# THE SHIFTING TERRAIN PROJECT ## Residences of Koch and Democracy Alliance Donors The Shifting Terrain project uncovered the geographic origins of prominent liberal and conservative megadonors. [ Read more arrow\_circle\_right ](/graphs-and-maps-0) ![Graph](/sites/g/files/omnuum11176/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/terrain/files/shifting-terrain-graph5_3.jpg?h=6e9f2a37&itok=okxO8DbK) ## Welcome Launched in the spring of 2015, the Shifting Terrain project documents and seeks to explain recent major transformations in U.S. national and state politics and public policymaking. The project addresses several overarching questions: - In recent years, how have ultra-conservatives reorganized and gained new leverage over and through the Republican Party, pushing that party much further to the right than standard analyses of public attitudes would lead us to expect? - How have advocacy groups, constituency organizations, and donor networks shifted in and around the Democratic Party? - In what ways have the reorganized U.S. right and left influenced policymaking and contributed to asymmetric partisan polarization, government gridlock, growing public distrust, and rising economic inequality? Researchers are analyzing data from archives, organizational web sites, field observations of events and meetings, and interviews with key political leaders and activists. Moving beyond the usual emphasis on individual-level electoral, attitudinal, and demographic data, the project explores shifting arrays of organizations over time, documents elite careers within and across organizations, and focuses on organized consortia of political donors (not just individual billionaires and millionaires). Investigations are led by Harvard Professor Theda Skocpol, working in collaboration with Columbia University Professor Alexander Hertel-Fernandez; Dr. Vanessa Williamson of the Brookings Institution; and Harvard graduate students in Government Jason Sclar, Angie Bautista-Chavez, and Sarah James. ## Highlights **How the Right Trounced Liberals in the States — Feature piece in** ***Democracy Journal*** *Conservatives have mastered the art of cross-state policy advocacy, while liberal efforts have fizzled. Theda Skocpol and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez write about "the conservative triple whammy," organizational innovations in conservative political strategy, and the failure of liberals to counteract these trends for* [Democracy Journal](http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/39/how-the-right-trounced-liberals-in-the-states/). **The Republican Party’s 50-State Solution — Feature piece in** ***The New York Times*** *Thomas B. Edsall featured Shifting Terrain's research in a piece for the* [*New York Times*](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/opinion/campaign-stops/the-republican-partys-50-state-solution.html?_r=0) *comparing the state-level political strategies of liberals and conservatives, arguing that conservatives have successfully mobilized where liberals "have left behind little more than a litany of abandoned acronyms."* ## Latest News [### Democrats are losing to Republicans at the state level, and badly. Here's why. ](/news/democrats-are-losing-republicans-state-level-and-badly-heres-why) August 03, 2016 Skocpol and Hertel-Fernandez explain the inner-workings of complex Republican state-level political networks that have vastly out-organized liberals at lower level of the American political system. ![charles_and_david_koch_01.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11176/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/terrain/files/charles_and_david_koch_01.jpg?itok=CUYiULC2) [### Inside the donor network: Studies unravel the towering influence money has over politics — on the right and left ](/news/inside-donor-network-studies-unravel-towering-influence-money-has-over-politics-%E2%80%94-right) June 18, 2016 Sean McElwee and Roberta Barnett writing for Salon discuss how donor groups grow and work strategically to achieve political objectives, using Hertel-Fernandez and Skocpol's research. ![Koch brothers capitol building](/sites/g/files/omnuum11176/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/terrain/files/kochs_capitol_building.jpg?itok=rLVDUd8e) [### After Trump: how authoritarian voters will change American politics ](/news/after-trump-how-authoritarian-voters-will-change-american-politics) April 28, 2016 Amanda Taub writing for Vox.com discusses "the new era of American authoritarian politics," using Skocpol and Hertel-Fernandez's research to detail unprecedented shifts occurring in the modern political system. ![Donald Trump is pictured.](/sites/g/files/omnuum11176/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/terrain/files/trumpfreso.jpg?itok=c8otuO0I) [### Why Charles Koch says "it's possible" he could support Hillary Clinton ](/news/why-charles-koch-says-its-possible-he-could-support-hillary-clinton) April 25, 2016 Lee Drutman uses Skocpol and Hertel-Fernandez's research on the success of the Koch network of political organizations at the state level in recent years in a piece for Vox.com. ![charleskoch.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11176/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/terrain/files/charleskoch.jpg?itok=zkSn62fg) [### How conservative megadonors built a shadow GOP that weakened the official party ](/news/featured-vox) April 14, 2016 Jeff Stein of Vox.com uses Theda Skocpol's work to show how the megadonors such as the Koch brothers weakened the Republican Party with their own political infrastructure. ![The Koch Brothers](/sites/g/files/omnuum11176/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/terrain/files/koch_illo2.0.0.jpg?itok=kXOpYLaZ) [### Five Myths About the Koch Brothers — And Why It Matters To Set Them Straight ](/news/five-myths-about-koch-brothers-%E2%80%94-and-why-it-matters-set-them-straight) March 10, 2016 Skocpol and Hertel-Fernandez's research deconstructs commonly held misperceptions about the Koch brothers and their political networks on billmoyers.com. ![David Koch is pictured.](/sites/g/files/omnuum11176/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/terrain/files/koch3.jpg?itok=TV6hYBvk) [### Trump will win or lose - Either way, the Koch network will still shape the Republican Party ](/news/trump-will-win-or-lose-either-way-koch-network-will-still-shape-republican-party) February 29, 2016 Alex Hertel-Fernandez and Theda Skocpol trace the evolution of the Koch political network in an article by Henry Farrell of the Washington Post. ![David Koch is pictured.](/sites/g/files/omnuum11176/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/terrain/files/david_koch.jpeg?itok=K1gzbnQL) [### Who Owns the GOP? ](/news/featured-dissent-magazine) February 03, 2016 Theda Skocpol traces the emergence of conservative groups in her review of Jane Mayer's Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right published in Dissent in February. ![Pictured: The Koch brothers.](/sites/g/files/omnuum11176/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/terrain/files/kochs1.jpg?itok=QM7uT-Ir) [### How the Right Trounced Liberals in the States ](/news/how-right-trounced-liberals-states) January 31, 2016 Conservatives have mastered the art of cross-state policy advocacy, while liberal efforts have fizzled. Skocpol and Hertel-Fernandez trace historical changes in conservative organizational strategy and argue that liberal organizations have failed to keep... description [ More arrow\_circle\_right ](/news)