Trump campaign seeks post-convention bounce after rough stretch

(CNN) — Standing mask-less last week at the counter of Arcaro & Genell Takeaway Kitchen in Old Forge, Pennsylvania — “Pizza Capital of the World” — President Donald Trump found himself, for the first time in a long time, in the role of retail politician.

“Why did you want to come here?” someone asked.

“Because they have great pizza,” the President replied, lifting open a box top and holding the pie aloft.

The world-altering circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic have also altered the world of Trump’s campaign. His poll numbers sank to historic lows. The charging economy that once formed the centerpiece of his reelection argument has stalled. And the arenas where his fans jammed shoulder-to-shoulder stand vacant.

It’s why Trump, who for most of his presidency has avoided interacting with voters on their turf, found himself posing with a box of steaming hot pizza on the day Joe Biden officially became the Democratic nominee.

“You look forward to the day it comes down?” he asked the pizzeria’s manager when he noticed the plexiglass barrier separating staff from customers — a COVID-era requirement in Pennsylvania and many other states for businesses to reopen. “Me too.”

If this week’s Republican National Convention offered a view of Trump’s presidency that buffed away the flaws — an alternate world where crowds gathered without masks and the pandemic was mostly referenced in the past tense — the coming days and weeks will amount to a return to Earth. Trump remains a candidate still trailing in polls, confronting a virulent pandemic and struggling to offer rationale for a second term.

The reality started setting in less than 24 hours after Trump spoke: his fireworks and opera-capped acceptance speech garnered a smaller television audience than Biden’s by more than 2 million viewers.

The next critical campaign juncture comes in a month, when Trump will face Biden for their first televised debate in Cleveland. While aides have already begun preparing the President for the showdown, it remains an open question whether he’ll adhere to their strategy — or, like four years ago, tell advisers he’s relying on instinct.

Looking at a daunting electoral map showing Trump trailing Biden in several states he won handily in 2016, Trump’s advisers are hoping a post-convention bounce will erode Biden’s steady lead and make the race more competitive heading into the fall. Trump was in a jubilant mood Friday after his speech, according to three people who spoke with him.

But Trump is entering the final stretch of the campaign in an historically bad place. A CNN poll of polls average heading into the national political conventions found 51% of registered voters nationwide backed Biden while 42% supported Trump.

Both the President and his advisers insist their data show him more competitive than public polling, particularly in the critical battlegrounds that will determine the next president. But their confidence is belied somewhat by Trump’s increasing predictions of a fraudulent election, which he says Democrats will win only through cheating.

On the road

As the general election enters its final months, Trump plans to travel several times a week for a mix of official stops and scaled-down campaign events, people familiar with the plans said.

Like Friday night’s event in New Hampshire, most will occur inside airport hangars, where attendees are partially outdoors — considered safer from a contagion perspective — and where Trump can come and go easily.

Trump’s advisers, hoping to look on the bright side, have sold the events to the President as a nimbler version of his preferred rallies that can be scheduled quickly, filled to relative capacity and allow for last-minute changes depending on the current political calculus.

Aides say he could also throw in more retail politicking of the type he practiced in Pennsylvania, though Trump himself does not particularly enjoy it and has questioned its value, people who have spoken to him said. When he visited the pizza shop in Pennsylvania, he didn’t stop to greet any voters and was gone after less than 10 minutes.

The campaign’s geographic focus over the next few weeks are states beginning to mail absentee ballots to voters, according to advisers. North Carolina begins sending ballots on September 4, and both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence plan to visit the state next week.

Several other battlegrounds — including Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — also begin mailing ballots more than 45 days before the election. Stops in those places are also being planned, but without the massive campaign rallies Trump once hoped to be headlining for much of the fall, advisers said.

While Trump has bitterly complained about mail-in voting, many states do not make a distinction between “mail-in ballots” and “absentee ballots.” Trump has encouraged his supporters to request absentee ballots, including in a video that showed him filling out his own ballot in Florida”s recent congressional primary.

