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GOP Group Raised $623 Million in Third Quarter: Campaign Update

Trump, Biden Mark Different Holidays Monday: Campaign Update

The Republican online fundraising platform WinRed raised $623.5 million in the third quarter. Facebook users are engaging with twice as much fake news as they did in 2016. And Joe Biden is ahead in Michigan and Wisconsin with three weeks to Election Day.

There are 22 days until the election and 64 days until the Electoral College meets.

Other Developments:

GOP Group WinRed Raised $623 Million in Third Quarter

The Republican online fundraising platform endorsed by President Donald Trump reported Monday that it raised $623.5 million in the third quarter.

The haul, first reported by Politico, brings the total raised by WinRed to $1.2 billion overall since it was launched in June 2019. But the platform still lags far behind its Democratic counterpart ActBlue, which has raised $2.4 billion for federal candidates and committees so far in 2020.

ActBlue has brought in $7.2 billion since it was launched in 2004, and $726 million in July and August, Federal Election Commission records show. The Democratic group has yet to report September numbers.

Although it’s playing catch-up, WinRed has made great strides. It topped $1.2 billion in donations in its second year, a milestone ActBlue didn’t reach until its 11th year. But much of the WinRed’s success so far has been tied to Trump’s adoption of the platform.

Through the second quarter of 2020, donors using WinRed’s platform have supported Trump more than any other candidate. They gave $297 million to Trump’s re-election effort and $210 million to all other federal GOP candidates and committees, Federal Election Commission data shows.

According to a memo WinRed released, it raised $43 million for House and Senate races in the third quarter. -- Bill Allison

Facebook Users Consuming Twice as Much Fake News as in 2016 (4:26 p.m.)

Facebook users are engaging with twice as many “deceptive sites that masquerade as journalism” as they did in the last presidential election year, according to new research.

“We found that the level of engagement with articles from outlets that repeatedly publish verifiably false content has increased 102 percent since the run-up to the 2016 election,” according to a report published by the German Marshall Fund on Monday.

The research -- which measured user engagement on Facebook Inc. with “sites that take on the appearance of news sites and launder disinformation while eschewing the practices of independent journalism” -- is the latest evidence that Facebook is struggling to stem the flow of disinformation on its platform in the lead up to the November election.

The German Marshall Fund research found there were about 139 million Facebook interactions with 396 deceptive sites in the third quarter of 2016. That number reached about 280 million in the third quarter of 2020. The site the report identified as deceptive include Red State Observer, The Federalist, DJHJ Media, Wayne Dupree and WND.

Facebook said in a statement that engagement was a “misleading” indicator of its efforts to limit misinformation and promote authoritative sources of information since 2016. “Over the past four years we’ve built the largest fact-checking network of any platform, made investments in highlighting original, informative reporting, and changed our products to ensure fewer people see false information and are made aware of it when they do,” the company said.

Adrienne Goldstein, one of the authors of the report, said that while Facebook had taken some steps to control misinformation, they weren’t sufficient. “I think it would be really important for Facebook to stamp out any election-related misinformation and given this data we know that there will likely be a lot of it,” she said. -- Alyza Sebenius

Biden Maintains Lead in Michigan, Wisconsin (2:39 p.m.)

Biden is maintaining his lead in Michigan and Wisconsin, two key battleground states that President Donald Trump won in 2016, according to a Siena College/New York Times poll released Monday.

With just three weeks until Election Day, 48% of likely Michigan voters backed Biden, while 40% supported Trump. In Wisconsin, 51% of likely voters backed Biden and 41% supported Trump. Biden has been ahead in every poll in Wisconsin since mid-August, and all but one poll in Michigan in that same time period.

Trump won both states by the thinnest of margins in 2016: He had an edge of 0.23% in Michigan, and of 0.77% in Wisconsin.

Yet this year, Biden is currently leading among respondents who voted for Trump or Clinton in 2016 as well as those who voted for minor-party candidates and those who did not vote.

The poll also showed Democratic Senator Gary Peters essentially tied with Republican John James, at 43% and 42%, respectively, with an unusually high 13% of voters saying they didn’t know who they would support or not answering the question.

The poll of 614 likely voters in Michigan was conducted Oct. 6-11. It has a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points. The poll of 789 likely voters in Wisconsin was conducted Oct. 8-11 and has a margin of error of 4 points. -- Josyana Joshua

Trump Campaign Touts Voter Registration Numbers (12:33 p.m.)

The Trump campaign is touting voter registration numbers to argue that polls aren’t showing what will happen on Election Day.

With Trump behind in national polls as well as most recent battleground-state polls, campaign manager Bill Stepien told reporters Monday that new voter registration numbers in key states show an enthusiasm edge that’s not being captured.

