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FiveThirtyEight Politics

The Electoral Challenges Facing The GOP

FiveThirtyEight Politics

ABC News

Politics, News

4.620.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The November election was the seventh time in eight elections that Republicans lost the national popular vote and was a rare loss for an incumbent president. In this installment of the podcast, the crew asks why President Trump lost and considers the challenges facing the Republican Party electorally. They also check in on FiveThirtyEight's newly launched polling average of the Senate runoff elections in Georgia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the 538 Politics Podcast.

0:11.0

I'm Galen Derook.

0:12.4

The double Senate run-offs in Georgia are a month away, and this week we launched our

0:17.3

polling averages of the two races.

0:20.0

There's been limited polling, but what we do have shows both races neck and neck.

0:25.6

Now as a backdrop to that, President Trump is continuing to falsely claim that the

0:30.3

Georgia November election was rigged, and some Trump supporters have even encouraged

0:34.8

Republicans to boycott the January 5 election as a result.

0:39.1

So we'll dig into the state of that race.

0:41.9

Today, we're also going to ask why Trump did, in fact, lose the 2020 election and consider

0:47.4

some of the challenges facing the Republican Party going forward.

0:51.7

Last week, we discussed why Biden and down ballot Democrats in particular may have under

0:56.2

performed expectations in November.

0:59.3

On the other hand, over the past 30 years, Republicans have now lost the presidency 5 out

1:04.8

of 8 elections and lost the popular vote in all but one of those elections.

1:10.1

And of course, they are still in the minority in the House this year.

1:14.9

Here with me to discuss is editor-in-chief Nate Silverhane.

1:17.5

Hey, Galen.

1:19.2

So here with me is senior politics writer Perry Bacon Jr.

1:21.8

Hey, Perry.

1:22.8

Good to see you, Galen.

1:23.8

Likewise.

...

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