Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign for president of the United States. In this emergency installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew discusses why he lost, why he decided to drop out when he did and what his role in American politics will be […] Read more »
The primary difference
Juxtaposing the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries creates something like an experiment. Two different candidates, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, faced the same opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in many of the same states, with the same potential electorate. Yet the results were quite different. Biden did far better than […] Read more »
Rulings on Wisconsin Election Raise Questions About Judicial Partisanship
In a pair of extraordinary rulings on Monday, the highest courts in Wisconsin and the nation split along ideological lines to reject Democratic efforts to defer voting in Tuesday’s elections in the state given the coronavirus pandemic. Election law experts said the stark divisions in the rulings did not bode […] Read more »
Coronavirus has ignited a battle over voting by mail. Here’s why it’s so controversial.
One of the biggest fights of this year’s presidential election may be over the election itself and how to hold it during the coronavirus crisis. Vote-by-mail, long mostly a hobbyhorse of good-government advocates, has suddenly been thrust to the center of an escalating partisan war as some say it’s the […] Read more »
Applying Conventional Criteria to Biden’s Unconventional Vice Presidential Pool
Key Points• Biden’s historic announcement that his running mate will be a woman will limit his process in an unprecedented way, yet it still leaves him with a number of choices who reachable voters are likely to view as plausible presidents.• Even if Biden emphasizes choosing a presidential-caliber running mate, […] Read more »
Politics Through the Looking Glass: Virus Scrambles the Left-Right Lines
… As Republicans prepare for a re-election battle almost certain to hinge on perceptions of the Trump administration’s readiness and efficiency in performing its most solemn duty — to protect American lives — the decades-old debate over government’s role in American life has entered an unfamiliar phase of discombobulation. A […] Read more »