(First published in CQ Magazine on July 25, 2016.)

There are those who believe that women will propel Hillary Clinton to the presidency in November, seizing the opportunity to put the first of their kind in the White House. After all, that’s what black voters helped to do for Barack Obama in 2008.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have found little common ground during the 2016 presidential election campaign. Here are some of the issues:

As a senator, Clinton got along with her GOP colleagues, mostly working on noncontroversial issues. Could she work with Republicans as president?

(First appeared in CQ Magazine on Sept. 19, 2016.)

Of all Donald Trump's heresies as a GOP presidential candidate, perhaps his biggest split with Republican orthodoxy has come on the issue of the debt.

(First appeared in CQ Magazine on July 11, 2016.)

Sens. Charles E. Grassley, a cantankerous Midwestern conservative, and Tim Kaine, a paint-by-the-numbers East Coast Democrat, don’t agree on very much. But when it comes to free trade, both are very worried.

(First published in CQ Magazine on April 11, 2016.)

It’s hard to believe now that there was a time in the not-so-distant past when Republicans made a serious and successful play for the Hispanic vote.

(First appeared in CQ Magazine on May 16, 2016.)

It looks increasingly likely that voters this November will have a clear choice. In Donald Trump, they’d have a true Washington outsider seeking to upend the way of doing business in the capital. In Hillary Clinton, a creature of Washington, they’d have a politician with a lengthy government resume and an argument that her experience would enable her to grease the wheels of government after years of gridlock.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that Donald Trump is a racist, and lambasted the media for not labeling the Republican presidential nominee as such.

"There's always one word that many in the press conspicuously avoid: racist. … But he is a racist. Donald Trump is a racist," Reid said on the Senate floor. "'Racist' is a term I don't throw around lightly."

The next chapter of Sen. Bernie Sanders' political revolution might take place across the pond as his brother plans to stand as a candidate for the British Parliament.

Larry Sanders is running in the October special election for the seat vacated by the former prime minister, David Cameron.

The White House is finding some unlikely allies in its efforts to discourage Congress from overriding President Barack Obama’s veto of a bill allowing lawsuits against countries with possible ties to terrorist attacks.

Several CEOs of corporations with ties to governments in regions that are breeding grounds for violent extremists are urging House and Senate leaders to scrap plans for override votes as early as this week.

The tea party and the populist right have outmaneuvered the left, according to Barney Frank, the former congressman from Massachusetts. 

To his "regret," the tea party movement had a greater impact on American politics than the Occupy Wall Street protests, Frank told David Axelrod on the Democratic strategist's podcast "The Axe Files," produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. 

Democrats Katie McGinty of Pennsylvania and incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado lead in new polls in Senate races in their respective states. 

McGinty has a 3-point lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, 49 percent to 46 percent among likely voters in a CNN/ORC Poll. Bennet maintains a much larger advantage in the Colorado race, 53 percent to 43 percent over GOP challenger Darryl Glenn. 

Rep. Darrell Issa is showing signs that he knows he is in for a tough re-election fight.  

"I haven’t had a yard sign in 16 years. And you know, there are people that are calling and getting yard signs," the California Republican said in an interview with The San Diego Union Tribune.

Former WWE executive Linda McMahon may have been pinned for the three-count twice in failed runs for the Senate from Connecticut but she hasn't tapped out when it comes to fundraising for Republicans.

The Center for Responsive Politics ranks McMahon and her husband, WWE CEO Vince McMahon, 78th on its list of so-called "mega-donors," the AP reported. Linda McMahon said that she has made most of the couple's contributions and that her husband wants "no part of it."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has lost support among women and young voters against Republican nominee Donald Trump, a new poll released on the day of the first presidential debate shows. 

Clinton's 6-point lead in a Bloomberg Politics national poll from August has eroded and Bloomberg's latest poll, released Monday, shows her tied with Trump at 46 percent among likely voters.