Biden Returns to IA, Trump in MI, WI   10/30 06:32

   With four days until the election and more than 80 million votes already 
cast, time is running out for Trump and Biden to change the shape of the race.

   DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- When Joe Biden was last in Iowa, his presidential 
campaign was on the verge of collapse and he was soundly trounced in the 
caucuses by a former Indiana mayor nearly 40 years his junior. He returns 
Friday as the Democratic nominee, believing he's just days away from becoming 
president-elect.

   Biden's trip reflects the growing confidence among Democrats in the closing 
days of the campaign. Iowa, which Donald Trump won by 9 points in 2016, is 
among the clutch of GOP-leaning states that Biden is trying to bring back into 
the Democratic column. He'll also swing through Wisconsin on Friday while his 
running mate, Kamala Harris, courts voters in Texas, a longtime GOP bastion 
that Democrats insist is in play this year.

   Trump, meanwhile, is playing defense in Michigan and Wisconsin, states he 
won four years ago. Trump and Biden will both be in Minnesota, a longtime 
Democratic state that the Republican president is trying to flip.

   The arc of Biden's rise is eclipsed only by the challenges faced by Trump 
--- whose confidence in his reelection was dealt a devastating blow by the 
coronavirus pandemic this spring, with the public health and economic crises 
still rearing their heads in the days leading up to the close of polling.

   With four days until the election and more than 80 million votes already 
cast, time is running out for Trump and Biden to change the shape of the race. 
Biden is leading most national polls and has a narrow advantage in the critical 
battlegrounds that could decide the race.

   That's why both men zeroed in on Florida on Thursday. While Biden has a path 
to victory without the critical battleground state, Trump's reelection bid 
would almost certainly be blocked if he loses there.

   "If Florida goes blue, it's over," Biden told supporters Thursday.

   Friday marks the beginning of the critical final stretch before the 
election. Trump's closing sprint to Election Day also includes three stops in 
Pennsylvania on Saturday and nearly a dozen events in the final 48 hours across 
states he carried in 2016.

   After Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota on Friday, Biden will hit Michigan on 
Saturday, where he'll hold a joint rally with former President Barack Obama.

   Biden has held fewer events in a nod to the restrictions in place across the 
country to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The virus has killed more 
than 228,000 people in the United States, and cases are surging across the 
country, threatening an economic recovery Trump had aimed to champion.

   Trump on Thursday celebrated a new federal estimate that the economy grew at 
a stunning 33.1% annual rate in the July-September quarter --- by far the 
largest quarterly gain on record --- making up ground from its epic plunge in 
the spring, when the eruption of the coronavirus closed businesses and threw 
tens of millions of people out of work.

   "So glad this great GDP number came out before November 3rd," Trump tweeted, 
predicting a dire reversal if Biden is elected.

   But economists warned that the economy is already weakening again and facing 
renewed threats as confirmed viral cases surge, hiring has slowed and federal 
stimulus help has mostly run out.

   Biden said, "The recovery is slowing if not stalling, and the recovery that 
is happening is helping those at the top but leaving tens of millions of 
working families and small businesses behind."

   Harris, a California senator, was set to campaign across Texas on Friday, 
aiming to chip into Republicans' historic advantage in the diversifying and 
increasingly competitive state.

   Trump is banking on local news coverage of his rallies to overcome a 
substantial advertising deficit stemming from a late cash crunch. Biden and his 
allies are outspending Trump and his backers by a more than 3-1 ratio in 
Florida --- about $23 million to about $7 million --- in the final push to 
Election Day, according to data from ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG.

   Biden, meanwhile, is pouring tens of millions of dollars into a torrent of 
online advertising that will deliver his closing message of the presidential 
campaign, highlighting his promise to govern for all Americans while blasting 
Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

   "I will work as hard for those who don't support me as those who do," Biden 
says in one of the digital ads, which took over the masthead of YouTube 
Thursday. "That's the job of a president --- the duty to care for everyone."

   How much exactly Biden will spend is unclear. His campaign says it is 
putting a "mid-eight-figure" dollar amount behind over 100 different ads, which 
means they could be spending as little as $25 million --- but potentially much 
more.

   The ads will run on social media platforms including Instagram and Facebook, 
streaming services such as Hulu and music applications like Pandora.

   The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, launched its closing message 
to voters Thursday, not mentioning Trump, in an apparent aim to help GOP 
candidates up and down the ballot with a focus on traditional Republican 
messages around lowering taxes and health care.

   The aftereffects of Hurricane Zeta were holding back voters at a number of 
polling places in northern Florida and northern Georgia that lost power. In 
Douglas County, in Atlanta's western suburbs, all six polling locations were 
without power, as were county offices.