“Democratic candidates running for Congress this year collectively raised more than $1 billion for their campaigns — a record-shattering sum that highlights the party’s zeal to retake the House and Senate and underscores the enormous amount of money flowing into the midterm races,” the Washington Post reports.

“The $1.06 billion raised through the end of September surpasses the nearly $900 million collected by Republican candidates for Congress in 2012 — previously the largest haul registered by a single party by this point in the election cycle.”

FiveThirtyEight released a new forecast for the various governor’s races around the country.

Peter Hamby: “Elizabeth Warren’s maneuver stands as a warning sign for other Democrats on the path to challenging Trump in 2020. Getting into the mud pit with Trump—who doesn’t care about political decorum, rules, sexism, racism, name-calling, facts, or reason—has revealed itself as a sucker’s game for politicians and peacocking White House correspondents who try to joust with him. Talk to anyone in politics, and they’ll tell you the same thing: tangling with Trump is just really hard, and there’s no clear alternative playbook. Like a scientist trying to argue with a climate-change denier, you’ll just end up drowning in a tide of bad faith.”

“Even so, Warren has been punching at Trump ever since he took office. Rarely does she let one of Trump’s personal attacks go unchallenged, something that sets her apart from most every Democrat who might run in 2020, aside from Orange County attorney Michael Avenatti.”