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Early in-person voting ends in nine states Friday, including four major battleground states, as the nation sits just four days away from Election Day.

The states ending early voting include the battleground states Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, along with Idaho, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Texas and Utah.

Here is everything you need to know to cast a last-minute ballot during early voting.

President Biden scored a crucial victory in Arizona in the last presidential election, flipping the state to the Democrats for the first time since 1996.

Four years later, the state remains highly competitive. In late September, a Fox News Poll put Republican former President Trump at 50% and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris at 47% among likely voters; an AARP survey around the same time had Trump two points ahead of Harris at 49% to 47%.

Maricopa County remains the most important battleground in the state. It is the fourth-highest populated county in the United States, represents more than 60% of Arizona’s registered voters and has a large suburban population, particularly in Mesa.

Arizona is also home to a higher proportion of Hispanic voters than the rest of the country, and while they favored Biden by 19 points in the last election, they have shown signs of shifting toward Trump.

Republicans are strongest in sparsely populated rural areas, particularly Mohave County (Trump plus-51) and Graham County (Trump plus-45), but they run up the margin most in the outer suburbs and exurban areas in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties.

Arizona is a Toss-Up on the Fox News Power Rankings.

The Grand Canyon State will also vote for a new senator after independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema decided not to run for re-election this year. The Republican candidate is Kari Lake, a former TV news host who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022. The Democrats have fielded Rep. Ruben Gallego, a former Marine who represents Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District.

The Senate race is ranked Lean D.

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Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to state officials. Friday is the final day for early in-person voting.

Georgia has voted Republican in all but two elections in the last four decades. The first was former President Clinton’s landslide win in 1992, and the second was 2020, when Biden brought the state back to the Democrats by 11,779 votes.

A win for either candidate here would make their path to victory easier. The Peach State has 16 electoral votes to offer, and with recent polls showing a tight race, it’s ranked a Toss-Up on the Fox News Power Rankings.

Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to state officials. Friday is the final day for early in-person voting.

Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to state officials. Friday is the final day for early in-person voting.

Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to state officials. Friday is the final day for early in-person voting.

Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to state officials. Friday is the final day for early in-person voting.

Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to state officials. Friday is the final day for early in-person voting.

North Carolina last voted for a Democratic president in 2008, when Sen. Barack Obama won the state by 0.3 points, or 14,177 votes.

Trump pulled out a convincing 3.7-point win in 2016, but that margin shrank to 1.3 points against Biden in 2020.

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Late last month, the Fox News Poll had the two 2024 presidential candidates just a point apart, with Democratic nominee Vice President Harris at 49% and former President Trump at 50%. North Carolina is ranked a Toss-Up on the Fox News Power Rankings.

The state has become more competitive as its population has grown. Over the last full decade, North Carolina added roughly 1.1 million people, the fourth-largest gain among all states.

Much of that growth has been in urban and suburban areas like those in solidly blue Mecklenburg and Wake counties.

The pandemic brought more wealthy, urban Americans from surrounding states, and there are pockets of college voters as well.

Rural areas have experienced some population decline, but they remain a powerful part of the state’s overall vote, and they vote overwhelmingly Republican.

Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to state officials. Friday is the final day for early in-person voting.

TRUMP, HARRIS MAKE FINAL PITCHES TO VOTERS IN HIGH-STAKES BATTLEGROUND STATE IN FINAL DAYS OF CYCLE

Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to state officials. Friday is the final day for early in-person voting.

Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to state officials. Friday is the final day for early in-person voting.

FIRST ON FOX: A new report from the House of Representatives is accusing the Biden administration of failing to recover some $200 billion in fraudulent COVID-19 pandemic loans.

The House Small Business Committee, led by Chairman Roger Williams, R-Texas, has been conducting a years-long investigation into how the Small Business Administration (SBA) has handled the emergency financial aid programs that sprung up when state governments shut down businesses across the country during the pandemic.

