The electability difference between Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden

… As I pointed out in July, there is a slew of evidence that more moderate candidates have done better than those closer to ideological poles in House elections over the last decade. Now, the difference isn’t so great as to make Warren unelectable, and there are other factors at […] Read more »

Republicans Claim Trump Closed a 17-Point Gap in Kentucky. That’s Not Quite What Happened.

It seemed in many ways like nothing new: another high-ranking Republican official offering a dubious assertion about the potent political powers of President Trump. But a claim from the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel — that Mr. Trump helped lift Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky from a […] Read more »

The State Of The Polls, 2019

Much maligned for their performance in the 2016 general election — and somewhat unfairly so, since the overall accuracy of the polls was only slightly below average that year by historical standards — American election polls have been quite accurate since then. … Does that mean everything is looking up […] Read more »

When it comes to polls, mode matters

… Until recently, what physicians call “heroic measures” — high risk therapies, undertaken as a last resort, with the understanding that anything less would surely result in failure — were sufficient to produce accurate polls. That’s changing though as low response rates now combine with radically different “telephone” habits. CONT. […] Read more »