Trump focused his final campaign blitz on turning out the Republican vote in states with close Senate contests. His campaign stops did not include Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Michigan – states Trump narrowly carried, but where the Democratic incumbents have had easier re-election campaigns than expected. Larry Sabato, director of UVA's Center for Politics, called them “snap-back” states. Trump’s small 2016 margin means there are many voters "who have a party ID not aligned with the president.” “Given the first opportunity, they reassert their old selves,” he said.
Poor weather has the potential to affect turnout, though estimates on the number of early voters are now up to 38 million people, up from 27 million in the 2014 midterm elections. Thirty states plus the District of Columbia exceeded the 2014 numbers. "It’s raining here and lots of places. So what? You won’t melt unless you’re the Wicked Witch of the West," Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics wrote on Twitter just after 9 a.m. "Go Vote!!"
Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a website run by UVA Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato, predicted that Democrats would easily pick up the necessary 23 seats. But it also cautioned that anything was possible with the country so deeply divided and memories of Trump’s upset win in 2016 still fresh in mind.
The Virginia Film Festival, held in Charlottesville, had another successful year. The 31st annual event had more than 30,000 people attend in the four-day span.
The University of Virginia has developed scalpel-free surgery for Parkinson’s patients.
Historically, the president's party routinely loses House seats in midterm elections. Indeed UVA’s Center for Politics points out that the president's party has lost seats in all but three of the 29 midterms held since 1900.
“You have not a [pure] democracy, but a republic accountable to people – but not immediately responsive to the people,” explains Sidney Milkis of UVA’s Miller Center. “That’s why you have a third [of the Senate] turning over, so it doesn’t get too far removed from currents of public opinion.”
Despite its volatile history, UVA has established itself as an exemplar in restorative justice due to its large-scale efforts to uncover and reconcile its ties to slavery.
11. University of Virginia: Thomas Jefferson designed the Academical Village in what is considered one of the most important architectural projects in U.S. history. The neoclassical campus, along with Jefferson’s home, Monticello, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Brody Jewish Center of the University of Virginia held a memorial service Saturday evening in honor of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims.
UVA students and members of the Charlottesville community got a closer look at the history of African-Americans, specifically women, and their influence on UVA and the city as a whole.
(Subscription required) What might giving students more direction look like today? Rather than enforcing rules to keep students on the right path – or even suggesting that such a path exists – a number of colleges across the country are seeking to guide students as they chart their own. One of the more ambitious efforts is unfolding at UVA.
A new report shows that a record number of students earned college degrees in Virginia in the last school year.
Professor Douglas Laycock of the UVA School of Law is one of the nation’s leading experts on religious liberty and has served as lead counsel in six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Democrats should win the House majority with room to spare in Tuesday’s elections, but the UVA prognosticator is warning that the party could fall flat and short of the needed 23-seat pickup. The school’s Larry J. Sabato Crystal Ball said Thursday that liberals should add 29 seats, but, “not so many more that one could rule out the Democrats sputtering out short of the majority.”
Christopher Taylor, the chair of the Johnson County Democrats, said the growth in party registration has been slowly building up over time. And Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan political analysis newsletter run by UVA’s Center for Politics, the Democratic Party as a whole has been pushing for more consistent base engagement since 2016.
Data science is quickly becoming one of the most in-demand disciplines. "Not only are opportunities for exceptional data scientists exponentially growing, but data science is being increasingly applied across diverse industries, in government, and in academia," Phil Bourne, director of the University of Virginia Data Science Institute, said in a statement in August.
Kyle Kondik, a political handicapper and managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at UVA’s Center for Politics, joined the Ohio Matters podcast to provide some insight.
The UVA Cancer Center has been listed as one of the top 100 great oncology programs in the country. The ranking came from Becker's Hospital Review on Wednesday. According to a release, this is the sixth year in a row that UVA has been recognized by Becker's for care, and it is the only health system in Virginia that was on this list this year.
UVA head basketball coach Tony Bennett says the theme for this year's team is "United Pursuit.” "It's pursuit, when you pursue something or seek something you have to do it with all your might," says Bennett.