Politics chat: Midterm polls, Senate races, Trump in Texas

As the midterm elections approach, public opinion polls are being released with growing frequency, and NPR's politics chat asks how much credence voters should give them. The discussion frames the steady stream of new surveys as a question of reliability for ordinary people following the contests, rather than simply a source of headlines.

Senate races are also on the agenda, alongside the midterm polling. President Trump is a central figure in the conversation as well: he is continuing to campaign for Republican candidates, and the headline points to his activity in Texas.

No specific poll results, candidate names, margins or election dates are provided in the available text, so there is little to say about which candidates or parties the surveys favor or how competitive any Senate contest is. What the discussion establishes is its framing: polling is arriving faster as the election nears, voters must decide how seriously to take it, and the president is working the campaign trail on behalf of his party's candidates. Any detail beyond that would go past what has been reported.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NPR’s reporting. Read the full story at NPR →