“Voter registration trends are simply not being reflected,” he said in a call with reporters.

Republicans have cut into the Democrats’ voter registration advantage in Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania in recent months.

Stepien also cited Arizona, where Democrats have cut into the Republicans’ traditional advantage, arguing that the GOP has registered more voters in the last three months. -- Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou

Biden Says Don’t Question Amy Coney Barrett’s Faith (11:02 a.m.)

Biden said Monday that Democrats should focus on Amy Coney Barrett’s views on health care, not her religious faith.

As confirmation hearings began on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Biden, who is a practicing Catholic like Barrett, told reporters at the New Castle Airport in Delaware that “nobody’s faith should be questioned.”

“This nominee said she wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. The president wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act,” he said, citing the unified Democratic strategy on the Barrett confirmation. “Let’s keep our eye on the ball.”

Biden also referenced the 2012 campaign in which Mitt Romney ran against Barack Obama.

In 2011, Biden defended Romney’s Mormon faith, saying that it was “preposterous” to debate whether or not it was “disqualifying” and that it was “embarrassing and we should be ashamed” of anyone making that argument. -- Tyler Pager

Trump Back to Criticizing Big Democratic States (10:14 a.m.)

Trump’s views on three large Democratic-leaning states swings wildly between saying he might win them and harshly criticizing them.

In recent days, Trump has suggested he could win New York and California, while the head of the Illinois Republican Party suggested during the Republican National Convention that the state could be in play.

“We can win in California NOW!” Trump tweeted last week.

But on Monday morning, Trump turned on the three states, tweeting that New York has “gone to hell,” California is “going to hell,” and Illinois “has no place to go.”

“Illinois has no place to go,” he tweeted. “Sad, isn’t it? Vote Trump!”

Trump is currently down 29 points in New York and 32 points in California in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. The most recent poll in Illinois had him down 13 points.

California Investigates Unofficial Ballot Drop Boxes (7:06 a.m.)

Trump has railed against ballot drop boxes and so-called ballot harvesting, but California Republicans have embraced both in a strategy that may be against state law.

The Orange County Register reports that unauthorized ballot drop boxes have been spotted in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange County in party offices, candidate headquarters and churches, often with the words “official ballot drop off box” on them.

The Fresno County Republican Party even posted a list of “secure” ballot collection sites on its website that included local businesses, gun shops and its own headquarters.

Neither the locations or the drop boxes themselves are approved by county elections officials, and Secretary of State Alex Padilla said they are against state law, which requires officials follow strict guidelines to establish a chain of custody for ballots in drop boxes.

On Twitter, the California Republican Party has defended the practice, noting that state law allows volunteers and campaign workers to collect ballots and turn them in at polling places.

Trump, Biden Celebrate Opposing Holidays Monday (6:49 a.m.)

The Trump and Biden campaigns will celebrate two very different holidays on Monday.

In Philadelphia, Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will hold a Columbus Day rally with Italian Americans for Trump.

“This event will highlight President Trump’s important accomplishments benefiting the Italian American Community as we celebrate Columbus Day,” the campaign website notes.

The Biden campaign, meantime, will hold a virtual celebration for Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Over the last year, Trump has highlighted Columbus as a historical figure that he says liberals want to “cancel,” noting when Columbus statues have been taken down and including the explorer in his proposed National Garden of American Heroes.

Last year, Biden and Trump marked the holiday with similarly different tweets.

Biden Facebook Ad Features Pope Francis

Pope Francis may prefer to stay out of U.S. politics, but he’s not having much luck.

On Sunday, the Biden campaign ran an ad featuring a photo of the then-vice president meeting with the pope at the Vatican in 2016 which called him, a “devout Catholic guided by faith.”

“For Joe Biden, faith isn’t a talking point,” the ad copy reads. “It’s the guiding light of his entire life.”

Pope Francis recently turned down a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which a Vatican official explained as a desire to avoid meeting political figures just before an election. Pompeo then published a letter criticizing the Vatican’s relationship with China.

Biden is the fourth Catholic presidential nominee of a major party in the U.S., after Al Smith, John F. Kennedy and John Kerry.

Poll Shows Biden Winning White Catholic Voters

Catholic voters like Biden a lot more than they did Hillary Clinton.

In an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday, 51% of White Catholics backed Biden, while 45% backed Trump.

In 2016 exit polls, 61% of White Catholics backed Trump, while only 37% voted for Clinton.

A polling memo notes that the only two Democrats who have done as well with White Catholics were Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton in 1996.

In the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida, more than 20% of adults are Catholic, making them a key target for presidential campaigns.

The survey of 725 likely voters across the country was conducted Oct. 6-9. It has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Coming Up:

Trump will travel to Pennsylvania on Wednesday and Biden will return to the battleground state for a town hall on Thursday.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.