“In creating the COVID Lending Programs, Congress understood that the relief funds needed to be issued quickly to help businesses cope with the economic strain of the pandemic,” a new report released by the committee said.

“The rush to get pandemic relief funding out quickly resulted in shortcuts being taken to deliver aid quickly to small businesses in hopes of recouping improper disbursements on the back end.”

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The report also accused the SBA of making “numerous decisions that decreased the likelihood” the government would be able to recoup any money given under false pretenses.

“In total, it is likely that $200 billion from the COVID Lending Programs were disbursed to fraudulent recipients,” the report said.

Out of roughly $5.5 trillion Congress approved for aid during the pandemic, roughly $1.2 trillion went to the SBA.

It was largely disbursed by two major pieces of legislation, the CARES Act, signed by former President Trump, and the American Rescue Plan, signed by President Biden.

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While making recommendations for reform across the entire COVID loan system, the report accused Democrats of devoting disproportionate attention to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which accounted for roughly $64 billion in fraudulent loans, rather than the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), which the report said saw $136 billion in fraud.

Written by staff for the committee’s Republican majority, the report acknowledged that the additional responsibility given by the Trump administration in 2020 strained its comparatively smaller federal agency infrastructure. 

“In the days after Congress passed the initial COVID relief legislation, SBA employees worked night and day to craft the rules and policies for its new lending programs,” the report said.

The SBA had already issued more money in the first 14 days of these programs than it had in the previous 14 years combined, the report said.

WHITE HOUSE DENIES THAT BIDEN REFERRED TO TRUMP SUPPORTERS AS ‘GARBAGE’

It said SBA staff “did a remarkable job” setting them up, “but under the circumstances, these SBA employees did not have adequate support, staff, or time to design these programs to be fraud resistant.”

The report accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to put in anti-fraud guardrails and failing to recover the funds lost after taking over the White House in January 2021.

The report also knocked the previous Democratic majority Congress for focusing on PPP, while the “fraud rate” for EIDL “was approximately four times higher.”

It accused Democrats of focusing on PPP because of the involvement of private sector partners.

“It is likely that this misplaced focus by Congressional Democrats, and their surrogates in the media, obscured the realities of fraud in these programs, at least to some degree,” the report said. “While there should be investigations to ensure private companies are following the rules, Members of Congress and their staff should be careful to direct their efforts toward oversight that is beneficial to the American people, and not just part of a broader messaging push against an emerging industry.”

Republicans noted that PPP needed “substantial changes” to be made more effective and less vulnerable to fraud.

Fox News Digital reached out to the SBA and the House Small Business Committee’s Democratic minority for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, led some of his Republican colleagues in calling for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to reinstate a COVID-19 era border policy due to rising tuberculosis cases in the U.S. 

“Due to your negligence and refusal to enforce our current laws, tuberculosis (TB) is rapidly spreading through the millions of unscreened illegal immigrants released into the interior of the United States, putting American lives and health at severe risk,” Lee wrote in a letter sent to Mayorkas Wednesday, which was also signed by senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan. 

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The senators requested that he close the border, detain and deport “inadmissable” immigrants, reinstate the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy and bring back Title 42, which gave authority to turn away illegal immigrants due to the risk of communicable diseases. 

The Biden administration lifted the policy last year despite bipartisan pleading against him doing so. 

“The Biden-Harris administration’s destruction of America’s southern border has resulted in violent crime, human trafficking, drug smuggling and now a surge in a disease that was declining for nearly three decades before they took power. Secretary Mayorkas must answer for his part in this failure,” Lee told Fox News Digital in a statement.

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He noted that tuberculosis has risen steadily in recent years despite being on the decline for decades. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 9,615 cases of the disease in 2023, a 16% increase from 2022. 

“Despite this increasing human health risk, you have turned what was once border security into a rubber-stamp for any individual seeking access to the interior,” the Republicans told Mayorkas. 

