With 64 days until Election Day, here’s what to watch in the week ahead
NEW YORK (AP) — Presidential politics move fast. What we’re watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:
Days to general election: 64
Days to first debate: 29
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The narrative
The conventions finally over, the 2020 election season now enters its final phase.
Both sides are pleased with their convention performances which offered dramatically different versions of reality to the American electorate. President Donald Trump is essentially asking voters to judge him based on pre-pandemic America. Joe Biden is asking voters to judge the incumbent on conditions as they actually exist, with the pandemic’s death toll mounting, the economy struggling and racial tensions again exploding.
Still, both sides expect the election, which Biden has led for virtually the entire cycle, to tighten entering the nine-week sprint to Nov. 3. Reflecting concerns about potential Trump momentum, Biden plans to resume in-person campaigning in the coming days, albeit with smaller, socially distanced crowds.
Both candidates are focused on Wisconsin this week as a series of violent protests follow yet another police-involved shooting of a Black man caught on camera. Each side believes the incident offers a political advantage, and there may be no more important swing state.
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The big questions
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The final thought
Thousands of people crowded onto the National Mall late last week to celebrate the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.
We spoke to Martin Luther King III on the eve of the event, and he told us he was “saddened” that Republicans during their convention last week evoked his father’s name to help Trump’s reelection bid.
King likened Trump’s rhetoric on racial divisions to that of Richard Nixon a half-century ago: “It’s just straight racism,” King said. “The hands of the clock are going backwards.”
