In many past presidential elections, the term "firewall" was used to describe "must-win’" states that a party simply had to win to hold or capture the White House.

For President Biden, holding onto Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, along with either Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District or Maine's 2nd, is pretty much essential for victory, and far more plausible than some combination involving Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina.

But for the Democratic Party writ large, with Biden in an uphill race and its Senate majority almost certainly gone, the likeliest location for Democrats to build a firewall would be in the House.

Of all of the potential governing configurations that could come out of the election eight months from tomorrow, the two most likely are either Republicans winning the trifecta (Trump unseats Biden, Republicans retake the Senate and keep the House) or Trump winning and the GOP picking up the Senate but losing the House.

The least likely scenarios would be a Democratic trifecta (Biden wins, Democrats retain the Senate and retake the House), or, for that matter, any scenario entailing

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