HARRIS BREAKS SILENCE AFTER GOP LEADERS SAY ANTI-TRUMP RHETORIC ‘RISKS INVITING’ ANOTHER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

“Rather than requiring immigrants to apply for status prior to arriving at the border and undergo health screenings, your policies encourage immigrants to unlawfully enter the interior with no meaningful processing, screening, or security analysis.”

The senators pointed out that some of the most frequently encountered nationalities by Border Patrol are from countries that have higher rates of tuberculosis than the U.S. 

But the rise in cases is not confined to immigrants entering illegally, the letter said. Lee emphasized that the CDC reported increases in tuberculosis “among all age groups and among both U.S.-born and non-U.S.-born persons.”

SEN TAMMY BALDWIN HITS BACK AT GOP OPPONENT’S CLINTON COMPARISON: ‘ACTUALLY CALLED YOU DEPLORABLE’

“There can be no doubt that your administration’s failure to enforce the law is the cause for the dramatic and dangerous rise of TB in the U.S,” the senators continued. 

The lawmakers asked Mayorkas to respond to several questions, including whether the DHS recognizes a correlation between the influx of migrants from countries with higher rates of tuberculosis and the rising rate in the U.S.

The letter further asked him if the department was taking steps to mitigate the spread of the disease and if it considers the rise in tuberculosis a public health crisis. 

DHS did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital.

President Biden returns to the campaign trail this weekend with stops in the biggest of the battleground states, his native Pennsylvania.

The White House confirmed the president will campaign on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris and down-ballot Democrats when he makes stops Friday in Philadelphia and Saturday in Scranton, where the 81-year-old Biden was born and spent his early childhood years.

But Harris, who with four days until Election Day remains locked in a tight showdown with former President Trump in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, won’t be joining her boss on the campaign trail.

HEAD HERE FOR FOX NEWS UPDATES FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN TRAIL

The vice president has kept her distance from Biden, who, according to polls, remains deeply unpopular with Americans, and her campaign quietly views him as a liability. And that was before the president made two glaring remarks the past two weeks that quickly went viral.

While Harris has noted the policy successes of the Biden/Harris administration the past four years while campaigning, she’s emphasized that she’ll be an agent of change in the White House.

HARRIS TAKES AIM AT TRUMP, SPELLS OUT AGENDA, IN CLOSING ARGUMENT IN FRONT OF A MASSIVE CROWD

Giving her closing address Tuesday night at the Ellipse, just yards from the White House, where the president was huddled, Harris emphasized, “I have been honored to serve as Joe Biden’s vice president, but I will bring my own experiences and ideas to the Oval Office.”

It’s been nearly two months since the one-time running mates teamed up on the campaign trail. You have to go back to Labor Day, when they joined forces at a union event in Pittsburgh.

The 81-year-old Biden was replaced by Harris atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket in July after ending his own bid amid a rising chorus of calls for him to drop out following a disastrous debate performance against Trump. Biden told reporters two months ago he would be “on the road from there on” campaigning on behalf of his vice president.

It hasn’t happened.

And while former Democratic presidents Obama and Clinton have crisscrossed the campaign trail in recent weeks on behalf of Harris, Biden’s efforts have been more limited and less publicized.

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While Biden hasn’t done many campaign events, he has made official trips with political overtones into some of the seven key battleground states whose razor-thin margins decided his victory over Trump in 2020 and will likely determine whether Harris or Trump wins the 2024 election.

The president has showcased the administration’s accomplishments at those events.

“I think they are using him in a targeted way that makes sense,” a political adviser in the president’s orbit told Fox News. 

Last week, Biden teamed up with progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont at a policy event in swing state New Hampshire to spotlight their efforts to lower health care costs.

The two octogenarians trumpeted a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services that found nearly 1.5 million Medicare enrollees saved almost $1 billion on prescription drugs during the first half of the year.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION

But at a political event minutes later, Biden stirred controversy.

Speaking to supporters at the New Hampshire Democratic Party headquarters in Concord, N.H., Biden said of Trump, “We got to lock him up.”

