Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Reuters
The only way to beat Donald Trump in a primary, Republican strategist Mike Murphy told me recently, is for someone else to win Iowa and New Hampshire. (He hastened to add that it probably has to be the same person winning both states—a complicating factor, to be sure.)
As we enter September, it is perhaps time to be reminded that there is no national Republican primary election day. Instead, it’s 56 elections (every state, plus Washington, DC, plus five territories), spanning approximately six months.
Those of us who cover politics intellectually know this—but even we still need to be reminded that, although national polls are instructive, they fail to capture the dynamic nature of the primary process.