8/20/20--It's the final day of the all-virtual Democratic National Convention. Joe Biden is officially the Democratic nominee for President, and guests this week join us to discuss the highs and lows.

First though, co-host and Politico Massachusetts Playbook author Stephanie Murray gives us the rundown on the U.S. congressional races heating up here in Massachusetts. In the Massachusetts 1st Congressional District where Congressman Richard Neal and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse debated publicly for the first time this week. Stephanie provides an overview of the accusations swirling around Morse and the College Democrats of Massachusetts. Challenger Robbie Goldstein faces off against incumbent Rep. Stephen Lynch in the 8th, and Congressman Seth Moulton is looking to defend his seat in the 6th district against Jamie Zahlaway Belsito and Angus McQuilken.

Wilnelia Rivera, President of Rivera Consulting, Katherine Adam, Vice President of Denterlein, and Alex Goldstein, CEO of Ninety West stopped by The Horse Race to offer their takes on the DNC as well as Democrats' response to the coronavirus crisis and its fallout on individuals' health and finances.

Rivera, who co-authored a chapter of the new book "TURNOUT! Mobilizing Voters in an Emergency" with Adam, said Democrats' strategy of targeting centrist voters is a flawed one. "If you actually look at what’s been happening since 2016 is that the partisan divide in this country has expanded and what that has done is actually shrunk that middle of independent voters."

Goldstein, who is behind the Faces of COVID Twitter account, sharing the stories of those who lost their lives to COVID-19, says it's important candidates show empathy and an understanding of the moment we're living in.

"Putting all the specific policy issues aside, 175,000 people are dead in this country because of a mismanaged public policy response to a pandemic."