| Early in the summer, pundits opined that the presidential race was Joe Biden’s to lose. Then a tightening contest in national polls suggested President Trump had pulled wavering 2016 supporters back into his tent. The two nominees are traveling in nearly identical contested territory (a handful of battleground states, over and over) and pursuing strategies that depend on record-breaking fundraising and ad wars over the next two months aimed at motivating likely voters, most of whom say they’ve already made up their minds. Trump visited Kenosha, Wis., on Tuesday — to salute law enforcement and condemn what he calls lawless protesters. Democratic nominee Biden will be in Kenosha today — to urge peace and to meet with relatives of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man shot by police 10 days ago (The Hill). The president is focused on America’s safety and what he calls “mob rule” in the streets and “fascism” favored by Democrats. Biden, too, is campaigning to reduce risks and make Americans safer — from the coronavirus and what he calls the Trump administration’s “failed” and flailing performance during the pandemic. The Associated Press: In Kenosha, Biden will put his campaign promise to unify the nation to a test. “Get off Twitter,” Biden advised the president during remarks in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday while discussing the safety of school reopenings (pictured above) (The Hill). “President Trump still does not understand that in order to fully and effectively restart the economy, we must defeat the virus,” he repeated. The Washington Post: Biden blames Trump for coronavirus-related school closures, calls education gap a “national emergency.” The Associated Press: Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian (D) lifted his city’s curfew ahead of Biden’s visit following several peaceful nights but warned it could return. “Criminal activity will not be tolerated,” he said on Wednesday. As Amie Parnes reports, Biden through Election Day wants to keep the national conversation on the coronavirus and what he argues are Trump’s missteps. Democrats see COVID-19 as the issue that could cost Trump the election. The presidential contest is now a 60-day sprint animated by Biden’s taunts that a second term for Trump would be disastrous and the incumbent’s defense that denying him a second term risks America’s way of life. Neither candidate seems to have received a significant bounce coming out of the party conventions last month, report The Hill’s Jonathan Easley and Max Greenwood. New polls show Biden opening up a wide national lead but there are glimmers of hope for Trump in surveys of key battleground states. One of the first major national polls released after the Republican National Convention shows Biden with an almost double-digit lead over the president. The survey, conducted by veteran pollster Ann Selzer for Grinnell College, finds Biden leading 49 percent to 41 percent, on the strength of a huge advantage among female voters, suburbanites and Americans with a college degree (The Hill). Biden leads the suburbs by a 58 percent to 35 percent margin. Among those suburban residents, Biden is ahead with women by a 64 percent to 31 percent margin, a sign that the most coveted voters in the electorate — the “suburban housewife,” in Trump’s recent lexicon — are rejecting the incumbent. “Among suburban women, the president’s numbers are terrible,” said Peter Hanson, a political scientist at Grinnell College who directed the poll. “If the president’s coalition is going to consist of non-college-educated white men, evangelicals and seniors, then he’s going to have a hard time.” The Washington Post: How turnout and swing voters could get Trump or Biden to 270. > Battlegrounds: Biden is favored to carry Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes but Trump’s campaign is plowing resources into a state that hasn’t gone for the GOP presidential nominee since 1972, the longest such streak in the nation. Hillary Clinton won in Minnesota four years ago by 1.5 percent. The Trump campaign went up with new ads on Wednesday accusing Biden of standing with “rioters and looters” in Minneapolis, where the police killing of George Floyd in May sparked nationwide protests and demands for police reform. The ad is part of $14 million in television reservations the Trump campaign made in Minnesota through Election Day. Democrats in the state believe Biden is in a better position but acknowledge that the same cultural trends that helped Trump turn Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania red have forced Democrats to play defense in Minnesota for the first time in decades (The Hill). The Hill: A new poll on Wednesday in swing-state Pennsylvania shows a tight race. Trump was the first Republican to win the state since George H.W. Bush won there in 1988. The president, who was in Wilmington, N.C., on Wednesday (pictured below) and will return to North Carolina for a campaign rally on Tuesday, is eyeing the state as a linchpin in his Electoral College math. Recent polls show the president and Biden running neck and neck in the state (The Hill). As Biden heads to Kenosha today, his campaign unveiled a new television ad condemning rioters and looters who have mingled with protesters in some cities as he tries to blunt the GOP argument that Democrats embody the party of lawlessness. The Biden campaign is investing $45 million in a one-week television and digital advertising campaign that is the candidate’s largest buy to date (The New York Times). Campaign cash: Biden reports raising $364.5 million in August, a record (The Hill). 
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