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Politics Podcast: Can Tim Scott’s Optimism Win Over The GOP?
FiveThirtyEight
 

The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast gets ready for a big week in politics!

For starters, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott officially kicked off his presidential campaign in North Charleston Monday morning. He’s starting the race in the low single digits in national polls, but he has a lot of campaign cash and plenty of goodwill amongst Republican lawmakers, donors and media. So will he be able to convert that potential energy into something more kinetic in the polls?

We also expect the long-teased Ron DeSantis presidential campaign to become a reality this week. According to reports, he could make it official as soon as Wednesday. Trump’s lead over the Florida governor, according to our polling averages, has doubled from 15 points to 30 points over the past few months. So will making it all official give DeSantis the momentum to turn that around?

And, according to the Treasury Department we are just a week or so away from a possible default on the nation’s debt. President Biden is back from the G7 summit in Japan and he and House Speaker McCarthy kicked off new negotiations on Monday. So what are the sticking points and what do Americans want?

National politics reporter at the AP Meg Kinnard and Data Columnist at the Washington Post join the crew to weigh in.

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 podcast platform. If you are new to podcasts, learn how to listen.

The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast is recorded Mondays and Thursdays. Help new listeners discover the show by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. Have a comment, question or suggestion for “good polling vs. bad polling”? Get in touch by email, on Twitter or in the comments.

Galen Druke is FiveThirtyEight’s podcast producer and reporter.

Nathaniel Rakich is a senior editor and senior elections analyst at FiveThirtyEight.

Geoffrey Skelley is a senior elections analyst at FiveThirtyEight.

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