Des Moines Register:
Trump's Iowa lead shrinks significantly as Kamala Harris replaces Biden, Iowa Poll shows
The nationally recognized Iowa Poll's first test of Kamala Harris' strength against Donald Trump indicates she's a more formidable opponent than President Biden in solid-red Iowa
- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leads Democrat Kamala Harris in the latest Iowa Poll 47% to 43%.
- Harris has dramatically improved on Joe Biden’s performance; Biden trailed Donald Trump by 18 percentage points in a June Iowa Poll.
- Eighty percent of Democrats who are likely voters say they are extremely or very enthusiastic about their choice for president — compared with 74% of Republican likely voters.
[Pollster J. Ann] Selzer said the poll findings “signal a change in the mood of the electorate.”
Now, 81% of all Iowans say they will definitely vote in the general election, up from 76% in June. However, some of the demographic groups more likely to favor Harris are showing increased participation.
Women show an 8-percentage-point uptick in likely voting since June, Iowans younger than 45 show a 10-point increase, city dwellers show a 6-point bounce, and those with a college degree are up 9 points.
Trump won Iowa by 9 and likely will again. Historically, Selzer’s next to last poll (this one, most likely) is more D than her last one, when she nails the IA results.
But her last poll this cycle had Trump up 18. It’s the trends.
Financial Times:
Harris shores up lead over Trump on economy after debate
Latest FT-Michigan Ross poll shows vice-president has built on advantage over ex-president
For the second month in a row, the FT-Michigan Ross poll showed Harris with a narrow advantage over Trump on stewardship of the economy, with 44 per cent of registered voters saying they trusted the Democratic vice-president to handle the economy and 42 per cent backing the Republican former president. Last month, she led 42 per cent to 41 per cent.But Harris fared even better with voters who tuned into Tuesday’s presidential debate, which was watched by an estimated 67mn Americans, according to Nielsen.Of the nearly three-quarters of respondents who said they watched all or part of the 90-minute debate, 48 per cent said they trusted Harris more to manage the economy, compared with 42 per cent for Trump. Among those who said they did not watch the debate, Trump had an advantage, with 41 per cent trusting the former president and just 35 per cent favouring Harris. The poll was conducted in the two days immediately following last week’s debate.
Josh Marshall/Talking Points Memo:
Trump’s Two Campaigns
I say this not to cue up any big punch line or revelation. I just think it’s the best way to understand the 2024 campaign and Trump’s side of it. There really are two campaigns, really operating pretty independently of each other, in key ways even trying to counteract each other, at least from the “Trump” campaign LaCivita/Wiles side. And like any marriage of convenience, I guess you could say it continues because in a disjointed and distant way it works, or might work. Trump keeps the hardcore degenerates on side through his stage show, albeit in a diminished form, and the swing state air war aims to pull in the occasional and lightly politicked swing voters.
Of course they can’t truly remain separate. The swing states are not hermetically sealed off from the rest of the country or the national political discourse, which is driven by the most politically engaged but which increasingly splashes over into the rest of the population in the heat of a national campaign. Just how much these two campaigns interact, get in the way of each other, or keep to their own assignments untroubled will likely play a big role in the outcome of the election.
Pro tip: if you give Vance the benefit of the doubt before today's CNN admission that he's lying about Springfield, it's now reasonable to say he *continues* to lie the next time he says something weird.
Not much to say on this one.
EJ Dionne/Washington Post:
Harris can end the Trump-Vance culture wars. Here’s how.
For starters, show what it means to champion the American family.
Harris is saying: Enough. She is betting, correctly, that a substantial majority of Americans want the culture wars to stop. Between now and Election Day, she needs to demonstrate what peace requires.
Rather unintentionally, JD Vance has created an opportunity for her to do this. Trump’s running mate is the perfect foil for Harris to show that being pro-family and pro-children requires bringing our warring political tribes together.
Dan Balz/Washington Post:
Trump can’t accept his poor debate. So he’s spiraled into conspiracy theories.
Since Kamala Harris was widely seen as besting him at the debate, Donald Trump has spread conspiracy theories and spun false tales, losing focus on what polls say matters most to voters.
Trump can’t accept the widely held verdict that Harris outdid him, just like he couldn’t accept that President Joe Biden defeated him four years ago. On Friday night, during a rally in Las Vegas that was replete with baseless claims about a variety of topics, he spun up the tale that Harris was receiving the questions during the debate. Elevating a conspiracy theory that popped up on social media, he falsely claimed she had hearing devices in her earrings, that she was being coached on what to say in real time. He did it in classic Trump style, citing unspecified hearsay as proof.
CBS:
Ronald Reagan's former staff back Harris-Walz ticket: "Today is a choice between integrity and demagoguery."
Seventeen former staff members of the late Republican President Ronald Reagan are endorsing the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a joint statement first obtained by CBS News, the staff members wrote that Reagan, if alive, would have supported Harris…
Over 230 former officials for Republican presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush have also backed Harris, in addition to campaign staffers for Republican presidential nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney. Biden received a similar amount of GOP support in his 2020 run against Trump.
Former Reagan staff backing Harris includes Ken Adelman, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. arms control director under Reagan, as well as B. Jay Cooper, the special assistant and deputy press secretary to Reagan. Adelman had endorsed former President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, as well as President Biden's 2020 run. He backed Republican Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign, but was against Trump's 2016 run.
POLITICO:
Kamala Harris is running a different campaign from Joe Biden in one big way
Johnstown, Wilkes-Barre and Pittsburgh: A POLITICO analysis of campaign stops tells a story about how the vice president thinks she can win.
After Trump’s victory in 2016, Democrats forged a deliberate strategy of trying to limit their losses in Republican-leaning areas. But President Joe Biden strayed from that approach earlier this year, focusing mainly on major cities as he tried to repair his problems with the Democratic base. Now, a POLITICO analysis shows, Harris is returning her attention to a different set of redder areas — in campaign swings and advertising — a shift that underscores her unique strengths and challenges relative to him.
The campaign is less concerned now about locking up the Democratic base, eschewing the need to focus quite as heavily on major liberal cities like Philly. Instead, Harris’ team sees room to grow among many of the types of voters located in the smaller cities, exurban locales and rural areas that she is now visiting: older, mostly non-college-educated, white voters.
That AtlasIntel poll? They have Tim Walz at double digit unlikeable (-15, worse than Trump or Vance). Let’s just say that’s... not likely. Meanwhile Harris is hitting 50 in the others.
Stephanie Miller and Cliff Schecter on Trump’s insanity:
