Biden bat­tle­ground map begins to frac­ture

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s elec­toral path to stay­ing in the White House runs through a hand­ful of bat­tle­ground states. But that route is quick­ly fad­ing.
The con­tin­ued fall­out from his dis­as­trous debate per­for­mance that raised ques­tions about his men­tal acu­ity and his elec­tabil­i­ty against for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump includes key states shift­ing in the GOP’s favor and more Democ­rats hit­ting the pan­ic but­ton.
The Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­ginia Cen­ter for Politics’s elec­tion fore­cast­er, Lar­ry Sabato’s Crys­tal Ball, down­grad­ed a state that’s his­tor­i­cal­ly been a Demo­c­ra­t­ic strong­hold, Min­neso­ta, from “like­ly Demo­c­ra­t­ic” to “leans Demo­c­ra­t­ic,” putting it one notch away from the toss-up states of Ari­zona, Neva­da, Penn­syl­va­nia, and Wis­con­sin.
Michi­gan was also moved into the toss-up cat­e­go­ry from “leans Demo­c­ra­t­ic.”
“We are solid­ly behind Pres­i­dent Biden here in Michi­gan, and we’re very focused on the work that we know we need to do to win in Novem­ber,” Michi­gan Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Chair­woman Lavo­ra Barnes told the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er.
New Hamp­shire and Vir­ginia, where Democ­rats like­wise typ­i­cal­ly per­form well, are also being close­ly watched.
A spokesper­son for Sen. Mark Warn­er (D‑VA) did not deny a Wash­ing­ton Post re …