While the president instantly corrected himself, adding “politically lock him up,” the damage was done.

The initial comment gave Trump instant ammunition for his argument that the four indictments against him — and one conviction — are part of an elaborate Democratic Party witch hunt. That’s despite no evidence the president or his administration has played any role in Trump’s prosecutions and despite Trump’s repeated calls over the years to lock up his own political opponents.

Biden dug an even deeper hole Tuesday night, stepping all over the vice president’s closing address with more controversial comments during a video call with Latino supporters.

Denouncing racist comments made by a comedian at Sunday’s Trump rally in New York City that had dominated news coverage for a couple of days, Biden appeared to call supporters of the former president “garbage.”

Biden tried to clean up the mess, saying he was referring to the “hateful rhetoric” from the Trump rally comedian and not to the former president’s supporters in general.

But the Trump campaign and allies immediately pounced, and Biden’s comments dominated the news cycle two straight days.

Harris on Wednesday morning disavowed any idea of disparaging Trump supporters.

She noted that Biden had “clarified his comments,” adding, “Let me be clear: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

Even before the Biden remarks, Harris was walking the tight rope that previous vice presidents running for the top job have faced, trying to balance support for the boss and advertising the administration’s achievements while also spotlighting a forward-looking message and showing how they’d be different.

“This election is about Kamala Harris, so people need to see the vision that she has for America. … It’s important that the focus stay on her,” veteran New Hampshire-based Democratic strategist and Harris convention delegate Jim Demers told Fox News.

But Demers, who has also been a longtime Biden supporter and surrogate, noted that “you’re not going to hold Joe Biden back from being on the campaign, and, in the final days, it’s good to see him out there urging people to vote for Kamala Harris.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Vice President Kamala Harris was mocked by the Trump campaign and other conservatives online for a “word salad” after a heckler interrupted her speech in Nevada on Thursday night.

“You know what?” the vice president said in Reno, Nevada after shouting could be heard from the audience as she spoke. “Let me say something about this.”

“We are here because we are fighting for a democracy. Fighting for a democracy. And understand the difference here, understand the difference here, moving forward, moving forward, understand the difference here.”

“What we are looking at is a difference in this election, let’s move forward and see where we are because on the issue, for example, freedom of choice,” Harris continued as the heckling went on. 

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“That’s OK,” Harris said as the voices of her supporters drowned out the heckling. “That’s alright. That’s OK.”

“You know what? Democracy can be complicated, sometimes it’s okay. We’re fighting for the right for people to be heard and not jailed because they speak their mind. We know what’s at stake.”

Harris quickly drew criticism from conservative critics on social media. 

MARK CUBAN TRIES TO ‘CLARIFY’ AFTER COMMENT ON ‘THE VIEW’ WIDELY SEEN AS INSULT TOWARD PRO-TRUMP WOMEN

“Kamala spirals after ANOTHER speech is interrupted by protesters,” an account run by the Trump campaign posted on X.

“CRACKS UNDER PRESSURE,” Trump adviser Stephen Miller posted on X. “CHOKES EVERY TIME. Not a quality you want in the commander-in-chief.”

“She is the word salad Queen!” Author Tom Young posted on X.

“The gibberish never ends,” Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce posted on X. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response. “

“Nevada, I am here asking for your vote,” Harris told the crowd. “I am asking for your vote. And here is my pledge to you, and I got your back, as president, I pledge to you to seek common ground and common sense solutions to the challenges you face. I am not looking to score political points.”

“I am looking to make progress. And I pledge to listen to experts, to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make and to listen to people who disagree with me. Because that’s what real leaders do.”

Former President Trump was joined onstage at a Nevada rally on Thursday night by the family of a marine veteran who was recently murdered in Mexico. 

Retired Army Lt. Col. Warren Douglas Quets joined Trump on stage in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson while speaking about his son Nicholas Douglas Quets, a 31-year-old Marine veteran who worked for Pima County, Arizona, on water reclamation projects.