Preparing for a face-off

Over a month out from their first face-off — set for September 29 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland — Trump and Pence have already started debate preparation. Both have held several sessions with a small circle of aides, people familiar with the matter said, though some said the early sessions were mostly designed to channel Trump’s attention toward the showdown, which — in the absence of major events — is now the next major campaign juncture.

Some of the President’s advisers voiced concerns that his allies were overly confident in their predictions that he would decimate Biden in the debates and were unintentionally setting the bar too high for him to claim success.

Aides were surprised that Trump agreed to start debate prep this soon. In 2016, he was notoriously reluctant to hold formal mock debates and resisted reading the binders of research compiled by aides. Instead, Trump preferred to dial up an informal group of advisers and work on one-liners for his opponents.

As he did in 2016, Trump sees the debates as the chance to shift his standing while once again trailing in multiple polls. He has still downplayed the necessity for practice debates, believing he doesn’t require them to succeed against Biden. Like in other types of preparatory briefings, he has demonstrated a short attention span and little patience for extended deliberations over strategy.

His practice sparring partner in 2016, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, has participated in some of the early debate planning sessions with Trump, according to people familiar with the matter, and some of Trump’s advisers assume he will reprise the role in some fashion this year, though a stand-in for Biden hasn’t yet been formalized.

Characteristically, Pence has been more methodical in his preparation. He is holding his own prep sessions with aides, sources familiar said, as their re-election effort has struggled to find a way to successfully define Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee. Notably, Trump did not mention her once during his convention acceptance speech at the White House Thursday, though he did say Biden’s name more than 40 times.

While Republicans South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem or Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst is expected to play some role in helping Pence ready for his face-off with Harris, the vice president is also expected to rely on familiar faces from the team that prepared him for his debate in 2016 with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine. Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who played Kaine in previous mock debates, is again expected to be involved.

The Trump campaign has requested that the candidates appear on stage with one another during the debates in hopes of thwarting any attempt to conduct the debates virtually. It’s still unclear whether there will be an audience at any of them.

Extending the message

Heading into the fall, Trump’s advisers describe a messaging strategy that works to extend the broad themes of their convention: framing Trump as a “law and order” president who fights to improve the lives of working Americans while also convincing voters he did not bungle the coronavirus response and isn’t a racist.

Trump’s speech on Thursday, while delivered without much energy from a teleprompter, did provide a road map for his planned attack on Biden as an empty vessel of the far-left, a characterization that took months for Trump’s campaign to arrive at and which the President himself hasn’t always stuck to.

The wide-ranging speech did not have a central theme, which aides said was because so many speechwriters were involved as well as the chief speechwriter — Trump.

Biden’s announcement Thursday that he planned to resume in-person campaign events after Labor Day also impaired one of Trump’s persistent criticisms that his rival refused to leave his Wilmington, Delaware, basement. Biden told supporters he planned to target Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Minnesota.

The type of voter Trump hopes to convince could be easily discerned by the convention lineup: suburban White women, working class men and — to an extent — Black men disillusioned by Democrats, though their role in the convention lineup seemed designed as much to convince White voters that Trump is not racist as it was to peel off Black voters from Biden.

“After Labor Day, you’re going to see a really aggressive campaign all the way through to the finish,” the President’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner said this week in a Politico interview.

“We know who the swing voters are and we’ve been testing over the last six months a lot of the messages that help persuade them,” Kushner said. “Obviously times change, so you have to continue to be nimble.”

The man in the hangar

Standing before small crowds without ever leaving the airport grounds is not how Trump envisioned running for reelection. The President had long held out hope that his signature arena rallies would be possible amid the pandemic, but after an embarrassingly small turnout in Oklahoma earlier this summer he came to acknowledge that his plans would require recalibration.

