Gerrymandering. It’s become the embodiment of so many of the evils in the U.S. political system. Frustrated by the lack of competitive elections? Blame gerrymandering. Appalled by the growing number of ideological extremists in Congress? Blame gerrymandering. What about congressional gridlock? Gerrymandering did it. But gerrymandering — the drawing of political boundaries for the benefit […]
Former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio recently announced his bid for the Arizona Senate seat being vacated by Republican Jeff Flake. To say that Arpaio is a controversial figure is putting it mildly: He was sued by the Department of Justice for violating Latinos’ civil rights and found in contempt of court for illegally detaining […]
The Senate voted to end the government shutdown on Monday, less than three days after it began. The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast crew looks at what each side gained or lost from the impasse. The team also debates why President Trump’s approval rating has ticked up in recent weeks and how his popularity is faring among […]
The government shutdown appears to be over. It will have lasted less than one full weekday. Congressional Republicans and President Trump probably “won,” in the sense that the Senate approved a government funding bill that did not include any kind of policy along the lines of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Democrats’ […]
Welcome to a special extra edition of FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. hilary.krieger (Hilary Krieger, Washington editor): Welcome to a special FiveThirtyEight politics chat on the occasion of the government shutdown! We’re going to talk about what this means for Democrats, Trump and immigration because, with the government not […]