The younger Quets was shot and killed along the Caborca-Altar Highway in northern Mexico on Oct. 19, 30 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I really wasn’t planning on being here,” Warren Douglas Quets said. “Two weeks ago, I was a completely apolitical actor. Anybody outside my own home wouldn’t have known who I would have voted for. Today. The situation changed for me two weeks ago.”

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He said Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, met with him three days after the killing.

“So when you wonder about where America really is and what the stories are, you don’t have to wonder anymore. The man next to me and his vice presidential nominee, a current seated senator, both met with me within 36 hours of asking, and both took up the cause,” said Quets.

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“It is the policy that contributed to my son being killed. It is the policy that’s contributing to the death of other Americans,” he added. “It is the policy that’s contributing to fentanyl coming into the United States. Those are political failures, and we need to end them.”

Mexican officials reportedly said that Nicholas Quets didn’t stop at a cartel checkpoint, and a group of armed men followed his pick-up truck and opened fire in a “direct attack.”

While reports indicate Mexican authorities made arrests, Quets’ father said he was relying on the FBI to conduct its investigation and wants his son’s killers extradited to the U.S.

“What I want is sponsorship of a couple things,” Quets said. “One is change to US code so that if people committed crimes against US persons, especially murder, they are brought back here to face our justice. Number two is legislation that is enacted that takes us someplace closer to a plan in Mexico that’ll institute not only military capability, but also institution building.”

Quets told the crowd that Trump had a “tear in his eye” when the two talked about his son and that he believes Trump will “keep” his promise to seek justice if elected.

Quets also said that his family attempted to attend a rally with Harris running mate Gov. Tim Walz but were told the venue was full and that they could not meet with Walz.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

“That’s incredible and frankly, to do that, to be able to do that literally just a few days after this horrible event happened is pretty amazing,” Trump told the crowd, who at one point erupted with chants of “Nicholas!”

“I’ll tell you. We’ll take care of it. We’re going to take care of it. We’re going to get that guy. We’re going to get him. We’re going to get him. They know who he is. Can you believe it? They know who he is. Nothing’s done. Mexico is going to give them to us. Mexico is going to give them to us. They have to. They have to. It’s going to be real easy. When I’m president, we’re going to put the drug smugglers and human traffickers. We’re going to put them right out of business. They’re killing hundreds of thousands of people in our country.”

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Thursday launched an investigation into the FBI over its alleged “failure to report complete, accurate national crime data.”

In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said the bureau “failed to include” in its 2022 data a 4.5% increase in national crime. 

The FBI had initially reported a 1.7% decrease in violent crime in 2022, but later “quietly” revised those figures, Comer said. Comer alleged that the FBI failed to include in its initial count “an additional 1,699 murders, 7,780 rapes, 33,459 robberies, and 37,091 aggravated assaults.” 

Comer said the FBI’s failure to report this data “draws into question the veracity” of the 2023 Crime in the Nation report. 

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He noted that Vice President Kamala Harris “touted the 2023 data” and the media used it “to dispel Americans’ real concerns about crime.” 

“The Committee is concerned that the FBI’s recent failures to report accurate crime data are politically motivated,” Comer said. “The Committee is seeking documents and communications to understand the FBI’s failure to provide Congress and the American people with accurate crime data and whether the 2023 data is, in fact, accurate.” 

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The FBI told Fox News Digital it stands behind each of its Crime in the Nation publications.

The FBI said a “significant number of agencies” were unable to complete the transition from the bureau’s traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS) to the more comprehensive National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) for the 2021 data collection year.

“Due to the lower volume of participation, the FBI was unable to produce the traditional national estimates for 2021,” the bureau said. “To provide a confident comparison of crime trends across the nation, the UCR Program performed a NIBRS estimation crime trend analysis.”

The FBI said its release last month of Crime in the Nation, 2023, was the first phase in its efforts to provide the public with more timely data. 