The Tulsa episode proved an edifying moment for both the President and his campaign. Furious from before he left the White House until he returned late at night, tie loose and exhausted, the President emerged from the experience determined to never again find himself mocked for empty seats and entirely vacant overflow areas.

Like his South Lawn convention spectacle, Trump’s scaled-down rallies harness the images of incumbency. Crowds wait with anticipation for Air Force One to touch down, and watch as the iconic blue-and-white plane taxis into place. In some instances they watch as Trump emerges from the forward cabin and descends a set of air-stairs to his walkout song, “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood.

It’s hardly the ethically dubious use of the South Portico as convention hall, but the effect remains of projecting presidential power in a way his opponent cannot. Like his predecessors, Trump often combines official and political travel, which allows his campaign to pay only a portion of the travel costs with taxpayers footing the remainder.

Being president also allows Trump to demonstrate leadership as part of his official duties, such as a trip to survey storm damage in Louisiana and Texas on Saturday and an upcoming White House signing ceremony for the normalization agreement he helped broker between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

At the same time, Trump is holding out hope for a race-altering development: a coronavirus vaccine, which he promised Thursday could come well before the end of the year, a timeline health experts say is not realistic. Trump’s zeal to announce an effective vaccine already has medical experts concerned he will rush an unproven product onto market.

What Trump hasn’t necessarily contemplated is what a second term might look like should his efforts pay off. He’s struggled to define his second-term priorities in interviews and during his convention acceptance speech on Thursday he spent scarily any time laying out what he would like to accomplish if reelection.

People around Trump say he is superstitious about projecting beyond the election, believing it bad karma to presume victory.

Coronavirus links

Indiana coronavirus timeline

With information from the Indiana Department of Health through March 4, 2021, this timeline reflects updated tallies of deaths and positive tests prior to that date.

