A Coronavirus Recession Could Doom Trump’s Reelection Chances

Key Points • The coronavirus public health crisis likely will lead to an economic downturn of unknown length and severity. • Historically, second-quarter GDP growth in the election year is an important variable in predicting how an incumbent president will perform in the fall. • A recession could seriously damage […] Read more »

Democrats named Biden, Sanders and Warren as their top picks 18 months ago. What did the primaries change?

Former vice president Joe Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president — after a primary involving months of campaigning, 28 Democratic candidates and over $1 billion in ads. Did any of that affect the result? Not much, our research suggests — but they weren’t meaningless. We’ll explain below. […] Read more »

What history says about crises, approval ratings and a President running for reelection

… The way voters perceive how Trump and his administration are dealing with coronavirus could go a long way towards determining his reelection fate. And we can track that through his approval rating in the coming weeks and months. Trump’s approval rating is the most important datapoint to look at […] Read more »