Polish-American vote

Polish-Americans in the United States comprise a voting bloc sought after by both the Democratic and Republican parties. Polish Americans comprise 3.2% of the United States population, but were estimated at nearly 10% of the overall electorate as of 2012. The Polish-American population is concentrated in several swing states that make issues important to Polish-Americans more likely to be heard by presidential candidates. According to John Kromkowski, a Catholic University professor of political science, Polish-Americans make up an ""almost archetypical swing vote"". The Piast Institute found that Polish Americans are 36.5% Democrats, 33.2% Independents, and 26.1% are Republicans as of 2008. Ideologically, they were categorized as being in the more conservative wing of the Democratic Party, and demonstrated a much stronger inclination for third party candidates in presidential elections than the American public.Historically, Polish-American voters have swung from the Democratic and Republican parties depending on economic and social politics. In the 1918 election, Woodrow Wilson courted Poles through his promises of Polish autonomy. Upon his death and the failures of the proposed League of Nations, Polish-Americans shifted Republican, voting for Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover because of their frustration with Wilson and the weakness of the nascent Polish state. The Democratic Party won over Polonia during the New Deal Coalition forged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and gained strong support for the war effort by Polish-Americans who were fiercely against Nazi Germany. FDR consistently won over 90% of the Polish vote during his four terms. Polish-Americans founded the Polish American Congress (PAC) in 1944 to create strong leadership and represent Polish interests during World War II. FDR met with the PAC and assured Poles of a peaceful and independent Poland following the war. When this did not come to fruition, and with the publication of Arthur Bliss Lane's I Saw Poland Betrayed in 1947, Polish-Americans came to feel that they had been betrayed by the United States government. John F. Kennedy won a majority of the Polish vote in 1960, owing in part to his Catholicism and connection to ethnic communities and the labor movement. Since then, Polish voters have been tied to the more conservative wing of the Democratic Party, but shifted away from the Democrats over social issues such as abortion. Poland's liberation from Soviet occupation during the 1980s was championed to Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, but Bill Clinton seized Polish voters through his expansion of NATO. The relevance of the ""Polish-American vote"" has been in question in recent elections, as Americans of Polish descent have assimilated to U.S. society and increased their rate of exogamous marriages.In modern politics, the Polish-American vote continues to have influence in the United States. The American Polish Advisory Council, a politically-involved network of Polish organizations, has created a political platform and convention, and has shared its agenda with politicians, both at the state and federal level. In the 2012 elections, Polish-Americans have been courted by both the Republican and Democratic parties.