March 6, 2020: Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) confirms the first case in Indiana. Officials say the Marion County resident had recently traveled to Boston to attend a BioGen conference as a contractor.
March 8: ISDH confirms a second case. A Hendricks County adult who had also traveled to the BioGen conference was placed in isolation. Noblesville Schools says a parent and that parent’s children will self-quarantine after attending an out-of-state event where someone tested positive.
March 9: Avon Community School Corp. says a student on March 8 tested positive.
March 10: ISDH launches an online tracker. Ball State University basketball fans learn the Mid-American Conference tourney will have no fans in the stands. Three businesses operating nursing homes in Indiana announce they will no longer allow visitors.
March 11: The Indianapolis-based NCAA announces the Final Four basketball tournaments will happen with essential staff and limited family attendance. The Big Ten announces all sports events, including the men’s basketball tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, will have no fans starting March 12. Ball State University suspends in-person classes the rest of the spring semester. NBA suspends all games, including the Indiana Pacers, until further notice. Butler University and the University of Indianapolis extend spring break, after which they will have virtual classes.
March 12: Gov. Eric Holcomb announces new protections that led to extended public school closings and the cancellation of large events across the state. The NCAA cancels its basketball tournaments. The Big Ten suspends all sporting events through the winter and spring seasons. The league including the Indy Fuel hockey team suspends its season. Indy Eleven says it will reschedule four matches. Indianapolis’ annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade is canceled.
March 13: The Indiana High School Athletic Association postpones the boys basketball tournament. Wayzata Home Products, a Connersville cabinet maker, shuts down and lays off its entire workforce due to market uncertainty. Holcomb announces actions including the elimination of Medicaid co-pays for COVID-19 testing and the lifting of limits on the number of work hours per day for drivers of commercial vehicles. Franklin College says it will begin online classes March 18 and empty residence halls of students in two days. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis closes indefinitely. The Indianapolis Public Library joins other libraries across Indiana and closes all facilities indefinitely.
March 14: The Indiana Gaming Commission says all licensed gaming and racing operations will close in two days for an indefinite period.
March 15: Indiana had its first death. St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis announces it will suspend all elective, non-urgent surgeries.
March 16: Indiana had its second death. Gov. Holcomb announced the first Hoosier death. He closes bars, restaurants and nightclubs to in-person patrons, but maintains carryout and delivery services.
March 17: Indiana had its third and fourth deaths. ISDH announces Indiana’s second death. Gov. Holcomb activates the National Guard. Purdue, Butler and Indiana State universities cancel May commencement ceremonies.
March 18: Indiana had its fifth death. Eli Lilly and Co. says it will use its labs to speed up testing in Indiana. The 500 Festival suspends all events. Simon Property Group closes all malls and retail properties.
March 19: Holcomb extends Indiana’s state of emergency into May. Holcomb says he’ll close all K-12 public and nonpublic schools; standardized testing was canceled. The state’s income-tax and corporate-tax payment deadline was extended to July 15. Holcomb says the state will waive job search requirements for people applying for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Indiana’s high school boys basketball tournament was canceled.
March 20: Indiana’s death toll rose to 9. ISDH announces Indiana’s third death. Holcomb moves the state’s primary election to June 2. Indiana University says it is postponing May commencement ceremonies on all campuses.
March 21: Indiana’s death toll rises to 14. ISDH announces Indiana’s fourth death. Indiana National Guard says it and the state Department of Transportation are distributing medical supplies to hospitals.
March 22: Indiana’s death toll rises to 18. ISDH announces seven deaths.
March 23: Indiana’s death toll rises to 23. Holcomb orders nonessential Hoosiers to “stay at home” from March 24-April 7. Eli Lilly & Co. begins drive-thru testing for the coronavirus for health care workers with a doctor’s order. Ball State University cancels the May commencement.
