We spoke with UC Davis experts in history and political science about their worries and hopes for the 2026 midterm elections. Many shared a mutual concern that election results will be contested by either or both political parties. However, they also shared hopes that this election, whatever the results, would lead to a stronger nation and democracy.
Supreme Court rulings in recent years have ended key protections in the Voting Rights Act, potentially resulting in losses of representation for Black voters in southern states. Historian Gregory Downs said that these changes could be similar to the end of Reconstruction protections after the Civil War.
A recent decision in Virginia restores voting rights based on a law from 1870 that sought to prevent discrimination by the state. Legal briefs written by UC Davis experts provided the historical groundwork for that decision.
Federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis is part of a larger history of government violence against citizens and non-citizens alike. However, today’s technology, rhetoric and legal tensions are changing what that violence means for society.
For this edition of Books of the Month, as protests and political divides continue to disrupt lives across the U.S., we’ve selected books that grapple with these issues, telling stories of both survival and resistance.
Today's battles over redistricting is purely political and part of a long tradition of partisan hardball dating back nearly to the nation’s founding. As happened in the past, the result of this national battle unfolding in state legislatures could have lasting impacts on our political future.
This year, both the winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History and the sole finalist are alumni of the UC Davis History Department Ph.D. program. The Pulitzer Prize is one of the most prestigious honors in journalism, literature and music composition.
Historian Gregory Downs explains the complicated history of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, including subsequent laws that undermined equal protections it guaranteed, as well as the court case affirming the definition of birthright citizenship we take for granted today.
After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War by Gregory Downs, associate professor of history argues that the war did not end with Confederate capitulation in 1865. Instead, a second phase commenced which lasted until 1871. Using its war powers, the U.S. Army oversaw an ambitious occupation, stationing tens of thousands of troops in hundreds of outposts across the defeated South.
