When Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) switched parties, he pledged his “undying support” to President Trump, CNN reports.

Van Drew now says it wasn’t what he meant: “I think voters understand that when you’re in the Oval Office and you’re having a very exciting day and you’re making a little piece of history, that sometimes we all say things.”

He added: “I think the words didn’t explain as well what I exactly felt. It’s not undying support that, whatever you say I’m going to do, or undying support, I agree with whatever you say. It was undying support for the presidency, for the idea of the greatness of America.”

Hurricane Zeta is expected to be a Category 2 storm at landfall in southeast Louisiana, forecasters said Wednesday morning.

The storm strengthened overnight and now is forecast to have winds of 100 mph before landfall.

Life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds are expected in southeast Louisiana starting around mid-day Wednesday, forecasters said. Landfall is expected Wednesday afternoon.

Watches and warnings are in effect for southeast Louisiana. Metro New Orleans is under a hurricane warning.

Assistant Secretary of Health Adm. Brett Giroir, who leads the federal government's coronavirus testing response, pushed back on Wednesday against President Trump's continued claims that rising coronavirus cases are a product of increased testing.

The big picture: Every available piece of data shows that the pandemic is getting worse again across the country. Hospitalizations are on the rise — and some hospitals are warning that they could soon be overwhelmed — while 13 states set new highs last week for coronavirus infections recorded in a single day.

What he's saying: "But, between July, August, September, October now, we do believe and the data show that the cases are going up. It's not just a function of testing. Yes, we're getting more cases identified. But the cases are actually going up. And we know that too because hospitalizations are going up."

"And we do know that deaths are increasing, unfortunately."

Texas is a state that Biden doesn't need to win, but it is clear that it's more competitive than ever. Texas' shift from Lean Republican to Toss Up shouldn't come as a surprise. Recent polling in the state — both public and private - shows a 2-4 point race. That's pretty much in line with the hotly contested 2018 Senate race in the state where Sen. Ted Cruz narrowly defeated Rep. Beto O'Rourke 51 percent to 48 percent.

A huge surge in early vote (as of October 26th, almost half of Texas' registered voters had already cast a ballot) suggests that we could see record turnout in a state that has added many new residents since 2016. That also adds a level of uncertainty to the equation.

Statewide and district level polling show Biden running strong in and around metro suburban parts of the state, but underperforming with Latino voters. In his analysis of the New York Times/Siena poll (10/20-25) of the state, the New York Times' Nate Cohn writes that "Biden has a lead of only 57 percent to 34 percent among that group, somewhat beneath most estimates of Mrs. Clinton's support among Hispanic voters four years ago. The finding broadly tracks with national surveys, which have shown Mr. Trump improving among Hispanic voters compared with his 2016 standing. Similarly, Hispanic voters in the Times/Siena poll say they backed Mrs. Clinton by a margin of 60 percent to 29 percent."

But, it's also the case that we don't have a whole lot of experience with Texas as a battleground state. Neither do national pollsters. In an analysis of polling errors in 2016 and 2018, my colleague David Wasserman wrote this week that polls in the Southwest "undershot Democrats' final margin in 17 of 19 cases, including by an average of 1.4 points in 2016 and 4.2 points in 2018."