Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to stop a government shutdown fight, Axios' Stef Kight and Juliegrace Brufke have learned.

• Top McConnell staffers have been working behind the scenes to get House conservatives to drop their demands for an immigrant voting crackdown as part of a short-term funding bill, sources tell us.

Why it matters: Senate GOP leaders are afraid that adding conditions to government funding would open the door for Democrats to tack on their own legislation.

• The John Lewis Voting Rights Act — a Democrat priority that seeks to restore parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act — was specifically discussed as a possibility in a recent meeting with other GOP offices, two GOP aides familiar with the conversation told us.
• McConnell, 82, is stepping aside as Senate GOP leader after the election.
• His staffers urged conservatives in the Senate and the House to keep the precedent of passing clean short-term-funding bills.

Zoom in: Republicans have latched on to the idea of immigrant voting fraud as a top campaign rallying cry, connecting two issues that resonate strongly with their base — illegal immigration at the border and election fraud.

• The SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote, passed the House last month with the backing of five vulnerable Democrats.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has signaled he's open to attaching it to a funding bill.
• Former President Trump urged Republicans last month to "pass the Save Act, or go home and cry yourself to sleep."

👀 The House GOP's proposal would almost certainly be dead-on-arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

• President Biden "strongly opposes" the SAVE Act, the White House said earlier this summer. That reality helps explain the pushback from McConnell's team.

The bottom line: Instances of non-citizens wrongfully voting or registering to vote are rare.

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The Harris-Walz campaign is casting a drastically wider net in recruiting House Democrats to stump for the presidential ticket — and the interest is mutual, Axios' Andrew Solender has learned.

• Over a dozen Democratic lawmakers and aides described a "night-and-day" contrast with the surrogate operation under President Biden.

Why it matters: The Harris campaign knows "the Biden team had an issue of many members not feeling included," a senior House Democrat told us.

• ⚡️ The Harris campaign has "asked all members if they are interested in being surrogates," and those who agreed have been contacted each week about their availability to travel, said the senior House Dem.
• The center-left New Democrat Coalition polled their nearly 100 members at the campaign's request to "find out who's available," Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), the group's chair, told us.

Zoom in: Several House Democrats who were not stumping for Biden have signed on to do so for Harris.

• "I wasn't a Biden campaign surrogate because I wasn't asked ... But Kamala, it's a different story," said Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.).
• "They have asked for as many members as possible ... to be surrogates," said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.).

Between the lines: The general election was just starting at the time of the disastrous debate that precipitated Biden's withdrawal weeks later, and the Harris campaign has retained most of his staff infrastructure.

The bottom line: Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told Axios the campaign has "more interested surrogates than they know what to do with."

• One House Democrat who expressed interest in speaking at the DNC was told by their team that while it may have been feasible under Biden, there is far more competition for public-facing roles in Harris' candidacy.

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Former President Trump is adopting the language of abortion rights advocates, despite calling himself the president who "was able to kill Roe v. Wade."

Why it matters: 22 states have stricter abortion laws (paywall) today than before the fall of Roe.

• Trump would "absolutely" veto a national abortion ban, his running mate Sen. JD Vance said today on NBC News.
• "My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights," Trump posted Friday on Truth Social.

The other side: "American women are not stupid and we are not going to trust the futures of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have openly bragged about blocking access to abortion," Sen. Elizabeth Warren told NBC News.

• 74% of women between ages 18–49 "somewhat" or "strongly" oppose allowing states to write abortion laws, per a KFF poll released last week.

Living history: A year ago this weekend, the first presidential mugshot went public after Trump was arrested on state charges in Fulton County, Ga.