Recent News

The early debates of a presidential primary campaign, though they take place months before the first nominating contests, are a powerful force in shaping the campaign, elevating some candidates while helping drive others from the race.

At this (still-early) stage, no Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial can­did­ate con­trols the vari­ous factors that ul­ti­mately lead to the nom­in­a­tion—not only the polls, but the com­bin­a­tion of fun­drais­ing, en­dorse­ments, me­dia at­ten­tion, and more that com­prise the full cam­paign.

Businessman Donald Trump leads retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, 22 percent to 18 percent, according to WBUR’s first poll of the race.

This far out from the first votes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, the closest thing to real numbers that anyone can use to gauge how well candidates are doing are poll results. Bloomberg Politics this morning features an analysis of how these raw numbers offer at best a limited insight on the 2016 nomination contest’s status quo:

Why It’s So Hard to Understand 2016 With Numbers Alone

The new breed of cool analytical election observers—from Nate Silver at 538 ... Read More >>

The former Florida governor with one of the most recognizable names in politics and $100 million in the bank is facing one of the most crucial moments of his political career at the CNN debate held at the Reagan Library.

Top Romney policy adviser signs on with Marco Rubio

Lanhee Chen, one of the Republican Party’s most sought-after policy experts, said Monday he has signed on to Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign and will counsel the Florida senator on issues foreign and domestic.

At 27 percent nationally, Donald Trump maintains his frontrunner status among Republican primary voters, but Ben Carson is now close behind him, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.