On Sunday, 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans in the Senate announced that they had reached an agreement on new gun-safety measures and funding for mental-health services and school security. In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew explains how senators made this bipartisan deal and considers whether this unwritten gun-control legislation could be passed by the end of the year.
The team also discusses Alaska’s special primary election to replace its longtime U.S. representative, Don Young, who died in March. Former Gov. Sarah Palin is leading so far, but results won’t be certified for about two more weeks, until all the mail-in ballots have been processed and counted. And on Tuesday, four states — Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina — are holding their primary elections, but only Nevada and South Carolina have competitive races; the most interesting race to watch on Tuesday, though, is another special election in Texas, where candidates are vying to succeed Rep. Filemon Vela for the rest of his term in the 34th Congressional District, after he resigned in April.
Finally, FiveThirtyEight’s Kaleigh Rogers and Galen Druke talk about the ongoing House select committee hearings investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and how the messaging is developing through both emotional testimony and raw footage from the day of the insurrection.
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