David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report published an op-ed article in the New York Times on Wednesday provocatively titled “Why a Long Democratic Primary Slugfest Might Help Re-Elect Trump.” In the piece, Wasserman argues that the Democratic presidential nomination race in 2020 could well turn out to be a […] Read more »
Trump May Have an Unlikely Re-election Ally
Donald Trump’s low approval ratings have attracted a crush of Democrats vying to make him a one-term president. But he might have an unlikely ally in his re-election bid: Democrats’ mess of a primary system. … A brokered convention wasn’t a grave concern for Democrats in 2008 or 2016, because […] Read more »
Why Bernie Sanders supporters shouldn’t be praising the DNC rule change
Bernie Sanders’ acolytes cheered this past weekend as the the Democratic National Committee changed superdelegate and caucus rules for the 2020 primary season. They really shouldn’t have. While on the surface the rule changes seemed to benefit progressives, a closer look suggests the exact opposite. These rule changes will likely […] Read more »
The Ultimate Crowded Field
No president has been so consistently unpopular so early in his term as Donald Trump. Though there are three years left to improve them, these weak numbers are a bad sign for his reelection prospects. The political betting marketplace PredictIt gives him just 1-in-3 odds of winning in 2020. Little […] Read more »
Celebrities, Lies, And Outsiders: How This Election Surprised One Political Scientist
In the run-up to this election season, The Party Decides seemed to be on every political science nerd’s reading list. The 2008 book by political scientists Marty Cohen, David Karol, Hans Noel, and John Zaller laid out how the invisible primary — party elites’ behind-the-scenes machinations before primary season — […] Read more »
What’s Bernie’s plan?
Realism is a trait not always characteristic of presidential candidates. … It’s clear to just about everyone, with the possible exception of the senator and a few of his acolytes, that Sanders will not win the Democratic nomination, yet he persists in his desire to “take it to the convention […] Read more »