Notable Quote of the Day“It was late summer 2019 and Mr. Biden’s online fund-raising had slowed to such a trickle that his team basically had to shut down its digital advertising program. They knew the choice was self-defeating: No more online ads meant no more finding new donors. The campaign bottomed out in early September 2019 when Mr. Biden raised just $24,124.17 online in a day.

Now? On one recent day, Mr. Biden was raising more than that every two minutes.

The unlikely transformation of Mr. Biden, a 77-year-old whose seemingly limited appeal to small donors left him financially outflanked in the primaries, into perhaps the greatest magnet for online money in American political history is a testament to the ferocity of Democratic opposition to President Trump.”

– Shane Goldmacher and Rachel Shorey, The New York Times

• Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and their respective allied groups have spent more than $1 billion on television ads in 13 battleground states. Six states have received the bulk of spending—almost $9 for every $10 spent—Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
• Biden is spending more than $24 million on ads in 16 states this week, while Trump is spending more than $17 million in 11 states. Biden’s ads focus on Trump’s COVID-19 response, seniors, and criminal justice. Trump’s ads include law and order messaging and criticism of what Trump called the radical left. Biden’s ad buy includes Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas.
• Biden said he was “not a fan of court packing” when asked if he would try to add more justices to the Supreme Court.
• Trump is holding his third rally of the week in Des Moines, Iowa.
• NBC News announced it will host a town hall with Trump in Miami on Thursday moderated by Savannah Guthrie.
• America First Action launched a $10 million ad campaign in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin criticizing Biden’s tax plan.

Flashback: October 14, 2016

Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Donald Trump was “at a point where he’s trying to draw an inside straight now by campaigning primarily in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina.”