Skip to main content
ABC News
Politics Podcast: Why Democrats Got Shut Out Of A Special Election In Texas

Two Republicans, Susan Wright and Jake Ellzey, were the top vote-getters in Saturday’s jungle primary in Texas’s 6th Congressional District. They will compete in a runoff later this year, precluding a Democratic win in what was expected to be the most competitive special election for the U.S. House of Representatives this year. In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew digs into why Democrats underperformed.

They also address concerns that the 2020 census resulted in an undercount of Hispanic Americans. Florida, Texas and Arizona picked up fewer congressional seats than originally expected.

And they discuss a recent FiveThirtyEight article that contextualizes the ways that U.S. political institutions, including the Senate, the House and state legislatures, benefit Republicans in both intended and unintended ways.

Galen Druke is FiveThirtyEight’s podcast producer and reporter.

Alex Samuels was a politics reporter at FiveThirtyEight.

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

Perry Bacon Jr. was a senior writer for FiveThirtyEight.

Comments