Will Reform UK finish 2nd in the 2026 Clacton by-election?

✨ The field is virtually nonexistent: only two candidates register at 1% each, and no one has broken 5%, making this the most open Democratic nomination race in modern history. The single biggest recent shift is the DNC's decision to put South Carolina first in the 2028 primary calendar (Axios, Jul 25), which could reshape candidate strategies and favor a different type of contender.

✨ The field is overwhelmingly concentrated on 'No change' at 80%, with a 24-hour +1pt drift, but the recent MarketWatch headline reveals deliberate Fed communication opacity—Chair Warsh is keeping markets in the dark, which paradoxically reinforces the no-change baseline as the safe anchor while leaving room for a surprise 25bps hike (19%) if incoming data forces clarity. The single biggest recent shift is the slight uptick in 'No change' odds, likely reflecting traders pricing in the Fed's strategic ambiguity as a signal of no urgent action.

✨ The field is highly concentrated, with Andy Burnham absorbing nearly all of the probability after Starmer’s resignation and a key endorsement, pushing the top three candidates' combined odds to an unsustainable 110% that signals liquidity imbalances or heavy speculative positioning. The biggest recent shift is Burnham’s surge to 99% following the ‘Starmer Announces Resignation; Burnham Wins Key Endorsement’ headline (The New York Times, Jun 23).

✨ The Republican nomination market is essentially a blank slate with no declared candidate, as the combined odds of the two listed figures (Byron Donalds at 1%, Mike Pence at 0%) barely exceed 1%, indicating the race is wide open for any major figure to enter and become the immediate front-runner.

✨ The field is moderately concentrated with Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez combining for 66%, but the 21% for both Buttigieg and Harris and a 23% 'Other' share show significant latent openness; the biggest recent shift is the DNC's decision to put South Carolina first in 2028 (NYT, Jul 24), which could reshape candidate strategies and delegate math.

✨ The field is virtually collapsed into a single outcome — 2026 — after Starmer's own party briefed his resignation plan to clear the way for Andy Burnham, compressing nearly all probability into this year and leaving only a 2% tail for any later date.