jQuery: Emptying a div of all content

Is it possible to add data to a div and delete all content currently contained within that div?

Im currently using the append function but that just places the data below whats currently there, is there a command like the prepend/append ones only it deletes whats currently there?

Right now the code im using looks like:

$(“.political”).append(dataSource);

and the containing dive would be like:
<div class=”political”>old data</div>

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