“J.D. Vance, do you understand why there was a sudden job opening for running mate on the GOP ticket? They tried to kill your predecessor.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), at the Democratic convention.

A new Roanoke College poll in Virginia finds Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in a multi-candidate field, 45% to 42%.

Key takeaway: “Biden’s departure from the race impacted the campaign and voters’ perceptions. When asked in the new poll about what their vote plans had been prior to Biden’s withdrawal, respondents gave Trump a six-point lead (although the candidates were tied in the May poll).”

A new St. Anselm poll in New Hampshire finds Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in a multi-candidate field, 51% to 44%.

“National Republicans embraced Kari Lake’s Arizona Senate bid, reasoning she was likely to win the primary with or without their support,” Politico reports.

“Now they are confronting the consequences of having a MAGA lightning rod as their nominee in one of the most competitive states in the country. And some GOP leaders are undecided about just how much support to offer her in a general election, given ample opportunities elsewhere to pick up Senate seats.”

“Lake has not managed a clean pivot from her hard-right roots. In the past month alone, she publicly waffled on her opposition to Arizona’s near-total abortion ban and returned to the flamethrowing rhetoric of her last run when she urged voters to ‘strap on a Glock’ to prepare for 2024.”

“Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign seems to be on the precipice of a positive cash flow problem, recent filings with the Federal Election Commission indicate,” The Independent reports.

“At the end of last month, RFK Jr.’s campaign had $3.9 million cash on hand but owed $3.4 million, a sign that the independent presidential candidate is struggling to bring in money as the November election rapidly approaches.”

Time: “If Democrats are serious about winning over these younger voters, they also have to throw them a reason to look and then stick around.”

“From the start, it’s clear convention organizers get the need for a generation reset. There was Monday’s barn-burner from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, age 34…”

“Texas county exec Lina Hidalgo (33), Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood (37), and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (48) each paid tribute to Harris. California Sen. Laphonza Butler (45) and Rep. Robert Garcia (46) spoke of their home-state connections. When it came time for the first excoriation of Republicans’ regime-in-waiting detailed in Project 2025, Democrats deputized 37-year-old state Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Michigan to describe what she called a ‘plan to turn Donald Trump into a dictator.’ And 44-year-old Minnesota Lieutenant Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who would make history as the nation’s first Native American female Governor if Harris and running mate Tim Walz win, became something of a breakout star on social media.”

Christian Science Monitor: “The Democratic National Convention kicked off in Chicago amid dire predictions of a replay of the party’s ’68 gathering. That’s when riots and police attacks on anti-war protesters outside the convention combined with a messy floor fight inside the hall to derail Democrats’ chances at the White House.”

“For now, at least, there’s no comparing the two.”

Associated Press: “Organizers had hoped at least 20,000 people would take part in Monday’s rally and march, but it appeared that only a few thousand were present, though city officials declined to give a crowd estimate.”

Democrats chanted “Lock him up!” during Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic convention.

“I need my neighbor’s children to be okay so that my children will be okay. I need all of my neighbor’s children to be okay.”

— Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), at the Democratic convention.

“Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary under the Trump administration, will speak at the Democratic National Convention to show her support for Vice President Kamala Harris this week,” CBS News reports.

Said Grisham: “I never thought I’d be speaking at a Democratic convention. But, after seeing firsthand who Donald Trump really is, and the threat he poses to our country, I feel very strongly about speaking out.”

“Kamala Harris’ rise to the top of the presidential ticket has unlocked a flood of money from an ascendant group of donors: women,” Bloomberg reports.

“The Harris campaign said women made up 60% of donors in July, when the campaign raised $310 million. The official numbers come out Tuesday, and a gender breakdown requires separate analysis, but the early indications suggest that Harris could inspire more women to give — and, importantly, at higher rates — than in any federal election yet.”

James Poniewozik: “Notice anything different?”

“The organizers of the Democratic National Convention hope you did. Less than a month ago, the party upended the election when President Biden withdrew from the campaign, and Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee. Suddenly, the previously scheduled rerun of the 2020 election, tuned out by many weary voters, was new programming, with a new cast.”

“The first night of the convention wasted little time unveiling its new star — even as it also had to finish off the last one’s story arc.”

New York Times: “Mr. Obama’s mission on Tuesday evening will be far larger than what he sought to accomplish in 2016. Then, he was handing off a baton, with the strength of the presidency behind him. This time, it will be his job to resurrect, and then reassemble, the kind of movement that propelled him to the White House.”

“And after President Biden’s farewell speech to the party on Monday, it is Mr. Obama’s job to separate Ms. Harris from the Biden years, while making the case that she was central enough to the Biden administration to slip seamlessly into the job — essentially the argument he made about Mrs. Clinton’s role in his own administration. And then he must seek to transfer to Ms. Harris the sense of endless horizons that surrounded his own first run for the presidency.”

“It will be a tricky combination, people close to Mr. Obama said, a transition moment that the convention planners deliberately placed in the hands of the party’s greatest living orator.”

The DNC’s late-running convention programming reopened the wounds for some of President Biden’s allies, Axios reports.

Said one: “This is awful. He literally set up a campaign and handed it over to them — do they have to cut him out of prime time?”