The bureau said it will soon transition to monthly data releases “to promote transparency and provide an opportunity for consumers to review data based on more timely crime counts with the understanding that data will be continuously updated.” 

Billionaire Mark Cuban appeared to try and spin him out of a mess, after making some insulting comments on “the View” about women who support former President Trump.

Cuban appeared on ABC’s “The View” on Thursday morning when he made the comments.

“Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever,” Cuban said. “It’s just that simple. They’re intimidating to him. He doesn’t like to be challenged by them, and, you know, Nikki Haley will call him on his nonsense with reproductive rights and how he sees and treats and talks about women. I mean, he just can’t have her around. It wouldn’t work.”

After taking a verbal beating for his remarks on social media, Cuban turned to social media on Thursday afternoon to clear up his statements.

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“This is what I said during a conversation about why Nikki Haley was not active in his campaign,” Cuban said. “I know many strong, intelligent women voting for Trump, including in my extended family. I’m certainly not saying female voters are not smart, strong and intelligent.

“I know he has worked with strong, intelligent women, like Elaine Chao, Kelly Anne, Ivanka and many others,” Cuban added. “I stand by my opinion that he does not like being challenged publicly.”

Jimmy Failla commented on Cuban’s post, saying, “Shoulda just told us there was an apostrophe in your statement. This is junk, babe.”

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Failla was referring to the White House’s spin on President Biden’s remarks earlier this week, when he apparently described Trump supporters as “garbage” during a Zoom call with Voto Latino on Tuesday.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said in response to comments made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.

The White House immediately denied that the president was referring directly to Trump’s supporters, but instead added an apostrophe in the word “supporter’s,” and claimed he was referring to the comedian’s garbage.

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Failla was not the only person commenting on Cuban’s spin.

“Everyone heard what you said, Mark. Now you’re trying to rewrite history. You insulted tens of millions of American women, and they won’t forget this!” one person wrote.

Another wrote, “You know exactly what you said Mark. Be a man and own up to it instead of back [pedaling].”

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Trump also responded to Cuban’s remarks on Thursday evening.

“Mark Cuban, a really dumb guy, who thinks he’s ‘hot stuff’ but he’s absolutely nothing, is now out there saying that I don’t surround myself with strong women,” the former president said. “Actually, he is very wrong. I surround myself with the strongest of women – with the understanding that ALL women are great, whether strong or not strong.

“This guy is such a fool, he’s constantly on television being critical, and only for the reason that I tuned him out completely while President because he called incessantly. I told him, very pointedly, ‘Look Mark, I’ve got a lot of things to do, I just can’t be taking so many pointless calls from you,’” Trump continued. “In any event, that affected him greatly, because he’s a very insecure guy, and a MAJOR LOSER, always has been and always will be! Nobody likes him, nobody respects him, and he’s unattractive both inside and out! He should go back to talk about the person he was forced to support, because I didn’t want it, Lyin’ Kamala Harris. Also, he’s got no clubhead speed!

“I may, in fact, be surrounded by the strongest women in the world, including Heads of Countries, who make Mark look like a ‘baby!’ All strong women, and women in general, should be very angry about this weak man’s statement,” he concluded.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Michael Lee contributed to this report.

The race for control of the House is tight. The classic political jumpball. It’s hard to judge which way the House will tilt.

Republicans are heavily favored to win the Senate. But nearly every competitive Senate contest is razor-thin. Pennsylvania. Ohio. Michigan. Wisconsin. Texas is suddenly in play. Some observers would never rule out Florida. Montana appears to be slipping away from Democrats. Democrats seem in good shape in Arizona. But what happens if former President Trump wins Arizona? Republicans might seize the Senate majority with a robust 53 or 54 seats – even if all of these races are decided by just a percentage point or two.

But, we could be talking about a very different scenario for control of the House and Senate had President Biden not withdrawn from his reelection bid in mid-July.

