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Groups that support a candidate in groups that are called Political action committees.

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Battleground States are states that have a large amount of undecided voters.

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And, yet, Hillary Clinton maintains her advantage on the Road to 270 when it comes to piecing together the electoral math needed to win the presidency.

With four days to go before the highly anticipated first presidential debate and just under 7 weeks before all the votes are cast, Hillary Clinton still sits above that key threshold in the latest CNN outlook. When you add up all the states either solidly or currently leaning Clinton's way, she has 272 electoral votes in her column in our new estimate.

Hear CNN Political Director David Chalian explain the new race ratings in his podast:

What's changed?

-- Iowa (6) moves from from "battleground" to "lean Republican"

-- Utah (6) moves from "lean Republican" to "solid Republican"

-- Maine's 2nd Congressional District (1) moves from "solid Democrat" to "battleground"

-- Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District (1) moves from "solid Republican" to "battleground"

Road to 270: Electoral College map

Note: The split congressional district ratings are symbolized with diagonal lines.

The state of play

Donald Trump has improved his standing in our electoral college outlook due to Iowa (a state Barack Obama won twice) and its six electoral votes moving from the true toss-up "battleground" category into the "lean Republican" category, giving Trump a total of 196 electoral votes either solidly or leaning in his favor.

That leaves 70 electoral votes up for grabs across four states (plus two congressional districts) -- Florida, Nevada, Ohio, and North Carolina.

Maine and Nebraska award individual electoral votes by congressional district in addition to the multiple electoral votes based on statewide results. Both Maine and Nebraska's second congressional district have moved into battleground status in this latest estimate. Maine's second congressional district has moved from "solid Democrat" to "battleground" and Nebraska's second congressional district has moved from "solid Republican" to "battleground," providing an opportunity for a candidate to pick up a single electoral vote in what otherwise might be hostile territory.

Finally, Utah moves back from "leaning Republican" to being solidly being in Trump's column.

There is no doubt that Trump has improved his chances in the last several weeks and that he is extremely competitive in all of the remaining critical battleground states, but Clinton's firewall is not yet showing any significant cracks and that is what makes Trump's path to 270 electoral votes still quite challenging.

For all of the endless talk about Florida, Ohio and North Carolina, it is perhaps most important to keep your eye on Clinton's performance in the states that are leaning her way, but not solidly in her camp. Pennsylvania, Colorado, Michigan, and Virginia are the core of Clinton's current stronger and more viable path to 270. If Trump begins to find significant inroads to any of those blue-leaning states, that will set off some alarm bells at her Brooklyn HQ and suggest a more viable path for Trump.

It is not enough for Trump to simply win the remaining 70 electoral votes in the battleground states -- that only gets him to 266. He still needs to chip away at Clinton's Democratic leaning firewall.

That's why we see both Trump and Clinton and their surrogates returning again and again to Pennsylvania, for example. And that's why Clinton and pro-Clinton forces spent more than $16 million on television ads in the Keystone State compared to the $5.3 million we've seen from Trump and pro-Trump forces. In fact, Pennsylvania is the state with the third-highest number of ad dollars spent this cycle, behind only Florida and Ohio.

Clinton and Trump will surely continue the fully engaged battle for the votes of Floridians and Ohioans, but until and unless Trump can put one of those Democratic leaning states back on the board as a battleground or even make one lean his way, Clinton's electoral college advantage holds.

Solid Republican:

Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arkansas (6), Idaho (4), Indiana (11), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (8), Mississippi (6), Missouri (10), Montana (3), Nebraska (4), North Dakota (3), Oklahoma (7), South Carolina (9), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (38), Utah (6)West Virginia (5), Wyoming (3) (163 total)

Leans Republican:

Arizona (11), Georgia (16), Iowa (6), (33 total)

Battleground states:

Florida (29), Nevada (6), Ohio (18), Maine 2nd Congressional District (1) Nebraska 2nd Congressional District (1), North Carolina (15) (70 total)

Leans Democratic:

Colorado (9), Michigan (16), New Hampshire (4), Pennsylvania (20), Virginia (13), Wisconsin (10), (72 total)

Solid Democratic:

California (55), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), DC (3), Hawaii (4), Illinois (20), Maine (3), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (11), New Jersey (14), New York (29), Oregon (7), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (12), Minnesota (10), New Mexico (5) (200 total)

Will Mullery and Tal Yellin contributed to this story.

