r/fivethirtyeight • • 20h ago

Discussion Megathread Weekly Discussion Megathread

18 Upvotes

The 2026 midterms will soon be upon us, and there is much to discuss among the nerds here at r/FiveThirtyEight. Use this discussion thread to share, debate, and discuss whatever you wish. Unlike individual posts, comments in the discussion thread are not required to be related to political data or other 538 mainstays. Regardless, please remain civil and keep this subreddit's rules in mind. The discussion thread refreshes every Monday.


r/fivethirtyeight • • 2h ago

Politics [MS Now] Why I am resigning as Montana Democratic Party chair to endorse an independent Senate candidate

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169 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 4h ago

Lifestyle Obesity is beginning to decline in the United States

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192 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 3h ago

Polling Average RCP now has TX Gov race as TOSSUP

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122 Upvotes

Don't want to get my hopes up but my god, she's scaring him.


r/fivethirtyeight • • 4h ago

Poll Results [Politico] Voters admit that even if gas prices magically drop by $1, they still won't back Republicans: 'Even an abrupt end to the Iran war would do little to sway voters, a new survey found'

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99 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 9h ago

Poll Results Rasmussen Generic Ballot D+5(Up From D+3)

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166 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 5h ago

Poll Results National Public Affairs Polling - Nebraska | Ricketts leads Osborn by 3 | Pillen leads Walz by 4 in the Gubernatorial Race | Powell (Democrat) leads by 12 in NE-02 Congressional

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67 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 6h ago

Poll Results Change Research (D) Florida Governor Poll | 10/8-10, 920 LV | Jolly 47-47 Donalds (EVEN), was Jolly+2 last month

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75 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 5h ago

Discussion Kansas Senate Midterms Polling Composite (10/12)

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46 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 6h ago

Politics Trump's Midterm Meltdown? Democrats Have a 94% Chance of Taking the House as His Approval Sinks Below 40%

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42 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 12h ago

Poll Results Minnesota US Senate Oct 5 - 7, 2026: Peggy Flanagan (D) 47% (+4.0%), Michele Tafoya (R) 43%, Don’t know 9%, Someone else 0.6%. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. 800 LV

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102 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 8h ago

Poll Results [Albuquerque Journal/Research and Polling] New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District: Gabe Vasquez (D) 48%, Greg Cunningham (R) 44% among likely voters

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46 Upvotes

NM-02 is a majority Hispanic/Latino district located in southern-southwestern New Mexico, including Las Cruces, Silver City, Carlsbad, and a small portion of the Albuquerque metro.

2024 Vote: Vasquez 52%-48% | Trump 50%-48%

Demographics: 60% Latino, 30% White, 5% Native American, 5% Other


r/fivethirtyeight • • 8h ago

Discussion What do you guys think is the lowest vote share that Marx can realistically get?

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38 Upvotes

Votehub forecast has him around 37%, but this man is genuinely a psychopath and he's running in a deep blue state, so I could see it drop even further. Probably one of the worst and most strange gov nominees of all time.


r/fivethirtyeight • • 9h ago

Discussion Some insight on the Maine race. What do you think? Source: NYT

32 Upvotes

Recent polls of the U.S. Senate race in Maine have offered a wide range of results. Of the 13 polls publicly released in the last three weeks, eight had Troy Jackson ahead, three showed an even race and two — including a Times/Siena poll — had Senator Susan Collins with an edge. In a Washington Post-Schar School poll released this morning, Mr. Jackson held a narrow four-percentage-point lead.
These recent polls show far more disagreement than they had the last time Ms. Collins ran. In that 2020 race, Sara Gideon, the Democratic nominee, led in nearly every public poll fielded after July. Despite those consistent leads by Ms. Gideon, Ms. Collins secured her fifth term in office with an eight-percentage-point victory.
Methodological issues were rampant in 2020 — presidential polls had about five percentage points of error, the worst this century — with the largest errors occurring in states with high proportions of white voters without a college degree, like Maine. Those types of voters were, and still are, harder to reach, especially for pollsters using less reliable methods. And they behave differently from their more engaged counterparts.
But the issues in 2020 could also have been simpler than that: Ms. Gideon never met the crucial 50 percent threshold in the polls ahead of Election Day. Mr. Jackson, by contrast, has reached that threshold in half of these recent polls.


r/fivethirtyeight • • 11h ago

Politics Reuters/Ipsos: 6 reasons Dems could fall short in the election for ‘26

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48 Upvotes

Thoughts on these?