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On July 21, the President said he would stand down because it was “in the best interest of my party and the country.”

House and Senate Democrats breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Although many wouldn’t publicly admit it – even now – they feared that Mr. Biden had lost more than a step. He appeared tired. Utterly incoherent at times during the late June debate with former President Trump. Few were excited. They fretted that another Biden candidacy would drain all enthusiasm from the Democratic side. Former President Trump would bludgeon Mr. Biden in the race for the White House. But what truly petrified them was the impact of President Biden standing for re-election on down ballot races.

Competitive Senate seats in Pennsylvania and Ohio? Probably down the drain.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., prognosticated that the GOP would pick up several dozen seats in 2022. McCarthy may have been off by two years. Mr. Biden at the top of the ticket likely would have triggered a blood-letting in House contests.

Now, the House is anybody’s ballgame.

Biden campaign officials met with House Democrats at the Democratic National Committee on a sizzling morning in mid-July. Some senior House Democrats like Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., declared he was “ridin’ with Biden” as he entered the forum. But the ground was already shifting.

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The president stubbornly stayed in the race. But former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is always mindful of the caucus she used to lead. Pelosi understood the political catastrophe which probably awaited Democrats if the President didn’t step aside. The San Francisco Democrat couldn’t publicly call on Mr. Biden to drop out. Pelosi would be more artful than that. She would quietly urge concerned Democrats to speak out. Without directly saying anything, a groundswell of Congressional Democrats began to demand the President bow out.

A group of Biden advisers huddled with moribund Senate Democrats at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) on a sweltering hot afternoon in mid-July. Almost every Senate Democrat who attended tried to avoid the press. In fact, many had drivers take them the several hundred yards from the Senate wing of the Capitol to the DSCC across the street. All to duck the press corps. Their silence spoke volumes about President Biden remaining in the race.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., even visited with President Biden in Delaware, just hours before the assassination attempt of former President Trump in Pennsylvania. News of Schumer’s audience with the president disappeared into the milieu of news coverage of the disaster in Butler, Penn. But Schumer feared a GOP blowout if Mr. Biden stuck around.

The deft touch of the former Speaker was classic Pelosi. A read of the climate. No fingerprints. A wink and a nod. A green light to others to do something. Someone close to Pelosi once described to me the former Speaker’s subtlety: “You will be bleeding out and never even realize you’ve been cut.” 

When Pelosi served as Speaker, allies and foes alike always wondered in awe how she got the votes. Helping orchestrate the exit of President Biden from the presidential sweepstakes was no different. Just switch the improbable into the inevitable.

A longtime confidante of Pelosi confided to me years ago that Pelosi knew how to gingerly prod House Democrats to move constituents in their districts. The constituents would then support the given issue – giving cover to Members to vote yes and not face blowback. The base now supported the issue. But not without some cunning engineering from Pelosi.

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That crafty tactic was also at play in convincing Mr. Biden to withdraw. After a few weeks of massaging this behind the scenes, the President understood he had no alternative but to quit. Otherwise, he likely would likely lose. Congressional Democrats would be resigned to their fate.

Vice President Harris may win. But Democrats never had a primary season to settle on their nominee. Sure. Harris likely would have been favored initially in a conventional primary process. That’s simply because she ran for president before and has served nearly four years as Vice President. But the quick pivot to Harris was in the interest of efficiency. After President Biden stepped aside, Democrats had an automatic nominee-in-waiting who was credible, qualified and whose resume resonated with the party. So, switching mid-stream to Harris was about as seamless a transition as possible.

But, just as importantly, handing over the keys to Harris immediately infused congressional Democrats and the base with much-needed energy. The change buoyed Democrats in ways which were impossible under President Biden. Suddenly, congressional Democrats were back in the game. 

