FiveThirtyEight’s top politics stories this week

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Popular In Politics] Thursday, August 31, 2017 [1. Trump Voters In Alabama May Be About To Teach Trump A Lesson]( Is President Trump losing sway over Republicans? It would seem so in Alabama, where the candidate he endorsed, Sen. Luther Strange, is trailing in the state’s GOP Senate primary. In an average taken of all polls for the Sept. 26 runoff, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore leads Strange 45 percent to 36 percent. Strange’s deficit comes after also finishing second to Moore in the initial primary. [Read more]( [2. The Arpaio Pardon Has Plenty Of Precedents … That Got Other Presidents In Trouble]( Was President Trump’s pardon of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, issued on a Friday night as a deadly hurricane barreled toward the Gulf Coast, unprecedented? Or just unpopular? [Read more]( [3. Can A Third-Party Ticket Win In 2020?]( In this week’s politics chat, we discuss the prospect of a third-party presidential candidate in 2020. The transcript below has been lightly edited. [Read more]( [4. Six Charts To Help Americans Understand The Upcoming German Election]( You may have heard rumblings about a populist party poised to gain power in Germany’s election on Sept. 24 — or maybe you just heard that there’s an election coming up. To better prepare you for the news coming out of Deutschland over the next few weeks, we’re offering some answers to a few basic questions about the election. [Read more]( [5. What Can We Do If A President Has A Conflict Of Interest But Doesn’t Think He Does?]( Even by 2017 standards, the last few weeks have been packed with news. So you’re forgiven if you missed a chain of stories tied to alleged ethical violations by members of the Trump administration. Here’s a quick catch-up: [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Trump’s Biggest Domestic Crisis Yet]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ESPN]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 147 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10023.