“For years, including the 2016 election, conventional wisdom dictated conservative voters who cared more about the highest court than liberals. It’s hard to see that hold true this year. The prospect of a conservative hold on the Supreme Court is no longer a theory that Democrats have to convince their voters to care about. Of course, it is also true that the prospect of a conservative court could help motivate GOP voters who are currently ambivalent about the current president” writes Amy Walter at Cook Political Report.

“It is also just the latest ‘once in a generation’ event that has come to define 2020. Since January, the president was impeached, a pandemic has killed more than 200,000 Americans, the economy has collapsed under the weight of pandemic related shutdowns, thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest racial inequality and police violence, and violence has broken out on the streets of Portland, Kenosha and others. Tell-all books have been released. And, yet, opinions about the president and this presidential contest have been remarkably stable. Pres. Trump’s job approval rating in early January was 42%. Today it is 43%. Since March, Joe Biden has held a consistent 4-9 point lead over Trump. There’s no doubt that the fight over the court will be a big one. And that it will ratchet up the already sky high intensity surrounding this election. But, will it upend the race completely? I doubt it.”