A new Morning Consult poll shows Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump nationally, 51% to 45%.
Key takeaway: “Her 51% of support among likely voters, which is also at a record high, is driven largely by her best figures to date among Democrats, Biden 2020 voters, liberals, women, 18- to 34-year-olds and millennials.”
A new Emerson College Polling/DC News Now/The Hill poll finds 49% of Maryland likely voters support Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks (D), while 42% support former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for the open U.S. Senate seat.
“Former President Obama is taking to TikTok today in search of eligible voters who aren’t yet registered to pull the lever for Vice President Harris,” Axios reports.
“Obama’s TikTok push is part of a broader Democratic effort to use National Voter Registration Day to reach some 30 million potential voters through non-traditional means.”
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“Four years ago, former President Trump seized on expected delays in counting heavily Democratic absentee and mail-in ballots in swing states to fuel false claims that the election was stolen. Experts warn it could happen again in 2024,” Axios reports.
“In the politically divided states whose 2020 votes received the most attention, some new laws and policies aim to expedite ballot counts — but many rules and timelines will likely be the same.”
“And in those toss-up states — Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia — the margins in the race for president could be even closer this time.”
“Congress appears unlikely to pass any of the laws it has been promising to safeguard this year’s election from the threat of artificial intelligence,” Politico reports.
“With experts warning about threats to democracy from AI deepfakes that mislead voters, lawmakers said they had to act — and they introduced multiple bills this year that could have banned deepfakes in elections and mandated clear labels on AI-generated content. Despite the appetite for laws and some bipartisan support, those efforts are foundering.”
“The cracks in the labor market in Las Vegas and across Nevada have typically appeared early and widened fast when the U.S. economy soured, making the consumer-driven city and state a bellwether of sorts for the rest of the country,” Reuters reports.
“By that measure, as the Federal Reserve heads towards a momentous shift to interest rate cuts this week, business owners, labor leaders, and economists in Nevada see few obvious signs of trouble. Indeed, in a state critical to the outcome of a U.S. presidential election in November that may well turn on pocketbook issues, they see plenty of evidence of an economy moving beyond high inflation without an employment-crushing recession: The Fed’s longed-for ‘soft landing.’”
Oliver Darcy: “With only a few weeks until the former first lady releases her book on October 8, the race to lock a rare potential sit-down with Melania is on. The major news networks, I’m told, have put in various pitches for a one-on-one conversation, with ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ having expressed particular interest in nabbing an interview.”
“But it is far from clear whether any of the pitches from the networks will be granted. During her time in public life, Melania has largely avoided the press. She only granted a small handful of interviews during her time in the White House and has eschewed reporters since the Trump family exited in disgrace after the January 6 insurrection.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris held a sometimes tense meeting with Teamsters leaders on Monday, defending the Biden administration’s labor policies against pointed questions and concluding with a promise that she would win the presidency and treat the union fairly with or without its backing,” the New York Times reports.
“While Ms. Harris has the endorsement of most of the nation’s unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, whose truck drivers, freight workers and other members are divided in their political allegiances, has held out. Sean O’Brien, the union’s combative president, said after the meeting that he could announce an endorsement — if there was an endorsement — as soon as Wednesday.”
A new USA Today/Suffolk University poll in Pennsylvania finds Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump among likely voters, 49% to 46%.
It was completed entirely after last week’s debate.
The poll found a wide gender gap that is benefiting the vice president. Harris leads female voters in Pennsylvania 56%-39%, while Trump leads male voters by a slimmer 53%-41%.
Harris edged Trump among Pennsylvania’s independent voters 43%-38%.
Mark Meadows’ effort to transfer his Arizona criminal charges to federal court was denied because he failed to show that his actions were part of his official chief of staff duties.
Billionaire Mark Cuban told Wired he would be interested in purchasing Fox News.
Said Cuban: “If I had enough money to do it, which I don’t, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.”
Politico: “After several cycles of ceding ground to Republicans, Democrats believe their top-of-the-ticket energy could power a major comeback in states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. And it’s not just talk — they’re investing millions in the red-tinted turf.”
“As new polling comes in, Democrats are increasingly directing money and manpower toward targets like Michigan’s 10th, Wisconsin’s 3rd and Iowa’s 1st and 3rd. Those were considered ‘reach’ seats even just a few weeks ago — Donald Trump won them by between 0 and 5 points in 2020 — and flat-out unwinnable this spring.”
“President Biden and former President Trump spoke over the phone on Monday after an apparent assassination attempt against the Republican nominee at his Florida golf course,” The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “We had a very nice call. It was about Secret Service protection.”
“The toxic political climate and a complex web of threats — punctuated by Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump — is putting an extraordinary strain on the national security officials tasked with safeguarding American democracy,” Politico reports.
“Security experts say sharp polarization and increasingly hateful political rhetoric — fanned by foreign adversaries and supercharged by social media — have combined to test the nation’s ability to protect its candidates and institutions.”
A judge ruled that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name will remain on the ballot in the swing state of Wisconsin, the AP reports.
Said the judge: “The statute is plain on its face. Mr. Kennedy has no one to blame but himself if he didn’t want to be on the ballot.”
“In a newly unearthed video from 2022, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) scoffs at the idea that young women should have access to birth control and, repeatedly waving his hand near his groin, says they just need to ‘get this under control,'” the HuffPost reports.
“During a January 2022 appearance at Hilltop Baptist Church in Thomasville, North Carolina, Robinson ― who is now the GOP nominee for governor ― also took aim at programs that provide sexual education and birth control to young women.”
“Soon after Donald Trump became president, authorities tried to warn him about the risks posed by golfing at his own courses because of their proximity to public roads. Secret Service agents came armed with unusual evidence: not suspect profiles or spent bullet casings, but simple photographs taken by news crews of him golfing at his private club in Sterling, Va.,” the Washington Post reports.
“They reasoned that if photographers with long-range lenses could get the president in their sights while he golfed, so too could potential gunmen, according to former U.S. officials involved in the discussions who, like most others interviewed for this story.”
“But Trump insisted that his clubs were safe and that he wanted to keep golfing.”
Scientific American endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race.
The magazine said Harris “offers the country better prospects, relying on science, solid evidence and the willingness to learn from experience.”
This is only the second time in the publication’s 179-year history that it has made an endorsement in a presidential race. The first was for Joe Biden in 2020.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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