, 2016

2016 Election

2016 Primary Spotlight: March 5-6

This weekend, five states are holding presidential primaries or caucuses:
Louisiana: Democratic and Republican primary elections (Saturday)
Kansas: Democratic and Republican caucuses (Saturday)
Kentucky: Republican caucuses (Saturday)
Maine: Republican caucuses (Saturday), Democratic caucuses (Sunday)
Nebraska: Democratic caucuses (Saturday)
(Puerto Rico will also have its Republican primary election on Sunday.)

For both parties, all of their state primaries and caucuses this weekend are “closed”—meaning that only registered Republicans can vote in the Republican primary or caucus, and only registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary or caucus. (Unaffiliated voters can’t vote in either party’s presidential primary or caucus this weekend.)

But in today’s post, we’d like to focus on Saturday’s Republican primaries and caucuses—because these four contests, with 234 delegates at stake, could have major implications for understanding which candidate registered Republican voters prefer.

While the Rising American Electorate (RAE)—unmarried women, people of color, and millennials—make up well over the majority (56.7%) of eligible voters nationally, they make up less than half of the vote-eligible population in Kansas (49%), Kentucky (48%), and Maine (43%). The RAE makes up 63% of the eligible voters in Louisiana.

Louisiana is also the outlier among the four March 5 GOP primary states in terms of the racial composition of its electorate—people of color make up 38 percent of the Pelican State’s eligible voters, compared to 16% in Kansas and 12% in Kentucky. (There are too few people of color in Maine for our researchers to be able to get reliable statistics on them.)

Finally, Louisiana also leads the states voting on Saturday in terms of unmarried women as a proportion of the vote-eligible population: 29% of vote-eligible Louisiana residents are unmarried women, compared to 25% in Kansas and Kentucky and 26% in Maine.

Learn more about unmarried women in these states:
Louisiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Maine

Statistical Profile of Unmarried Women: Maine

Our research team has compiled available data from the US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other sources to put together this statistical profile of the demographic and economic circumstances facing unmarried women in the state of Maine.

Report updated June 2017

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Statistical Profile of Unmarried Women (Maine) (PDF)

A statistical profile of the demographic and economic circumstances facing unmarried women in the state of Maine. (Updated June 2017)

What We're Reading

U.S. Census: Unmarried and Single Americans Week

To commemorate Unmarried and Single Americans Week (September 17-23), the U.S. Census has produced a “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) of 2016 census data about unmarried Americans. Here are some of the highlights:

There are 110.6 unmarried people 18 or older in America, making up 45.2% of the U.S. adult population.
35.4 million Americans lived alone in 2016, representing 28.1% of all US households — up from 17.1% in 1970.
Despite unmarried people being 45.2% of the U.S. adult population, only 39.6% of voters in the 2016 presidential election were unmarried.

Read the rest of the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) on unmarried Americans.

Millennials to pass baby boomers as largest voter-eligible age group, and what it means

For the first time, millennials next year will pass baby boomers as the largest generation of Americans eligible to vote.

By Ronald Brownstein, CNN Senior Political Analyst

July 25, 2017

(CNN)In 2018, the American electorate will cross a historic threshold that could reshape the political balance of power-or leave Democrats fuming in frustration at continued Republican dominance of Washington.

For the first time, millennials next year will pass baby boomers as the largest generation of Americans eligible to vote, according to the well-respected demographic forecasts from the States of Change project at the Center for American Progress, a liberal advocacy group. That transition will end a remarkable four decades of dominance for the baby boomers, who have been the largest generation of eligible voters since 1978, when they surpassed what’s been popularly referred to as the Greatest Generation (or G.I. Generation) raised during the Depression. Read more here.

How Votes Have Shifted: Changes in Partisan Performance 2000-2016

Demographic change is slowly, but inevitably, moving Western states to the left.

By Reid Wilson

The 11th story in The Hill’s Changing America series, in which they investigate the demographic and economic trends shaping the nation’s politics. Nevada’s booming growth underscores the two trends working most in Democrats’ favor: the rising power of cities that are acting more reliably liberal, and the expanding influence of Hispanic-Americans who are becoming the nation’s largest minority community. Read more here.

2016 Primary Spotlight: March 5-6

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Statistical Profile of Unmarried Women: Maine

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