Good morning! It is HOT out there. And the healthiest food at the state fair might be making it worse. As it turns out, corn sweats. A single acre of corn can pump 3,000 gallons of water into the air each day. So if you’re in corn country and you’re feeling extra swampy? Blame the corn sweat.

In equally horrifying news, your inbox will be a little lonely on Monday. The Elective is taking Labor Day off and so should you.

2024

🌽 Tie-breaking Tim Walz

We’re not supposed to say it out loud, but we’re all pretty much aware that the presidential race really only matters in swing states, right? Don’t stop reading, though! Depending on how things shake out in November, the whole thing might actually come down to one sliver of a decidedly Republican state — a state in which Tim Walz just so happens to have spent the first 32 years of his life.

On the eastern edge of Nebraska sits Omaha — the state’s largest city. So when state legislators draw up new congressional district boundaries after every Census, lumping Omaha in with a few suburbs (and very few rural areas) is the practical choice. As with most large U.S. cities, however, Omaha isn’t exactly safely Republican territory. So the resulting congressional district ends up winnable for either party.

• The area has a Republican congressman, Don Bacon, but he usually only wins by the skin of his teeth.

• At the presidential level, Barack Obama won this district back in 2008. Joe Biden won it again in 2020.

Normally, how a random congressional district votes for president wouldn’t matter. That’s not how presidential races are counted. Except it is. In Nebraska.

The Electoral College is a little weird. As a refresher, every state gets a certain number of electoral votes based on population. The candidate who wins that state wins its electoral votes. If you get more electoral votes than the other person, congratulations, you have to be president now.

• The Constitution gives states some leeway in how they dole out their electoral votes. And, of course, somebody’s gotta be weird about it.

• Nebraska and Maine don’t give their electoral votes to the statewide winner. The statewide winner only wins two electoral votes. The others are divvied out to the winner of each congressional district.

Joe Biden won just 39% of the vote in Nebraska in 2020. But, because he got 52% in this congressional district, he won an electoral vote in the deep-red state. He ran the table in the swing states, so he didn’t need it. But Kamala Harris — or Donald Trump — might.

Enter Tim Walz, son of Nebraska. Walz is the governor of Minnesota, sure. But he was born and raised in rural Nebraska (corn sweat and all). Walz’s first solo rally as the Democratic vice presidential nominee was in Omaha for a reason.

• Republican VP nominee JD Vance was here, too.

• VP nominees are worth an extra 2.7% in their home states, so local boy Tim Walz could get a small boost.

Expect both sides to keep it up here straight through Election Day. If the Electoral College math shakes out a certain way, a win in Omaha’s congressional district could put one of them over the top... and into the White House.

Omaha's vote could also force an Electoral College tie. But that's for another day.

UNITED STATES

📫 Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will be in "great shape" for the election and its coming onslaught of mail-in ballots. Staff will work overtime if necessary and the Post Office’s federal law enforcement branch, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), will ensure ballots are delivered securely.

👨‍💼 Though National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan doesn't head up an agency, he is President Biden's point man for national security issues. To that end, Sullivan traveled to China this week and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior Chinese officials. Xi stressed the need for "solidarity and coordination" between the U.S. and China.

💊 The director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) wants Congress to reauthorize his agency. Often called the “drug czar,” Rahul Gupta leads a tiny agency advising the president on drug issues and running anti-abuse programs. The ONDCP’s policy nerds are much less visible — and much less likely to get a show on CBS — than the door-kicking drug cops over at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

POLITICS

🗓️ The Forever Campaign keeps rolling

Campaign 2024 has really only just begun. But politicians in California aren’t letting that get in the way of a good time. Seven Democrats are already running for governor in 2026. Now Republican Steve Hilton, a new citizen and former aide to the British prime minister, is considering jumping in.

Back in 2024, the candidates are pushing hard to duplicate previous wins in difficult states. By a razor’s edge, Michigan helped deliver Trump the win in 2016. Yesterday, Trump made his third stop in the state since last week. He gave a speech on manufacturing — a huge issue for Michigan. With a packed rally in Savannah, Harris just wrapped up a four-day bus tour of Georgia as she hopes to replicate Biden’s 2020 win there.

The Trump campaign got into a tiff with, get this, the staff of Arlington National Cemetary. On Monday, Trump attended a ceremony there honoring the 13 U.S. soldiers who died during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.

• He later recorded footage with the families of slain Marines near their gravesites and sent it out on TikTok.

• But images of another grave nearby went out, too. And that family wasn’t asked their permission.

• His aides got into an altercation with cemetery staff who tried to prevent them from filming.