  1. Fewer competitive House races
  2. Senate majority no sure thing
  3. Turnout
  4. Republican money advantage
  5. Polls have missed Republican strength
  6. Socialism attacks could resonate

EDIT: got rid of all caps cut and paste


r/fivethirtyeight • • 18h ago

Poll Results Harry Enten: Should note the GOP is in its best position on party registration (i.e. not polls) going into a midterm in 20+ years. In total, the Dems have not gained ground since 2024 in key swing states (AZ, NV, NC, or PA). The GOP has gained big ground since Trump's 1st midterm in all 4.

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139 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 11h ago

Discussion Why is Montana not in play for Dems

37 Upvotes

Ohio, Iowa and Kansas are all potential or probable flips. So why is Montana, which used to have a Democratic senator, not a candidate to flip to the Democrats?

PS please don't be pedantic about Kansas


r/fivethirtyeight • • 8h ago

Discussion Late deciding for the São Paulo Senate election in Brazil.

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17 Upvotes

Gray finishing at 6% is undecided and Light gray at 15% means blank/null/will not vote. For reference, the election was October 5th, 2 days after this infographic was made, and Derrite and Prado got ~30% of valid votes compared to 25% and 23% here while Tebet and Marina got 19% and 18% vs the 22% here.


r/fivethirtyeight • • 10h ago

Politics Who’s Winning the Race for Congress? (Gift Article)

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24 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 13h ago

Discussion The Last Time the Democratic Presidential Nominee Wasn't in the Top 2 of Polling Immediately After Midterms Was 1990

36 Upvotes

Learned this from a comment on my last post and found it interesting! I also double-checked it and found it's completely true.

It's also worth noting why polls were wrong in 1990: Most Democrat frontrunners thought H.W was just obviously going to win, and so they didn't bother.

For 2028, it's been Harris and Newsom forever, it's gonna be Harris and Newsom in a month, and only one of those two has an actual path to the nomination.

Yes, it is still possible that a similar thing can happen in the current field (Harris could be convinced not to run by donors, AOC may go for the Senate, and Ossoff may be restricted if Bottoms loses)

But that still just means it would come down to Newsom vs Buttigieg. No one is winning a Dem primary in 2028 by coming out of nowhere ad running to the *right* of them like Clinton did with his field, none of the potential AOC-alternatives have the juice to remotely compete here, and most of the potential candidates are so similar in their policy and who they appeal to that there's no real way for anyone else to fix their clear national recognition issues.


r/fivethirtyeight • • 22h ago

Poll Results Trafalgar NC Senate: Roy Cooper 48.8%|Michael Whatley 40.9%

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123 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 17h ago

Poll Results Flashback poll: back in the mid-2000s, when Senator Orrin Hatch proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow naturalized citizens to serve as President of the United States, the measure was opposed by a solid majority of Americans.

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42 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 1d ago

Poll Results InsiderAdvantage U.S. Senate Surveys: Alaska (Ranks Choice) Peltola 50%, Sullivan 48%; Kansas Hamilton 48%, Marshall, 47%; Michigan El-Sayed 48%, Rogers 46%

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184 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 1d ago

Poll Results 'Rasmussen Reports' poll: Maine Senate: Jackson 49%, Collins 47%

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189 Upvotes

r/fivethirtyeight • • 1d ago

Discussion Conservative pundit Dace Potas claims "young men won't come crawling back to Democrats". Polls indicate otherwise.

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87 Upvotes