Republicans have a strong chance of winning the Senate on Tuesday night. But had Mr. Biden remained at the top of the ticket, Democrats faced a tidal wave. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., appears to be on the ropes. There are tight races involving Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and Bob Casey, D-Penn. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., is in a dogfight in Michigan with former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., for the seat of retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. Even Rep. Colin Allred, D-Tex., has a puncher’s chance in his Senate race with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex. It’s conceivable that Democrats may have lost most or all of those races had President Biden remained on the ballot. But because of the president’s decision, Democrats are now competitive in all of those and may win a few – even if they lose control of the Senate.

The same is true in the House. It’s nip-and-tuck. Yes. Republicans might hold their narrow majority – or even gain seats in a best-case scenario. But Democrats are well-positioned in every battleground district to potentially gain ground. That wouldn’t be the case had the Ppresident stuck around. 

So this is the fundamental lesson of the seismic decision by President Biden in July to quit: it may have bolstered the chances of Democrats holding the White House. But the real dividend of the president’s decision might be realized on Capitol Hill. Not by holding the Senate and winning the House. But by avoiding an ugly blowout.

FIRST ON FOX: A top House Republican is questioning the Department of Justice about what he says is “apparent coordination” with left-wing civil rights groups over its lawsuits against two Republican-led states over efforts to remove non-citizens from its voter rolls.

“The Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government is conducting oversight of the apparent coordination between the Civil Rights Division and left-wing advocacy groups to impede the ability of states to ensure the accuracy of their voter rolls,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who is chairman of the subcommittee, says in a letter obtained by Fox Digital.

The Department of Justice sued Alabama and Virginia in recent months over their moves to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls. The DOJ has claimed that the states have violated clauses that say states must complete their maintenance program no later than 90 days before an election under a clause known as the Quiet Period Provision.

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“This systematic voter removal program, which the State is conducting within 90 days of the upcoming federal election, violates the Quiet Period Provision,” the DOJ said as it filed suit against Virginia. 

Virginia has insisted that the state’s process is “individualized” and conducted in accordance with state and federal law. A lower court ordered 1,600 individuals to be restored to the voter rolls, but that has since been blocked by the Supreme Court.

The DOJ sued Alabama on similar grounds, alleging that changes to the voter registration lists took place 84 days before Election Day.

“The right to vote is one of the most sacred rights in our democracy,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “As Election Day approaches, it is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion resulting from its list maintenance mailings sent in violation of federal law.”

But Roy says the lawsuits from the DOJ came after lawsuits by left-wing civil rights groups. In the letter, Roy says that the Sept. 27 Alabama lawsuit came weeks after a Sept. 13 lawsuit from a coalition of left-wing civil rights groups. The cases were consolidated on Sept. 28.

In Virginia, a civil rights lawsuit was filed on Oct. 7, and the DOJ filed its lawsuit on Oct. 11. 

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“The cases involve the same or similar plaintiffs and lawyers and follow a similar pattern with respect to the timing of each complaint. These circumstances raise questions as to whether the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is working with these groups to file cases to keep noncitizens on voter rolls just before the 2024 election and prevent states from ensuring that only eligible citizens vote in federal elections,” Roy says.

He also says the DOJ “did not object to consolidating its cases with those filed by left-wing organizations and attorneys with a public history of opposing bipartisan efforts to prevent noncitizens from voting.”

Roy says many of the groups have objected to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. 

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“The American people deserve to know whether left-wing activist groups are dictating the DOJ’s legal strategy with respect to noncitizens voting in the upcoming election,” he writes.

Roy is asking for all documents and communications relating to the lawsuits and any of the civil rights groups involved in the suits, as well as documents to show whether the DOJ plans to file any additional lawsuits against the states.

Virginia was handed a legal victory this week when the Supreme Court halted the lower court’s decision to reinstate 1,600 potential noncitizens to the rolls. A divided court granted the state’s stay application pending appeal in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. 

The DOJ said in a statement Wednesday after the Supreme Court’s ruling, “The Department brought this suit to ensure that every eligible American citizen can vote in our elections. We disagree with the Supreme Court’s order.”

Fox News’ Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.