March 24: Indiana’s death toll rises to 28. Fred Payne of Indiana Workforce Development says any Hoosiers out of work, including temporary layoffs, are eligible to apply for unemployment benefits.
March 25: Indiana’s death toll rises to 33. Indianapolis Motor Speedway announces the Indianapolis 500 is moved to Aug. 23.
March 26: Indiana’s death toll rises to 42.
March 27: Indiana’s death toll rises to 45.
March 28: Indiana’s death toll rises to 58.
March 29: Indiana’s death toll rises to 77.
March 30: Indiana’s death toll rises to 91.
March 31: Indiana’s death toll rises above 100, to 113. Holcomb extends the limits of bars and restaurants to offer only “to go” and “carryout” through April 6.
April 1: Officials extend Marion County’s “stay at home” order through May 1. Marion County health officials say they will start COVID-19 testing services for front-line employees.
April 2: The state announces K-12 schools will be closed for the rest of the school year. Indiana High School Athletic Association cancels spring sports seasons.
April 3: Holcomb extends the “stay at home” order through April 20. The Indiana National Guard says it, the Army Corps of Engineers and state health officials will begin to assess sites for alternate health care facilities.
April 6: The state reports a Madison County nursing home has had 11 deaths. Holcomb extends the “stay at home” order through April 20. He also limits additional businesses to carry-out only.
April 7: Indiana health commissioner Box says four long-term care facilities have 22 deaths that appear to be related to COVID-19.
April 10: ISDH said 24 residents of a long-term care facility in Madison County have died from COVID-related illness.
April 14: Indiana’s death toll rises above 500.
April 16: Indiana records more than 10,000 positive coronavirus tests. The governor says he expects Indiana to experience a reopening in early May.
April 20: Holcomb extends the “stay at home” order to May 1. The governor also says if the medical supply chain is in good shape, other elective medical procedures can resume April 27.
April 22: The Tyson facility in Logansport voluntarily closes so 2,200 employees can be tested for COVID-19.
April 24: The Indianapolis City-County Council approves $25 million to help small businesses. Fishers City Council creates a city health department.
April 25: ISDH says it will launch an antibody testing study for Hoosiers; thousands of residents were randomly selected to participate in the study.
April 27: Indiana’s death toll rises above 1,000.
April 28: Indiana officials say they will open COVID-19 testing to more Hoosiers, with expanded criteria and new testing services at 20 sites around the state.
April 29: The state says it will spent $43 million on contact tracing.
April 30: Indianapolis extends its stay-at-home order through May 15.
May 1: Gov. Holcomb announces a phased reopening plan for the state of Indiana. He also extends the “stay at home” order to May 4.
May 3: Indiana records more than 20,000 positive coronavirus tests.
May 4: Indiana enters Stage 2 of its Back on Track plan, which excludes Cass County until May 18, and Lake and Marion counties until May 11.
May 6:The state begins testing for all Hoosiers at 20 sites, with plans to expand the number of sites to 50 in a week. Ivy Tech Community College says it will continue virtual classes when summer courses begin in June.
May 8: Cris Johnston, director of the Office of Budget and Management, says the state missed out on nearly $1 billion in anticipated April revenues; all state agencies will be given budget-cutting goals. Purdue University OKs plans to reopen for the fall semester with social distancing and other safety measures.
May 13: The first phase of a state-sponsored study of the coronavirus estimated about 186,000 Hoosiers had COVID-19 or the antibodies for the novel virus by May 1. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced plans for limited reopenings of worship services, retail establishments, libraries and restaurants.
May 15: Simon Property Group reopens Castleton Square Mall, Circle Centre Mall, and Fashion Mall at Keystone
May 18: Indiana reports its first case of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in a child. The Farbest Foods turkey-processing plant in Huntingburg is closed for three days; 91 people had tested positive there.
May 21: Indiana records more than 30,000 positive coronavirus tests.
May 22: Indiana advances to Stage 3 of the Back on Track reopening plan. Indianapolis closes portions of five streets to allow restaurants to reopen with outdoor dining only.
May 26: Indiana’s death toll rises above 2,000.
May 27: Indiana University says the fall semester will have in-person and online courses, plus an adjusted calendar through May 2021. Ball State University says the fall semester will be 13 straight weeks of in-person classes with no day off on Labor Day and no fall break.
