Outside the Beltway

With just hours before the first debate, and six weeks until Election Day, the race for President remains tight.

Once again, the debate commission controlled by the two major parties is excluding third-party candidates from the Presidential debates.

Gary Johnson is doing better than any third-party candidate in twenty years, but that doesn’t mean he’s likely to get an invitation to the upcoming Presidential debates.

The election is now fifty-six days away and, while the race is tighter than it has been, it’s still one in which Hillary Clinton has seemingly all the advantages.

Libertarian Party Presidential candidate Gary Johnson doesn’t get much national press attention, and it doesn’t help when he flubs an answer like he did this morning.

It’s the traditional start of the campaign season, and the race for President is getting close, at least at the national level.

With ten weeks to go ,there’s been some tightening in the polls but Hillary Clinton continues to maintain a commanding lead in the race for the White House.

The “independent conservative” running for President is finding it hard to even get on the ballot.

Donald Trump’s path to 270 Electoral Votes is becoming less likely by the day.

Donald Trump’s support among African-Americans is at historic lows, and seems unlikely to recover.

New polling from the states has good news for Hillary Clinton, and an even less plausible path to 270 for Donald Trump.

The latest desperation bid from anti-Trump Republicans is guaranteed to make a GOP civil war more likely.

The first round of post-convention polls is now complete, and it’s not looking good for The Donald.

It’s been a bad week for Donald Trump, something he can ill-afford with less than 100 days left until Election Day.

Post-convention polling at the state level holds some bad news for the Trump campaign.

Hillary Clinton appears to be doing very well in the wake of the first round of post-convention polls.

Hillary Clinton delvers a largely successful acceptance speech that caps off a convention that ran far smoother than its Republican counterpart.

While a Clinton landslide seems obvious after the dumpster fire of a Republican convention, the race is close.

A look at the state of the race before the two party conventions begin.

Donald Trump has had a bad June, and it’s showing in the poll numbers.

George Will isn’t just refusing to vote for Donald Trump, he’s leaving the GOP entirely

Marco Rubio changes his mind, and drops the first hint that he’s already thinking about the Presidential race in 2020 or 2024.

A new poll shows that public opinion about Donald Trump is at the lowest point its been since he entered the race. That bodes poorly for Trump, and for the the political party that has chosen to nominate him for President.

Libertarian Party Presidential nominee Gary Johnson is doing quite well in the polls, when pollsters bother to include him.

Top Republican donors are becoming increasingly concerned that Donald Trump isn’t paying enough attention to raising money for the General Election campaign.

Republicans have a choice to make and, so far, they’ve been making the wrong one.

The relatively unknown candidate that Bill Kristol floated as the “Never Trump” alternative has announced he’s not running for President.

Bill Kristol’s plan to stop Donald Trump involves a long shot independent bid for the White House by someone most Americans have never heard of before.

With two former Republican governors running under its banner, is there such a thing as a “Libertarian Party”?

For the second election cycle in a row, and after a contentious floor fight, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is the Libertarian Party’s nominee for President.

With Republicans in Trump-induced disarray, Libertarians are meeting to pick their nominee and the hope that 2016 could be the year their party finally gets the attention it has craved for four decades.

Bill Kristol is continuing the #NeverTrump fight to its logical next step, trying to find a more mainstream Republican to run as an independent in the fall.

If these numbers hold up, then the GOP may as well start planning for the 2020 primaries now.

Donald Trump’s win last night made him the presumptive Republican nominee, whether Republicans will unify around him is another question.

Ohio’s Secretary of State is already precluding the possibility that Donald Trump could get on the ballot as an independent in the Buckeye State.

Two months after seemingly promising to remain loyal to the Republican Party, Donald Trump is again refusing to rule out an independent run for the White House next year.

The RNC wants Donald Trump to sign an oath that he will not run as a third-party candidate if he doesn’t win the Republican nomination.

Trying to explain one of the biggest surprises of Election Night 2014.

Time to look into the crystal ball.

Two states and the nation’s capital could have legal marijuana after Tuesday’s elections.

There’s at least a 50-50 chance we won’t know who controls the Senate until weeks after Election Day.

Third-party candidates in several states could end up having a big say in the battle for control of the Senate.

A number of factors unique to 2014 make it likely that control of the Senate could be up in the air for months after Election Day.

A political earthquake in the Sunflower State that could have a big impact on the battle for control of the Senate.

So far at least, there is no evidence that 2014 will be a “wave election.”

Accusations of blame are already being tossed around about why Republicans lost in Virginia, and they mirror a broader debate in the Republican Party nationally.