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It’s Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy. We think of it as a mini-magazine in your inbox.

BUILDING A 2024 CHEAT SHEET
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews
Correspondent

Over the weekend, with nearly two days to spare, President Joe Biden signed the Financial Responsibility Act, suspending the debt ceiling and allowing the U.S. government to borrow the funds it needs to keep operating. 

If scientists such as Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking and Dr. Strange are right about the possibility of multiple universes, then today, in some no-debt-deal universe, the alternative us might instead be experiencing financial upheaval and teetering into recession. 

Instead, we can raise a glass and say happy no-financial-catastrophe to all! Especially since averting that crisis means more room to look ahead to the 2024 race. 

Here’s a cheat sheet to understanding the (complicated) calendar so far.

2023

  • Aug. 23: First GOP presidential debate. Milwaukee. (Note: Former President Donald Trump has not committed to attend.)

  • September or October:  Second GOP presidential debate. Simi Valley, California.

  • We expect more Republican debates, but no others have been announced yet. Democrats do not plan to hold debates.


2024

The Republican National Committee voted last year to keep its calendar order: Iowa, then New Hampshire, followed by South Carolina and then Nevada. But the Democratic National Committee voted to rearrange their roster: South Carolina, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada, then Georgia, then Michigan.  

What does this mean? The mismatched schedules are getting pushback from some states. Examples? New Hampshire’s governor has vowed to keep the state’s first-in-nation primary spot and has threatened to buck Democrats’ schedule. Lawmakers in Georgia have already done that, ignoring the Democratic Party’s plan. 

Here is what we do know:

  • Mid-January: This is a likely time frame for Iowa Republicans to caucus and New Hampshire to hold primaries for both parties. The fine print: This is not yet settled, but here is the thinking – if South Carolina keeps its Feb. 3 primary, it is likely that New Hampshire moves its primaries to at least one week earlier, perhaps Jan. 23. (State law requires that.) From there, Iowa Republicans would likely move a week or so earlier, perhaps Jan. 16.

  • Feb. 3: South Carolina Democratic primary.  

  • Feb. 6: Nevada Democratic primary. The fine print: Nevada Republicans also have a contest scheduled for this day, but the party is suing the state to try to change that.

  • Feb. 13: See March 12, below.

  • Feb. 27: Michigan Democratic primary. The fine print: The Republican primary is also possible this date, per a new law signed in February. However — and this gets dizzying — for that law to take effect, the legislature must adjourn by late November and it is not clear that will happen. Meanwhile, Republicans have threatened to sue over that date.

  • March 5: Super Tuesday. More than a dozen states plan primaries for both parties on this day.

  • March 12: Georgia Republican and Democratic primaries. The fine print: This is contrary to Democrats’ national calendar, which set a date of Feb. 13. But Georgia’s secretary of state is holding firm to March 12 for both parties. 

  • March 19: Mini Tuesday. A handful of big states are set to vote this day, including Arizona, Florida and Ohio. 

  • July 15 to 18: GOP Convention. Milwaukee.

  • August 19 to 22: Democratic Convention. Chicago. 

  • Nov. 5: Election Day.

  • Dec. 16: Electoral College meets to cast final ballots in the election.

WHAT VOTERS CAN DO TO FIGHT PARTISAN DIVISIONS
By Matt Rasnic, @Matt_Rasnic
Associate Producer/Editor, Social Media

At a time when partisan tensions and divisions are on the rise in the United States, there’s little reward for meeting in the middle rather than jumping to extremes.

As part of the PBS NewsHour's America at a Crossroads series looking into the divisions fracturing the U.S., Judy Woodruff asked Robb Willer, director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab at Stanford University, what people can do on an individual level to bridge the divide. 

His No. 1 piece of advice: “try to run towards the fire, rather than away from it.” In other words, engage, through respectful conversation.

"Whoever that person is in your family or your neighborhood, like, engage with them respectfully, and try to give them that interaction that they're not getting now, where they see that you can disagree with somebody, and it could still be a respectful conversation," he said.

Research has found that when political candidates voice support for honoring election results, there are promising effects when it comes to alleviating tensions and promoting democracy. The fact that many candidates who falsely denied the 2020 election results lost their races in the 2022 midterms was also encouraging to experts like Willer. But we’re not out of the woods yet, he warns. We’ve yet to reach a point where high-level leaders and donors on the right and left have fully recognized the value of working together to combat the harms of political division, he told Woodruff.
More stories from the Crossroads series:
 
Watch: Tulsa faces a reckoning over its own history of racism as state legislatures across the nation try to restrict how history is taught in public schools.
 
Read: Judy Woodruff writes about why she returned home to Tulsa to explore how leaders are talking about the city’s history today.
#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Cybele Mayes-Osterman, @CybeleMO
Associate Editorial Producer

This week, both former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork to run for president in 2024, joining a growing GOP field. 

There’s plenty to unpack about their legislative histories and presidential campaign platforms. (And we’ll be doing so, on air and online, in the coming weeks and months). But there are also more basic biographical tidbits worth noting. 

Christie, to start, has publicly expressed his decades-long adoration for one musical artist, and has reportedly attended more than 129 of his concerts. 

Our question: Who is that artist?

Send your answers to [email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.

Last week, we asked: Only one president’s administration in history has managed to pay off all of the U.S.’ interest-bearing debt. Who was it?

The answer: Andrew Jackson. The seventh president of the United States had a strong dislike of the banking system. When he took office in 1829, he was determined to get rid of the national debt. He reached that goal on Jan. 8, 1835 — a debt-free America lasted about a year.

Congratulations to our winners: Beverley Chang and Ivan Jay!

Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.

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