• The Trump campaign says it had permission to film from the families involved (and possibly other cemetery staff).

Kamala Harris brought Tim Walz along for her first real sit-down interview last night since winning the nomination. Critics knocked her for avoiding reporters like the plague and called her “weak” when she announced she was bringing Walz along instead of going alone.

• She addressed the controversy over her alleged flip-flops, saying that despite policy moves, her "values have not changed,” and promised to put a Republican in her Cabinet.

• The full transcript is available here. And here are parts one, two, and three of the video.

• Some critics believe Harris is lying about having worked at McDonald’s, noting that she didn’t mention it until 2019 and left it out of two autobiographies.

👴 Joe Biden seems to have been knifed by his old Senate colleagues. New reports indicate Democratic senators helped push him out of the race over concerns that they couldn’t win reelection with Biden on the ballot.

• To that point, Trump led Biden by 3% among voters earning less than $20,000 per year. Harris leads that cohort by 23%.

• Harris's takeover of the Biden campaign is causing some internal campaign strife as old Biden and new Harris staffers collide in the "Frankenstein" campaign.

JD Vance wants his former boss, tech billionaire Peter Thiel, to "get off the sidelines" and start donating. Thiel is a longtime Republican donor who supported Vance’s 2022 Senate run but has said he's sitting out 2024 after being disappointed by Trump's first term.

TRIVIA

Who doesn’t love a good nepo baby? As about half of Hollywood knows, having a well-connected parent is a 10/10 career boost. Having a parent who literally writes The Law™ might be the best boost of all. Which two of the following famous people have at least one parent who served in Congress?

• Actress Olivia Wilde

• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

• “Today” cohost Jenna Bush Hager

• Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett

• President John F. Kennedy

POLLS

📊 Fox News polls show Harris leading in Sun Belt

Kamala Harris received some welcome news from the Sun Belt. A Fox News poll of four battleground states shows the VP leading in three. Democrats shouldn’t get too excited, though. Despite editorial lean, Fox News’s polls tend to lean left.

• 🔵 Harris leads by 1% in Arizona

• 🔵 Harris leads by 2% in Georgia

• 🔵 Harris leads by 2% in Nevada

• 🔴 Trump leads by 1% in North Carolina

Donald Trump might prefer Emerson’s new polls. They have him leading in Arizona by 3% and cutting Harris’s margin to 1% in both Georgia and Nevada.

The enthusiasm gap favors Democrats right now. A new Gallup poll has 78% of Dems — the highest since 2008 — stoked about voting. That compares to just 64% of Republicans.

The battle for the Senate probably doesn't run through New Mexico. A new poll from Emerson has the Senate’s discount Rob Lowe, Martin Heinrich (D-NM), leading Heir Force Gen. Nella Domenici (R) by 12%. Domenici's father, Pete, served in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009.

BRIEFS

• Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway becomes first non-tech company in U.S. to hit $1 trillion value

• Random guy files trademark application for Jools Lebron's "very dumure, very mindful"

• Israel, Hamas agree to short pauses in war for polio vaccination campaign

• Oops! Congresswoman sends two different letters to constituents claiming she believes two completely different things

• Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin successfully lands eighth space tourism flight at West Texas spaceport

• Dollar General warns lower-income Americans, its core customers, are feeling "financially constrained"

• U.N.'s World Food Program, led by John McCain's widow Cindy, pauses movement in Gaza

• Universal confirms July 2025 release of Scarlett Johansson-led "Jurassic World: Rebirth"

• Hundreds dead after al-Qaeda-linked attack in Burkina Faso

• Yemen’s Houthi rebels allow crews to salvage burning oil tanker they attacked to prevent massive oil spill

QUOTE

SNACKS

🍫 Chocolate: New dream job just dropped. Swiss food scientists developed a new way to make chocolate using the entire coca fruit rather than just the beans.

🍿 Marvel: Marvel celebrated its 85th anniversary with a sizzle reel and a fresh look at Harrison Ford as Red Hulk.

🤔 Read: Was Ronald Reagan a right-wing ideologue or an easygoing pragmatist? A new piece in The Washington Post argues the answer is “both.”

ANSWER

First up is Warren Buffett. His dad, Howard, represented Nebraska in the House in the 40s and 50s.

Second is Roger Goodell. His dad, Charles, represented New York in both the House and the Senate from 1959 to 1971.

Olivia Wilde's mom ran for Congress in 2018 but lost (the last name "Cockburn" probably didn't help). Dubya, Jenna Bush Hager’s dad, served as president but never in Congress. And JFK’s old man served in a few high-level positions in the Roosevelt administration but never in Congress.