Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. maya (Maya Sweedler, senior editor): The first Republican debate last Wednesday featured eight candidates — none of whom was the front-runner. Former President Donald Trump elected to skip the debate, writing on his social media website that “TheContinue Reading

This is a special end-of-meteorological-summer installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast. Galen Druke speaks with pollsters Kristen Soltis Anderson and David Byler in an episode made entirely of “good or bad use of polling” examples. They consider why GOP primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy polls differently depending on survey methodology, whatContinue Reading

The crew discusses their takeaways from the first Republican presidential primary debate in this late-night edition of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast. You can listen to the episode by clicking the “play” button in the audio player above or by downloading it in iTunes, the ESPN App or your favorite podcastContinue Reading

The over- (and under-) performers How well likely Republican primary voters who watched the debate expected each candidate to do before the debate versus how well they thought each candidate actually did We asked respondents how they expected each candidate to do, and how well they actually did, on aContinue Reading

ABC News Photo illustration Welcome to (a version of) FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. maya (Maya Sweedler, senior editor): Well, my friends, the Republican National Committee’s debate qualification period has officially come to a close, meaning the first Republican primary debate is set. We’re confidentContinue Reading