“President Trump’s campaign more than doubled its spending over the past three months as the president worked to rev up the Republican base ahead of next month’s midterm elections through a series of rallies and online appeals,” the New York Times reports.

“The increased spending — much of which was done through an opaque new corporate entity set up by the campaign — was reflected in filings that the campaign’s committees were set to submit on Monday evening to the Federal Election Commission.”

Important takeaway: “The largest recipient of Trump campaign funds was a company called American Made Media Consultants, which was created by the campaign to purchase digital, radio and television advertising, including online fund-raising solicitations… The model, which is patterned off one pioneered by Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, could also allow the campaign to avoid disclosing to the election commission precise details about its spending, instead just listing line-item expenditures.”

“Facebook Inc will ban false information about voting requirements and fact-check fake reports of violence or long lines at polling stations ahead of next month’s U.S. midterm elections, company executives told Reuters, the latest effort to reduce voter manipulation on its service.”

“The world’s largest online social network, with 1.5 billion daily users, has stopped short of banning all false or misleading posts, something that Facebook has shied away from as it would likely increase its expenses and leave it open to charges of censorship.”

CBS Battleground Tracker: “In the lower turnout scenario, new midterm voters stay home and the electorate profiles like it has in recent midterms. The Republicans win 218 seats under these conditions, narrowly retaining their majority, but without any seats to spare.”

Pew Research: “Majorities of registered voters who support Democratic candidates for Congress rate 13 of 18 issues as ‘very big’ problems facing the country. Among voters who favor the Republican candidates in their districts, majorities rate only five issues as very big problems.”

“More striking, several of the issues that rank among the most serious problems among Democratic voters – including how minorities are treated by the criminal justice system, climate change, the rich-poor gap, gun violence and racism – are viewed as very big problems by fewer than a third of Republican voters.”