May 29: Places of worship in Marion County can begin holding indoor services at 50% capacity with proper social distancing. Jim Schellinger, Indiana secretary of commerce, said the federal Paycheck Protection Program has made 73,430 loans in Indiana totaling $9,379,164,461, the federal Economic Injury Disaster Loan program has made 5,070 loans in Indiana totaling $445,428,500, and the federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans Advance program has made 38,365 grants in Indiana totaling $136,554,000.
June 1: Marion County restaurants begins serving customers indoors and outdoors with 50% capacity. Marion County salons, tattoo parlors reopen by appointment only. Marion County gyms, fitness centers and pools reopen with 50% capacity and no contact sports. However, a Marion County curfew that began the night of May 31 and continued into the morning of June 3 after rioting impacted the reopening of some businesses.
June 3: Phase 2 of statewide testing of random Hoosiers by the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI and the Indiana State Department of Health begins.
June 5: Indiana reports May tax revenues were 20% short of projections made before the coronavirus closings started.
June 8: Indianapolis leaders agree to spend $79 million in coronavirus relief funding on contact tracing, rent relief, personal protective equipment and support for small businesses.
June 12: Indiana, excluding Marion County, advances to Stage 4 of reopening plan.
June 15: Casinos and parimutuel racing reopen in the state. Marion County’s public libraries begin a phased reopening. Indiana records more than 40,000 positive coronavirus tests.
June 19: Marion County advances to Stage 4 of state’s reopening plan.
June 24: Holcomb says the state’s moratorium on the eviction on renters will be extended through July. Indiana announces it will create a rental assistance program July 13. Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon says he has tested positive for COVID-19.
June 27: Indiana hospitalizations for COVID-19 begin to increase, with about 33 new patients a day through July 1.
July 1: The governor pauses Stage 5 final reopening plan, announces Stage 4.5 from July 4-17.
July 4: Indiana’s Stage 4.5 reopening plan begins.
July 9: Indiana records more than 50,000 positive coronavirus tests. Marion County mandates mask-wearing.
July 10: Indianapolis Public Schools announces its reopening plans.
July 11: Indy Eleven resumes 2020 season with victory at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis reopens.
July 13: Indiana begins rental assistance program for all counties but Marion County. Marion County begins its own rental assistance program.
July 15: Indiana announces the Stage 4.5 reopening plan will continue another two weeks. The WNBA season begins.
July 16: Indianapolis suspends applications for its rental assistance program due to overwhelming demand.
July 24: Bars, taverns and nightclubs in Indianapolis are shut down again. City officials also return to other previous restrictions.
July 25: Indiana Fever begins WNBA season after delays.
July 27: Indiana governor’s order to wear face coverings begins. Great Lakes Valley Conference, which including University of Indianapolis, postpones most fall sports, including football, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball, until spring.
July 30: NBA season resumes.
Aug. 4: Indianapolis Motor Speedway announces the Aug. 23 Indianapolis 500 will be run without fans.
Aug. 9: Indiana records more than 75,000 positive coronavirus tests.
Aug. 11: Indiana’s death toll rises above 3,000.
Aug. 17: Indianapolis Public Schools restarts with online-only classes. News 8 learns the 2021 NBA All-Star Game will not happen on Presidents Day weekend in 2021.
Aug. 20: Purdue University suspends 36 students after a party at a cooperative house.
Aug. 21: Indiana high school football season begins with some teams not playing due to COVID-19 concerns.
Aug. 23: Butler University tells undergraduates that instruction will occur remotely for the first two weeks of the semester, starting Aug. 24, instead of in classrooms.
Aug. 24: Purdue, Indiana, IUPUI and Ball State universities resume in-person classes.
Aug. 25: Reports say a fraternity, a sorority and a cooperative house at Purdue University are under quarantines.
Aug. 26: Gov. Holcomb extends the mask mandate through Sept. 25. Indiana’s rental assistance program will take applications for one last day.
Aug. 27: Indiana University says eight Greek houses are under 14-day quarantines.
Sept. 2: Indiana University tells 30 Greek houses in Bloomington to quarantine.
Sept. 6: Indiana records more than 100,000 positive coronavirus tests.
Sept. 8: Marion County allows bars and nightclubs to reopen with 25% capacity indoors and 50% capacity outdoors.
