Beginning in 2010, more than 40 states adopted the Common Core State Standards. In the years immediately following their adoption, educators, parents, and policymakers familiar with the standards strongly supported them. Both Republicans and Democrats heralded the Common Core as one of the most promising school reforms in decades. Fast forward to today--a midterm election year--and the Common Core is a deeply controversial topic, despite the fact that the standards have not changed since they were first released. In the past year, two states--Indiana and Oklahoma--have withdrawn entirely from the Common Core, claiming the federal government has poisoned an otherwise positive education reform. In addition, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) attempted to unilaterally repeal the standards and is now in a dispute with the state education board and the state superintendent. To understand the cause of state legislators' and governors' sudden resistance to the Common Core, the Center for American Progress (CAP) examined the influence of politics on the Common Core by tracking the popularity of "Common Core" as a Google search term, the number of news articles related to the Common Core published since 2009, and public opinion polls. Based on this research, it appears that both public interest and opinion of the Common Core reacts to--rather than causes--the politicization of the standard.