New polls from the Focus on Rural America finds Biden leading in several midwestern battlegrounds:
- Iowa: Biden 49%, Trump 43%
- Michigan: Biden 51%, Trump 41%
- Minnesota: Biden 54%, Trump 36%
- Wisconsin: Biden 53%, Trump 42%
Meanwhile, some new Quinnipiac polls show some very close Senate races:
- South Carolina: Graham 44%, Harrison 44%
- Maine: Gideon 47%, Collins 43%
- Kentucky: McConnell 49%, McGrath 44%
More polling from the Senate battlegrounds, this time from New Data for Progress:
- North Carolina: Cunningham 49%, Tillis 41%
- Maine: Gideon 48%, Collins 45%
- Iowa: Greenfield 45%, Earnst 43%
- Arizona: Kelly 50%, McSally 40%
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Kansas finds Roger Marshall (R) leading Barbara Bollier (D) by just one point in the U.S. Senate race, 44% to 43%.
In the presidential race, Donald Trump leads Joe Biden, 50% to 43%.
A new EPIC-MRA poll in Michigan finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 51% to 40%.
In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Gary Peters (D) leads John James (R), 50% to 40%.
A new Pew Research poll finds President Trump’s approval at a dismal 38% to 59%.
Among Republicans and Republican leaners, 77% currently say they approve of Trump’s performance; only 5% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say the same.
Harry Enten: “There’s little doubt that former Vice President Joe Biden has the upperhand against President Trump at this point. Biden has led in poll after poll nationally and in almost every poll in the core six battleground states (Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin).”
“Yet, while Biden has maintained advantage, Trump has one thing going for him: His position is no longer deteriorating. A look at the polls shows that even as coronavirus cases and deaths rise, Trump remains within striking distancing of Biden.”
As Joe Biden appears set to begin holding final one-on-one conversations with potential running mates, sources close to the process tell NBC Newsthat Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is among those still under serious consideration.
Joe Biden made clear in an interview that Sen. Kamala Harris is still “very much in contention” to become his running mate.
Said Biden: “I don’t hold grudges, and I’ve made it really clear that I don’t hold grudges. I think it was a debate. It’s as simple as that. And she’s very much in contention.”
“Bernie Sanders and John Kasich will share a night in the spotlight, and both Clintons are slated to have prominent speaking roles at the all-virtual Democratic National Convention in less than two weeks,” Politico reports.
“Others who’ve been tapped for coveted speaking slots during an event that’s been shrunk down to eight prime-time hours over four nights are Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Jill Biden. And it goes without saying that the party’s two most popular figures, Barack and Michelle Obama, will be featured prominently.”
“One source said Kasich — the former Republican governor of Ohio and a major critic of President Donald Trump — would appear on the same night as Sanders early in the week in a demonstration of unity. The duo would be designed to showcase a broad anti-Trump coalition that is backing Biden.”
Politico: “The culture wars aren’t working for Donald Trump. His law-and-order rhetoric isn’t registering with suburban voters. One of his leading evangelical supporters, Jerry Falwell Jr., was just photographed with his zipper down. Immigration isn’t provoking the response it did in 2016, and NASCAR has spurned the president.”
“Even an attempt by a New York Democrat to take down the NRA — a lawsuit announced Thursday by state Attorney General Letitia James — looks unlikely to juice Trump’s reelection hopes.”
Axios: Right-wing media defanged by dissolving anti-Biden storylines.
Axios: “The prospect of extended court fights over COVID-19-related voting changes, an absentee ballot avalanche, foreign interference and contested presidential results has prompted a hire-all-the-lawyers binge by candidates and campaigns — not just in swing states but around the country.”
“Two neon buses emblazoned with President Trump’s campaign website will carry a rotating cadre of Trump family members, campaign surrogates and local politicians, crisscrossing swing states for the 85 days leading up to Election Day,” CBS News reports.
Amy Walter: “Biden is in the enviable position of leading this race with less than four months to go. He doesn’t need to convince voters that Trump isn’t doing a good job — a majority already feel that way. What he does need to do is assure them that he isn’t a risky pick. One way to do this is to pick a VP that voters see as capable and experienced enough to take over if he can’t continue to do his job. It’s really not any more complicated than that.”
Georgia Senate candidate Matt Lieberman (D) “wrote and self-published a deeply bizarre novel in 2018, featuring a main character who believes that for most of his life he owned an imaginary slave who could communicate with plants and animals,” the HuffPost reports.
Lieberman, son of former Sen. Joe Lieberman, is running in the all-party special election to replace Sen. Johnny Isakson (R), who retired in 2018.
There is another Democratic candidate in this race who is much better suited to the current moment: the Reverend Raphael Warnock, who recently conducted the funeral service for the hero John Lewis.
CNN’s Brianna Keilar had a “major-league slugfest” of an interview with Trump campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp, and Schlapp later fired back with an op-ed attacking Keilar — and her husband.
But Schlapp, who accused Keilar’s husband of being “a ferocious opponent of the president,” was apparently wrong in her facts and Keilar returned fire: “Get your facts straight. And don’t mess with my family.”
Brian Stelter: “On Thursday evening the highest levels of the Trump campaign conveyed apologies to the highest levels of CNN.”
More than 300 delegates to the Democratic National Convention and members of the Democratic National Committee have signed on to a statement pushing Joe Biden to choose Rep. Karen Bass as a “unity” vice presidential pick, Politico reports.
No. Bass would be a horrible pick. Scientology and Castro and Communism.
“The head of the United States Postal Service on Friday denied claims he was sabotaging election mail on behalf of President Trump, as large delivery delays spark fears of a voting crisis associated with an increase in mail-in ballots,” Politico reports.
“President Trump raised more money than Joe Biden in July, after falling behind his Democratic rival for two straight months,” Politico reports.
“Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee reported that they raised $165 million last month — an amount they said eclipsed any single month in all of 2016.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty (R) won the Republican Senate primary in Tennessee, the AP reports.
Kanye West may have filed to appear on Wisconsin’s presidential ballot several minutes after the Tuesday deadline, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
A local news reporter present at the scene tweeted that West’s lawyer entered the building “just after 5.”
Amid various reports that Trump-affiliated political operatives are trying to get Kanye West onto various state ballots for the presidential election, the rap superstar indicated to Forbes that he was in fact running to siphon votes from Joe Biden.
Asked about that directly, West said that rather than running for president, he was “walking.” When it was pointed out that he actually won’t be on enough ballots to yield 270 electoral votes and thus was serving as a spoiler, West replied: “I’m not going to argue with you. Jesus is King.”
The Commission on Presidential Debates rejected the Trump campaign’s request to add a fourth debate in early September.
Rudy Giuliani told Fox & Friends the Commission on Presidential Debates should be abolished if they refuse the Trump campaign’s request to add a fourth debate to the schedule or move the first one to early September.
Go ahead and try. If you do, then there will be no debates. Biden doesn’t need to debate. He is the clear frontrunner. He has agreed to three debates at the dates and times set by the Commission. If you blow up the commission, then you blow up the agreement to hold debates. You need the debates, Biden doesn’t. So please proceed, Governor.
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