Sept. 12: The Indianapolis Colts open their season with a loss in a Jacksonville stadium with a limited number of fans.
Sept. 21: The Indianapolis Colts home opener is limited to 2,500 fans.
Sept. 23: Gov. Eric Holcomb extends the mask mandate through Oct. 17.
Sept. 24: The state’s mask mandate is extended through Oct. 17.
Sept. 25: The Mid-American Conference announces it will start a six-game football season Nov. 4, with the championship game Dec. 18 or 19.
Sept. 26: Indiana advances to a revised Stage 5 of Indiana Back on Track plan with relaxed limits on gatherings, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and more. Marion, Monroe and Tippecanoe counties decided to have more restrictive limits, however.
Sept. 27: The Indianapolis Colts second home game is limited to 7,500 fans.
Sept. 28: Purdue University says it’s suspended 14 students, including 13 student-athletes, for violations of a pledge designed to curb the coronavirus pandemic on campus.
Sept. 30: The Indiana State Department of Health’s online coronavirus dashboard began showing data on positive coronavirus cases in Indiana schools.
Oct. 1: IU’s website shows two additional fraternities and a sorority at the Bloomington campus have been issued “cease and desist” orders.
Oct. 2: Franklin College suspends classes and moves to virtual education and activities through Oct. 9 after a “concerning and unusual” increase in the positivity rate for COVID-19.
Oct. 12: Franklin College returns to in-person classes.
Oct. 13: Indianapolis-based drugmaker Lilly pauses its trial of a combination antibody treatment for coronavirus for safety reasons.
Oct. 14: Indiana health commissioner Dr. Kristina Box announces she has tested positive for COVID-19.
Oct. 15: Gov. Holcomb issues executive order to extend mask mandate and Stage 5 reopening plan.
Oct. 16: Indiana’s death toll rises above 4,000.
Oct. 18: The Indianapolis Colts third home game was limited to 12,500 fans.
Oct. 23: The Big Ten begins its football season.
Oct. 30: Gov. Holcomb extends the public health emergency through Dec. 1.
Nov. 1: Indiana National Guard to begin deploying to long-term care facilities to provide coronavirus assistance. The Mid-American Conference football teams begins its six-game regular season.
Nov. 5: Indiana records more than 200,000 positive coronavirus tests.
Nov. 8: The Indianapolis Colts fourth home game was limited to 12,500 fans. .
Nov. 10: Indiana’s death toll rises to 5,000.
Nov. 12: Indianapolis calls for schools to go to virtual learning by Nov. 30.
Nov. 15: Indiana adds coronavirus-control restrictions for all businesses and gatherings in counties with the highest number of new cases as part of an update to the statewide COVID-19 pandemic response.
Nov. 16: Indianapolis limits capacity inside bars, private clubs, fraternal organizations and gyms to 25%; inside restaurants, libraries, funeral homes, swimming pools and shopping malls’ food courts to 50%; and inside religious services to 75%. Marion County Health Department requires preregistration for COVID-19 testing after increased demand at three drive-thru locations.
Nov. 22: Indiana records more than 300,000 positive coronavirus tests.
Nov. 23: Indianapolis Public Schools returns to virtual learning through Jan. 18.
Nov. 24: The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball seasons begin; some games had no fans in the stands.
Nov. 25: Indiana’s death toll rises above 6,000.
Nov. 26: Butler University men’s basketball cancels Nov. 29 game against Eastern Illinois after a positive COVID-19 test.
Nov. 28: Butler University men’s basketball team postponed two more games because of a positive COVID-19 test.
Dec. 1: Bankers Life Fieldhouse hosts its first NCAA men’s basketball game, Kansas vs. Kentucky, since the start of the pandemic.
Dec. 2: Indianapolis ends its rental assistance program.
Dec. 5: The men’s basketball game of No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 2, Baylor at Bankers Life Fieldhouse is postponed 90 minutes before tipoff after two Bulldogs test positive.
Dec. 6: Indiana’s death toll rises above 7,000.
Dec. 9: Indiana records more than 404,000 positive coronavirus tests. Holcomb says virus restrictions will now by county based on ratings that show the local virus spread. Indiana and Purdue universities cancel the Old Oaken Bucket football game set for Dec. 12.
Dec. 10: Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston says he tested positive for COVID-19.
Dec. 11: The Pacers lose to the Cavaliers as the NBA preseason begins. The Carmel Walmart in Westfield closes for nearly two days to sanitize the store.
Dec. 12: Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns tests positive for the coronavirus.
Dec. 14: Health care workers receive the first coronavirus vaccinations in Indiana.
