Notable Quote of the Day

“Yet the coronavirus outbreak continues to cast a large shadow over the 2020 presidential election. Just half of U.S. registered voters (50%) say it will be very or somewhat easy to vote in the upcoming elections, while about the same share (49%) expects to have difficulties casting a ballot. That is a substantial change since October 2018, shortly before that year’s midterm elections, when 85% of registered voters said it would be easy to vote.

Voters who support Donald Trump are far more likely than those who support Joe Biden to say it will be easy to vote this year. However, the shares of both Trump and Biden supporters who expect it will be easy to vote are much lower than the shares of voters who said this in 2018 – regardless of which party’s candidate they supported.”

– Pew Research Center

Election Updates

• The Joe Biden campaign said it raised $48 million in the first 48 hours since Biden announced Sen. Kamala Harris was his running mate.

• According to an internal Biden campaign document obtained by HuffPost, the talking points about Harris include the following notes: “high popularity among suburban women”, “tough questioner,” “deeply respected member of the Black community,” and her track record on immigration.

• Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg was added to the speaker list at the Democratic National Convention for August 20, the final day of the event.

• Donald Trump said universal mail-in voting would not be possible without additional funding for the USPS, which he said he opposed. “They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said. “If they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”

• The Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., will serve as the central hub for Republican National Convention speeches.

• In an interview with The Guardian, Howie Hawkins said he would consider receiving 5% of the vote a big victory. “That qualifies us for a public campaign financing grant for the general election in 2024 for president. If we got to 5% there’d be about $20m at least waiting for our presidential ticket in 2024, which would be a jump up.”

• Jo Jorgensen will campaign in North Carolina and South Carolina over the weekend.

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What We’re Reading

• The New York Times: How Biden Chose Harris: A Search That Forged New Stars, Friends and Rivalries

• Newsweek: 2024 Presidential Election Could Be Between Andrew Cuomo and Mitt Romney

• Reuters: Trump pushes anti-immigrant message even as coronavirus dominates campaign

Flashback: August 14, 2016

U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling on Trump to release his tax returns.