Dem
51
GOP
49
We noted yesterday that we've spent some time thinking about our tracking poll concept, and decided to expand and split it into two. So, we'll track readers' thoughts on the Senate in one monthly poll, and readers' thoughts on the presidential race in the other.
To start, here's how readers have had the two presidential races thus far:
| Democratic Candidate | Jan. Rank | Feb. Rank |
| Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) | 1 | 1 |
| Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg | 2 | 2 |
| President Joe Biden | 3 | 3 |
| Vice President Kamala Harris | 4 | 4 |
| Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) | 5 | 5 |
| Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) | 6 | 6 |
| Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) | 7 | 7 |
| Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) | 8 | 8 |
| Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) | N/R | 9 |
| Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) | N/R | 10 |
| Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) | 9 | N/R |
| Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) | 10 | N/R |
| Republican Candidate | Jan. Rank | Feb. Rank |
| Former president Donald Trump | 2 | 1 |
| Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) | 1 | 2 |
| Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) | N/R | 3 |
| Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) | 3 | 4 |
| Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo | 4 | 5 |
| Former Fox entertainer Tucker Carlson | 6 | 6 |
| Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley | N/R | 7 |
| Former vice president Mike Pence | 5 | 8 |
| Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan | 7 | 9 |
| Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) | 8 | 10 |
| Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) | 9 | N/R |
| Former representative Liz Cheney | 10 | N/R |
Our initial plan was to relegate the bottom two finishers and to add the top two suggested additions, but we think that's not nimble enough. So, we'll keep any candidate who seems worthy of the poll, but we'll only rank the top 10 in each installment. We've also exercised our editorial judgment to add a few people who didn't necessarily make sense back in February, when readers last made suggestions.
Also, given how the race is shaking out, the questions above may become uninteresting pretty quickly. So, we are going to add a regular second question asking which party is most likely to win the White House.
There's also a third, variable question each month. The one for February was about movies; we actually think the results are interesting enough that we're going to devote additional posts to them later in the week. For the May poll, the question will be: "If Joe Biden were to switch VPs, who would be the shrewdest alternative to Kamala Harris?"
Cast your ballots here! (Z)