Dec. 15: Vice President Mike Pence holds a roundtable in Bloomington at pharmaceutical maker Catalent on the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Indiana and Purdue again cancel the Old Oaken Bucket football game that’d been reset for Dec. 18.
Dec. 16: Indiana’s death toll rises above 8,000.
Dec. 20: The Indianapolis Colts allows up to 10,000 attendees at Lucas Oil Stadium for the team’s game against the Houston Texans.
Dec. 22: NBA starts league’s 75th season, delayed and shortened to a 72-game schedule because of the pandemic.
Dec. 23: In response to the high volume of unemployment claims, Holcomb extends the suspension of certain requirements to expedite the hiring and training of temporary workers to more quickly resolve unemployment issues. Indiana Pacers to host first home game against New York Knicks with no fans present.
Dec. 27: Indiana’s death toll rises above 9,000.
Dec. 29: Indiana records more than 500,000 positive coronavirus tests.
Dec. 31: Indiana’s death toll for 2020 is 9,459 (as recorded through March 4, 2021).
Jan. 1, 2021: Indiana’s death toll rises above 9,500.
Jan. 3: The Indianapolis Colts allow 10,000 attendees at Lucas Oil Stadium for the team’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Jan. 4: Grades 1-12 schools in Marion County are allowed reopen to in-person learning. Perry Township Schools is the only district to reopen to in-person learning.
Jan. 5: Purdue and Nebraska postpone a men’s basketball game over health and safety concerns.
Jan. 7: Indiana’s death toll rises above 10,000.
Jan. 8: Hoosiers 80 and older start receiving the coronavirus vaccine.
Jan. 13: Hoosiers 70 and older can get the coronavirus vaccine.
Jan. 18: NFL announces the scouting combine will not happen in Indianapolis in February.
Jan. 20: Indiana records more than 601,000 positive coronavirus tests. Indiana Pacers host up to 1,000 at a game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the first fans since the pandemic began.
Jan. 21: Indiana’s death toll rises above 11,000.
Feb. 1: Hoosiers 65 and older can get the coronavirus vaccine. The Indianapolis St. Patrick’s Day parade is canceled for the second year in a row.
Feb. 4: More than 1,500 coronavirus deaths were added to the Indiana State Department of Health’s dashboard after an audit found they were not recorded. News 8 learns all games for the Big Ten men’s basketball tourney will move from Chicago to Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium.
Feb. 7: Indiana to change school protocols for classroom quarantine and contact tracing.
Feb. 14: Indiana’s death toll rises above 12,000. Indiana records more than 650,000 positive coronavirus tests.
Feb. 17: Indiana officials announced plans for a $448 million program to give housing assistance to Hoosiers.
Feb. 19: The NCAA says up to 25% capacity will be allowed for all rounds of the men’s basketball tourney including the Final Four. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announces the May 30 Indianapolis 500 will have fans.
Feb. 19: Indiana’s death toll rises above 12,100.
Feb. 23: Hoosiers 60 and older can get the coronavirus vaccine.
Feb. 25: Indiana records more than 660,000 positive coronavirus tests. Capacity limits at bars, restaurants, gyms, and music venues in Marion County were adjusted after a consistent trend in the community’s COVID-19 positivity rate.
Feb. 25: Indiana’s death toll rises to 12,200.
Feb. 28: Indiana National Guardsmen to end assistance to long-term care facilities.
March 1: The 500 Festival Mini-Marathon says it will be virtual for the second year in a row.
March 2: Hoosiers 55 and older start receiving the coronavirus vaccine.
March 3: Hoosiers 50 and older start receiving the coronavirus vaccine.
March 4: News 8 learns up 8,000 fans will be allowed in Lucas Oil Stadium for Big Ten men’s basketball tournament games. Indiana records more than 665,000 positive coronavirus tests.
March 5: A three-day, drive-thru, mass-vaccination clinic opens at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 16,800 Hoosiers.
March 12: A two-day, drive-thru, mass-vaccination clinic was set for Ivy Tech Community College in Sellersburg.
March 18: NCAA men’s March Madness games, all of them at venues in Indiana, to start with First Four games in Bloomington and West Lafayette.
March 26: A two-day, drive-thru, mass-vaccination clinic was set for Compton Family Ice Arena at the University of Notre Dame.
March 31: Holcomb’s emergency declaration with county-based restrictions and a mask mandate set to end at 11:59 p.m.
May 4: Indianapolis Indians set to begin delayed season with away game against Iowa Cubs.

Trump campaign seeks post-convention bounce after rough stretch

On the road

Preparing for a face-off

Extending the message

The man in the hangar

Coronavirus links

Indiana coronavirus timeline

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