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road to 270: cnn's general election map - cnnpolitics

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And, yet, Hillary Clinton maintains her advantage on the Road to 270 when it comes to piecing together the electoral math needed to win the presidency. With four days to go before the highly anticipated first presidential debate and just under 7 weeks before all the votes are cast, Hillary Clinton still sits above that key threshold in the latest CNN outlook.

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A short phrase that politicians occasionally use to kind of sum up their positions or to attack their arrivals.

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Red: For states that usually to vote Republican.

Blue: For states that usually vote Democratic.
Purple: The color that the Battleground states are usually referred to.

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Since the 2000 United States presidential election, red states and blue states have referred to states of the United States whose voters predominantly choose either the Republican Party (red) or Democratic Party (blue) presidential candidates.

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      Conservatives and Liberals                                

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      Conservatives and Liberals                                

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Conservatives: Think the government should play a limited role in regulating business and making social reforms; vote for Republicans.
Liberals: Think the government should take an active role in regulating business and solving social issues: vote for Democratic.

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Compiled by the Editors. Copyright 2005 (revised 2010) StudentNewsDaily.com. We all want the same things in life. We want freedom; we want the chance for prosperity; we want as few people suffering as possible; we want healthy children; we want to have crime-free streets. The argument is how to achieve them...

Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all. It is the duty of the government to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. Believe the role of the government should be to guarantee that no one is in need. Liberal policies generally emphasize the need for the government to solve problems.

Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional American values and a strong national defense. Believe the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals. Conservative policies generally emphasize empowerment of the individual to solve problems.

Related comparison page: Socialism vs. Capitalism

And check out our page: 2019 General Election Resources for teachers.
NOTE: The terms "left" and "right" define opposite ends of the political spectrum. In the United States, liberals are referred to as the left or left-wing and conservatives are referred to as the right or right-wing. On the U.S. political map, blue represents the Democratic Party (which generally upholds liberal principles) and red represents the Republican party (which generally upholds conservative principles).
Abortion

Liberal
A woman has the right to decide what happens with her body. A fetus is not a human life, so it does not have separate individual rights. The government should provide taxpayer funded abortions for women who cannot afford them. The decision to have an abortion is a personal choice of a woman regarding her own body and the government must protect this right. Women have the right to affordable, safe and legal abortions, including partial birth abortion.

( Conservative
Human life begins at conception. Abortion is the murder of a human being. An unborn baby, as a living human being, has separate rights from those of the mother. Oppose taxpayer-funded abortion. Taxpayer dollars should not be used for the government to provide abortions. Support legislation to prohibit partial birth abortions, called the "Partial Birth Abortion* Ban"*Partial Birth Abortion: the killing of an unborn baby of at least 20 weeks by pulling it out of the birth canal with forceps, but leaving the head inside. An incision is made in the back of the baby's neck and the brain tissue is suctioned out. The head is then removed from the uterus.)

Affirmative Action

Death Penalty

Economy

Education - vouchers & charter schools

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Support the use of embryonic stem cells for research. It is necessary (and ethical) for the government to fund embryonic stem cell research, which will assist scientists in finding treatments and cures for diseases. An embryo is not a human. The tiny blastocyst (embryos used in embryonic stem cell research) has no human features. Experimenting on embryos/embryonic stem cells is not murder. Embryonic stem cells have the potential to cure chronic and degenerative diseases which current medicine has been unable to effectively treat. Embryonic stem cells have been shown to be effective in treating heart damage in mice.

