This is a fun game to play if you're an avid election-watcher:
2020 Presidential Election Interactive Map
You can select "blank map" and then run your own scenario of how it might go.
I just did a version where I plotted what I think are all the "safe" Democratic and Republic states (i.e. a >90% chance of winning). That gets me to 252 safe electoral college votes for Biden and 187 for Trump.
BLUE STATES
The "safe" Biden states are the usual democratic strongholds: the West Coast (California, Washington, Oregon); the north east seaboard (from Virginia to Maine); Minnesota, Illinois and Hawaii. From the look of polls, I'm also giving Biden two of the rust belt battlegrounds: Wisconsin and Michigan. These voted pretty heavily for Obama in 2008 and 2012, then broke for Trump by the tiniest of margins in 2016 (just 12,000 votes in Wisconsin). I think they're coming home in 2020.
RED STATES
On the Republican side, I've assumed that all the usual Republic strongholds will stay red, including all of the South (Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, etc.), and most of the central and mountain states. Every election, the Democrats get terribly excited about 'flipping' Texas and its 38 votes, but I still can't see it happening in 2020. He can have Texas too.
BATTLEGROUNDS
That leaves 6 key states and 99 electoral college votes up for grabs: Nevada (6); Arizona (11); North Carolina (15); Ohio (18); Pennsylvania (20); and our old friend Florida (29). Biden needs another 18 of those to win; Trump needs 84.
Ohio is a dead heat, so I'm giving that to Trump -- just to be safe.
North Carolina's polling averages are leaning Democrat, but there was a big shift after the debate. When memories of that debacle fade, I think it will drift back to an even race, so I'm letting Trump have that too.
Arizona has similar odds, but Biden has been building momentum there since August and the lead appears to be holding at 3%-5%. And if you only look at the A/B-rated polls, that lead looks more like 4% to 6%. Biden will flip Arizona.
Nevada looks pretty solidly against Trump. With the exception of a couple of D-rated Survey Monkeys, the last poll to show a Trump advantage was in November
2019. Viva Las Vegas ... Biden is having Nevada too.
AND THE WINNER IS...
That gets me to a Biden advantage (but still not a win) of 269 to 220, with only Florida and Pennsylvania to play for.
Trump needs them both to win; Biden just needs to win one.
Biden has a 4-point lead over Trump in Florida and FiveThirtyEight give him a 71% chance of winning. But it's the 20th anniversary of the hanging-chads fiasco and I'd never underestimate the possibility of going to sleep with the world making sense and waking up to discover that Floridians have turned it upside down. So I'm giving
Florida to Trump as a present to Slabhead. Happy Halloween
But I'm not generous with Pennsylvania. Creepy Joe Biden seems to be running away with the state -- probably because he somehow manages to sneak the fact that he grew up in Scranton into virtually every answer to any question. He's had an 8% to 10% advantage since May and the latest A/B-rated polls have him at a double-digit lead. Biden wins
Pennsylvania.
My final prediction (for now):
Biden 289-249 Trump