Many political observers see the Democratic presidential candidates as veering to the left. As veteran political journalist Thomas Edsall writes, “Leading Democratic candidates are supporting bold progressive policy initiatives.” Even the supposedly moderate Joe Biden is proposing policies that are more liberal than Hillary Clinton’s, according to a recent study. […] Read more »
Warren Polishes Sanders Playbook
Trips to Iowa and New Hampshire over the last month provided me plenty of insights into the 2020 Democratic field, but not too many answers. … Right now, this appears likely to be a two-person race between Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, and it will be until someone else elbows […] Read more »
Grassroots Blossom Across America, Reshaping Country’s Political Geography
As the 2018 midterm campaigns hit their stride last summer, there was finally some mainstream recognition that post-2016 grassroots groups — sometimes discussed as “Resistance” groups — had become an electoral force to be reckoned with. Reporters and academics have established certain baseline facts: • The new groups are disproportionately composed […] Read more »
What Happened When The Front-Runners Were All On Stage
The three polling leaders — Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — shared a debate stage for the first time Thursday night. From the spin room floor in Houston, the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast broke down who came out on top and who struggled. FiveThirtyEight Read more »
The Suburban Vote Isn’t as Blue as It Looks
My colleague, David Wasserman wrote a (typically) insightful analysis on GOP state Sen. Dan Bishop’s narrow win in Thursday’s special election in North Carolina’s 9th district. His main conclusion was that the special election continued a trend we’ve seen since 2016 of suburbs voting more Democratic, while small town and […] Read more »
Biden delivers the debate performance he needed, despite occasional missteps
With all the leading Democratic candidates on the same stage for the first time this year, former vice president Joe Biden on Thursday delivered the kind of performance his supporters have been waiting for — combative when needed and in the thick of the action throughout. Biden did not dominate […] Read more »