Conservative
Support the use of adult and umbilical cord stem cells only for research. It is morally and ethically wrong for the government to fund embryonic stem cell research. Human life begins at conception. The extraction of stem cells from an embryo requires its destruction. In other words, it requires that a human life be killed. Adult stem cells have already been used to treat spinal cord injuries, Leukemia, and even Parkinson's disease. Adult stem cells are derived from umbilical cords, placentas, amniotic fluid, various tissues and organ systems like skin and the liver, and even fat obtained from liposuction. Embryonic stem cells have not been successfully used to help cure disease.

Energy

Euthanasia & Physician-assisted suicide

Global Warming/Climate Change

Gun Control
Full text of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Healthcare

Homeland Security

Liberal
Airport security - Passenger profiling is wrong, period. Selection of passengers for extra security screening should be random. Using other criteria (such as ethnicity) is discriminatory and offensive to Arabs and Muslims, who are generally innocent and law-abiding. Terrorists don't fit a profile.
"...Arabs, Muslims and South Asians are no more likely than whites to be terrorists." (American Civil Liberties Union ACLU)
Asked on 60 Minutes if a 70-year-old white woman from Vero Beach should receive the same level of scrutiny as a Muslim from Jersey City, President Obama's Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said, "Basically, I would hope so."

Conservative
Airport security - Choosing passengers randomly for extra security searches is not effective. Rather, profiling and intelligence data should be used to single out passengers for extra screening. Those who do not meet the criteria for suspicion should not be subjected to intense screening. The terrorists currently posing a threat to the U.S. are primarily Islamic/Muslim men between the ages of 18 and 38. Our resources should be focused on this group. Profiling is good logical police work.
"If people are offended (by profiling), that's unfortunate, but I don't think we can afford to take the risk that terrorism brings to us. They've wasted masses of resources on far too many people doing things that really don't have a big payoff in terms of security." - Northwestern University Aviation Expert, A.Gellman.

Immigration

Support legal immigration. Support amnesty for those who enter the U.S. illegally (undocumented immigrants). Also believe that undocumented immigrants have a right to:
- all educational and health benefits that citizens receive (financial aid, welfare, social security and medicaid), regardless of legal status.
- the same rights as American citizens. It is unfair to arrest millions of undocumented immigrants.

Conservative
Support legal immigration only. Oppose amnesty for those who enter the U.S. illegally (illegal immigrants). Those who break the law by entering the U.S. illegally do not have the same rights as those who obey the law and enter legally. The borders should be secured before addressing the problem of the illegal immigrants currently in the country. The Federal Government should secure the borders and enforce current immigration law.

Private Property

Religion & Government

Liberal
Support the separation of church and state. The Bill of Rights implies a separation of church and state. Religious expression has no place in government. The two should be completely separate. Government should not support religious expression in any way. All reference to God in public and government spaces should be removed (eg., the Ten Commandments should not be displayed in Federal buildings). Religious expression has no place in government.

Conservative
The phrase "separation of church and state" is not in the Constitution. The First Amendment to the Constitution states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." This prevents the government from establishing a national church/denomination. However, it does not prohibit God from being acknowledged in schools and government buildings. Symbols of Christian heritage should not be removed from public and government spaces (eg., the Ten Commandments should continue to be displayed in Federal buildings). Government should not interfere with religion and religious freedom.

Same-sex Marriage

Liberal
Marriage is the union of people who love each other. It should be legal for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals, to ensure equal rights for all. Support same-sex marriage. Opposed to the creation of a constitutional amendment establishing marriage as the union of one man and one woman. All individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation, have the right to marry. Prohibiting same-sex citizens from marrying denies them their civil rights. [Opinions vary on whether this issue is equal to civil rights for African Americans.]

Conservative
Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Oppose same-sex marriage.
Support Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed in 1996, which affirms the right of states not to recognize same-sex marriages licensed in other states.
Requiring citizens to sanction same-sex relationships violates moral and religious beliefs of millions of Christians, Jews, Muslims and others, who believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

Social Security

Taxes

United Nations (UN)

War on Terror/Terrorism

Welfare

Compiled by the Editors. Copyright 2005, (revised 2010) StudentNewsDaily.com.

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Liberals believe in government action...Conservatives believe in limited government.

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A voting term relating mainly to the youngest group of voters from the ages 18-24 years of age.