Biden still holds big lead over Trump

A wave of new national surveys shows Joe Biden maintains a significant if slightly diminished lead over Donald Trump, leaving him in a stronger position to oust an incumbent president than any challenger heading into his party’s convention in the modern polling era.

On average, Biden leads by eight to nine percentage points among likely voters. His advantage is perhaps slightly smaller than it was a month ago, when highquality live-interview telephone surveys routinely showed him with a doubledigit lead. But it is still the largest and most persistent national polling lead any candidate has held in 24 years.

Making the rounds: Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said he’s making the most of a virtual convention and that the framework will allow him to visit with more delegates than he could with a traditional convention.

Perez said he expects to attend “50 or 55” delegation and party caucus meetings online this week. There are 57 delegations representing the 50 states, six territories and Democrats Abroad, plus regional caucuses and other demographic-based caucuses.

In a normal convention, he said, a chairman might get to “a dozen or so.”

Perez also said that the handful of 2020 presidential caucuses should be the last the party ever holds.

He didn’t name Iowa, which for decades has led off the nominating calendar, but his position would represent a seismic shift in the party's traditions.

Tuesday’s speakers: Former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, former Secretary of State John Kerry, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Delaware Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, former President Bill Clinton and Dr. Jill Biden.