Wall Street Journal: “A Trump victory over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton likely would require a sweep of a set of battleground states where he is competitive but trailing in recent opinion polls—Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina—and both campaigns describe them as the heart of the race. Mrs. Clinton, by contrast, could win with just one of them, partly because Democrats start with a larger number of states that historically side with them.”

“Both campaigns have put their money and their time in those states, despite suggestions they might turn elsewhere. Mr. Trump has traveled to those states more than others and has paid advertising in only these four states. Of the 20 media markets that have received the greatest number of ad spots placed by either the Clinton campaign or its main super PAC, 16 are in one of them, according to data from an ad tracker not affiliated with either campaign.”

Donald Trump’s campaign “rolled out a revamped schedule, making sure to emphasize — twice — that Trump is focusing on battleground states,” Politico reports.

“Some Republicans have been scratching their heads lately over Trump’s campaign schedule, which had been heavy on red states and relatively light on those states that could prove decisive on Election Day.”

“The new approach, which includes visits to Florida and Nevada, appears to have the fingerprints of Kellyanne Conway, a respected Republican pollster who was elevated last week to the role of campaign manager and who has been credited for Trump’s toned-down approach in recent days.”

“More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president,” the AP reports.

“At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs… Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million.”

An ABC News analysis of several of Mitt Romney’s top donors in 2012 revealed that they have so far declined to donate to Donald Trump’s campaign, joint victory fund, or super PACs backing him, instead shifting their contributions to congressional re-election campaigns.

Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:

Virginia: Clinton 55%, Trump 36% (Roanoke)

Utah: Trump 53%, Clinton 33% (PPP)

Florida: Clinton 52%, Trump 38% (Saint Leo University)

Missouri: Trump 44%, Clinton 43% (Monmouth)

Stuart Rothenberg: “Following changes in the ‘generic ballot’ poll question is one way to track the fight for the House, but an alternate way is to look at key races at various levels of competitiveness that should indicate whether a wave is developing and, if it is, how big it might be.”

“Here is a scorecard of a few tiers of GOP-held House seats to watch over the next 2 1/2 months. They run from near certain Democratic takeovers to Democratic long-shot opportunities.”

“It’s been an exciting and unprecedented kind of campaign this year, and unfortunately, the way it’s turned out, both choices in the major parties are quite unpopular.”

— Former President Jimmy Carter, quoted by the Associated Press.

Donald Trump “called for a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, as questions emerge over whether foreign donations to the non-profit Clinton Foundation influenced her decision-making while in office,” NBC News reports.

“The comment was Trump’s first explicit call for direct legal action against his Democratic rival beyond his common stump-speech claim that Clinton should be jailed for her use of a private email server while secretary of state. The Justice Department declined to bring charges against Clinton over her email server.”

First Read: “Down in the polls, it’s trying to change the subject back to Clinton.”

Nate Cohn: “The Democrats of 2006 did well in Republican-leaning districts with help from scandals that brought down members of Congress who otherwise would have been unlikely to lose re-election. The list is not short: Tom DeLay, Mark Foley, Bob Ney, Don Sherwood — for starters. Democrats can’t count on the same thing this year, and Republicans in 2010 did not do as well in Democratic-leaning areas.”

“With these underlying advantages, it would not be surprising if the Republican House majority lasted for at least a decade. The structural advantages underpinning it are that strong. The odds of a Clinton presidency are strong, too — and a Democratic White House would probably strengthen the Republican hold on the House, given the tendency for the president’s party to struggle down-ballot. If Democrats are going to retake the House anytime soon, November would probably be their best shot, and as of now it’s not happening.”

Related for members: Clinton Could Face Even Worse Gridlock

“Trump nearly quintupled the monthly rent his presidential campaign pays for its headquarters at Trump Tower to $169,758 in July, when he was raising funds from donors, compared with March, when he was self-funding his campaign, according to a Huffington Post review of Federal Election Commission filings. The rent jumped even though he was paying fewer staff in July than he did in March.”