Joe Biden elbow-bumping a worker during a campaign stop in Wisconsin. Photo: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Joe Biden's campaign is storming states with competitive Senate races this week to help boost Democratic candidates in the run-up to the election.
Why it matters: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death is galvanizing Democrats to fight harder for control of the Senate with less than two months before Election Day.
- Winning that chamber is the only hope Democrats have of responding to
Republicans' plan to vote on President Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election. - Biden's campaign is also engaged in joint fundraising efforts with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) to help candidates across the U.S.
Driving the news: Biden will be in North Carolina on Wednesday, while his his wife, Jill Biden, and Doug Emhoff, Sen. Kamala Harris's husband, take on Maine and Iowa.
- The campaign just added Georgia and Iowa — two states Trump won in 2016 — to its list of TV and digital ad campaign targets heading into the election.
- On Tuesday the Biden campaign started airing TV ads in New Hampshire, which Hillary Clinton won by less than a single point.
- The Cook Political Report ranks the Georgia, Iowa and Maine Senate contests as toss-ups.
By the numbers: In all five of those states, polls show a neck-and-neck race between Biden and Trump at the top of the ticket, and Democrats leading or within striking distance of their Republican opponents.
The big picture: Democrats hope Biden's presence and investment in these states will create more favorable conditions for their Senate candidates, and they point to his campaigning with successful candidates in 2018.
- Biden made dozens of campaign stops with House and Senate candidates, including Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, who helped Democrats make gains in swing districts during the midterms.