FiveThirtyEight’s top politics stories this week

[FiveThirtyEight]( Popular in Politics Thursday, July, 25, 2024 [1. Biden isn't the first president to drop a reelection bid]( [Biden isn't the first president to drop a reelection bid]( If 2024 has taught us anything, it's that no presidential election is ever the same. This year's contest featured the first major-party nomination of a former president — Donald Trump — [since Democrats backed]( Grover Cleveland in the 1892 election. And this past weekend, President Joe Biden became the first presumptive nominee to abandon a reelection bid since [the modern presidential primary process]( took shape in the 1970s. [Read more]( [2. What do the polls say about a Harris vs. Trump matchup?]( [What do the polls say about a Harris vs. Trump matchup?]( The past nine days have featured some of the wildest twists and turns in the history of U.S. presidential elections. On July 13, former President Donald Trump [survived an assassination attempt]( two days before the start of the Republican National Convention. Then yesterday, President Joe Biden [announced he was dropping out]( of the 2024 race, an unprecedented move for a sitting president who was his party's presumptive nominee. [Read more]( [3. Is Kamala Harris the presumptive Democratic nominee? Not quite.]( [Is Kamala Harris the presumptive Democratic nominee? Not quite.]( Despite being rumored about for weeks, President Joe Biden's decision this past weekend to drop out of the presidential election still came as a shock to most political observers. And while some of the questions were answered on Sunday — will he really do it? (Yes.) Will he endorse Vice President Kamala Harris? (Also yes.) — [many other questions remain](. Given that we have no precedent for this in the modern era, it's understandable if you're a bit confused right now. Here are the answers to some of the FAQs swirling around right now, with help from some expert sources, to help you get your bearings as we embark on a new political frontier. [Read more]( [4. What are the best pollsters in America?]( [What are the best pollsters in America?]( With former President Donald Trump’s recent Republican presidential primary victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, we can now say [with near certainty]( that the 2024 general election will feature a rematch between President Joe Biden and his predecessor. Both the stakes of the election and the odds of the outcome are of great importance, and people will be paying them a lot of attention over the next 10 months. And if social media conversations and news coverage about the primary are any indication, public opinion polls will feature very heavily in the discourse about the general election. [Read more]( [5. What we heard about the economy, immigration and foreign policy at the RNC]( [What we heard about the economy, immigration and foreign policy at the RNC]( Heading into any presidential election, each party has a built-in advantage with voters on different issues. That's reflected on the campaign trail, as candidates highlight those issues in ways they hope will both galvanize their base and appeal to new voters. What better time to showcase those issues than the quadrennial nominating conventions for president and vice president? In light of last week's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, we decided to evaluate just how, and how much, the GOP is talking about the issues voters give them high marks on. [Read more]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe](