Associated Press: “These activists have been sprinting through Pennsylvania neighborhoods, talking to people about how bad Democrat Katie McGinty would be as a U.S. senator. Here to help save Republican Sen. Pat Toomey — and, more broadly, the party’s control of the Senate — are employees and volunteers for Americans for Prosperity, the best-known group financed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.”

“Similar scenes are playing out in North Carolina, Florida and Ohio.”

“In addition to having nail-biting Senate races this year, those four states are some of the most important battlegrounds in the presidential race. Yet the Koch activists interacting with millions of people who could be Trump’s most crucial voters aren’t supposed to utter a word about him or Hillary Clinton, a Democrat they’d been preparing for years to attack.”

Wall Street Journal: “Donald Trump, trailing in opinion polls and facing new accusations by women of unwanted sexual contact, has begun arguing he will win the election on a surge of silent backers who have gone undetected by surveys and the political establishment … His theory — which others view skeptically — holds that fear of social stigma prevents some voters from admitting they back him, including when talking to pollsters.”

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that Donald Trump’s repeated warnings about a “rigged” election are having effect: 73% of Republicans think the election could be swiped from him. Just 17% of Democrats agree with the prospect of massive fraud at the ballot box.

A new George Washington University Battleground Poll finds Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by eight points nationally, 47% to 39%, with Gary Johnson at 8% and Jill Stein at 2%.

Clinton held a two-point lead in early September.

Politico: “After several disastrous weeks for Trump, Ohio is suddenly back in play. Clinton has taken a lead in four of the last five public polls there, and the Trump campaign has returned to a war footing with the state’s GOP establishment. For Republicans, it’s a disturbing turn of events in a state that is essential to Trump’s hopes of winning the White House.”

The HuffPost Pollster average now shows Clinton leading in Ohio, 43% to 41%.

“Hillary Clinton faces a striking choice in the final three weeks of the campaign: to expand her efforts to states that Democrats haven’t won in a generation, or to stay a current course that, if conditions hold, would deliver her a resounding electoral college victory,” the Washington Post reports.

“After two tumultuous weeks focused on Donald Trump’s behavior toward women, Clinton is ahead in nearly all of the key battleground states where her campaign has directed the most resources, according to many recent polls. But some once-solidly Republican states — notably Arizona, Georgia and Utah — now also appear to be in play.”

Nate Silver: “The swing state map is broader than in 2012. Whereas by the end of that election, only a half-dozen states were really in doubt, there are 10 to 15 states that remain interesting this year. But Florida stands out according to our tipping-point index because winning it would all but clinch the election for Clinton.”

North Carolina police are investigating an apparent firebombing of a local Republican headquarters, an incident that one state GOP official called an act of “political terrorism,” the Charlotte Observer reports.

“I’ll take a drug test if you’ll take an IQ test.”

— Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC), quoted by NPR, in 1986 when Henry McMaster (R) challenged him to a drug test.

“We will absolutely accept the result of the election.”

— Gov. Mike Pence, quoted by Bloomberg.

“The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary – but also at many polling places – SAD.”

— Donald Trump, on Twitter.