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Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Wing Ding Democratic dinner in Clear Lake, Iowa, this month.Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times

Good Tuesday morning. Politics can be tough on friendships, as Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is seeking to put a home-state senator in a tough spot, while President Obama might find himself in a similarly awkward position if his vice president decides to challenge his former secretary of state in a bid to replace him. And to the surprise of some in her party, Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing joint fund-raising agreements that typically occur after the nomination has been won.

Mrs. Clinton‘s campaign is moving to sign “victory fund” agreements with a string of state Democratic parties, and already has takers in four states, including New Hampshire.

The maneuver is open to any of the Democratic candidates, but only Mrs. Clinton’s campaign is trying it.

Officials with some of the state parties, asked to consider joint agreements while the nomination battle is still playing out, privately expressed confusion when they first received packets proposing legal language to create the deals.

The chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party defended the arrangement with the Clinton campaign, suggesting he had invited all the candidates to enter such deals. But the others are deeply focused on winning the nomination in a fight against a well-funded front-runner.

The “victory funds” risk adding to the perception that Mrs. Clinton, who is batting away persistent questions about her use of a private email server at the State Department, is ensconced in a shaky sense of her inevitability as the nominee.

The timing also aligns with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.‘s deliberations over a campaign of his own.

Stay tuned throughout the day: Follow us on Twitter @NYTpolitics and on Facebook for First Draft updates.What We’re Watching Today

Donald J. Trump, who last year, The Des Moines Register points out, “was the contender likely caucusgoers in Iowa viewed most negatively” and is “now the front-runner in Iowa according to the latest polling,” will hold a large rally in Dubuque.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has made reaching out to evangelicals a centerpiece of his campaign. He will hold a conference call with pastors and religious leaders from across the country to discuss Planned Parenthood and the recent videos that accuse it of selling fetal tissue for a profit, a charge the organization denies.
— Maggie Haberman

Christie to Press Cory Booker to Oppose Iran Deal

Mr. Christie is staying in his home state on Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t campaigning.

He will hold a news conference at Rutgers University, a half-hour drive from his campaign headquarters in Morristown, to “encourage the New Jersey congressional delegation, particularly Senator Cory Booker, to oppose the Iran deal,” according to the event’s billing.

Mr. Booker, a Democrat, continually refers to Mr. Christie as his friend, saying as recently as last month that people should not “underestimate” Mr. Christie and that he was “one of the most talented political people out there.”

But his friend has put a focus on him while he struggles to thread a political needle on the Iran deal: He relies on a network of Jewish donors in New Jersey who would most likely oppose the deal, but he is also close with Mr. Obama, who is pressing Democrats hard for support. Coming out against it would fracture his relationship with the White House, which dates to the 2008 campaign.

Mr. Christie’s public call on Mr. Booker could force him to take a stand, something he seems reluctant to do at the moment. But it will also generate earned media for Mr. Christie, who is battling to maintain his position in the top 10 candidates for the next Republican debate in September.

Either outcome, a bipartisan ally or a public spat, keeps him in the headlines.

— Nick Corasaniti

A Biden Run Could Put Obama in an Awkward Position

Less than 24 hours after Mr.Obama returned from his summer vacation, his press secretary was peppered with questions about Mr. Biden, Mrs. Clinton and the awkward political triangle that might be just around the corner.

It’s going to be that kind of September.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden sat down on Monday for their weekly lunch together as Mr. Biden considers a challenge to Mrs. Clinton in the Democratic nominating contest. It was private, but Josh Earnest, the president’s press secretary, offered some hints.

Such discussions usually “cover everything from work to family,” he said, “And I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not you think that this decision facing the vice president falls in either of those two categories.”

Mr. Earnest declined to rule out the possibility that Mr. Obama might eventually endorse a Democratic candidate. But he also demonstrated how awkward the next few weeks will be.

Mr. Earnest noted that Mr. Obama had previously said that picking Mr. Biden “was the smartest decision that he had ever made in politics.” Jon Karl of ABC pounced, noting that must mean it was a better decision than picking Mrs. Clinton as secretary of state.

“Yeah, it was. It was,” Mr. Earnest said, before quickly praising Mrs. Clinton. The Republican National Committee release that quickly followed left out the nice words about the former secretary of state. “Ouch!” it said.

— Michael D. Shear

Our Favorites From The Times

Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio is trying to balance two competing narratives: his working-class past and the nearly eight years he spent as an investment banker with Lehman Brothers.

As American markets tumbled, Republican candidates took aim at China: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin called on Mr. Obama to cancel a state visit by the Chinese leader, and Mr. Trump warned that Beijing would “bring us down.”

And Jeb Bush, whose campaign is seeking ways to curb spending, is beginning to punch back, hard, against attacks from Mr. Trump.

Rail Crossing at Border Races to Completion Amid Talks of Wall

Amid all the talk of using walls, drones and guns to bolster security at the southern border, a project to tie the United States and Mexico closer together has been racing toward completion.

On Tuesday, Penny Pritzker, the secretary of commerce, will travel to Brownsville, Tex., to inaugurate the first new rail crossing between the countries in more than a century.

The $100 million project has been in the works since 2004 and is intended to move goods more efficiently across the border. The West Rail International Bridge is one of several new developments that Ms. Pritzker has been promoting to help ease trade with Mexico, the United States’ second-largest trading partner.

The new bridge comes as Republican presidential candidates have been taking hard lines on immigration and seemingly competing with one another over who would build a bigger wall faster.

Ms. Pritzker said in an interview that the countries were increasingly taking steps to share intelligence at the border, and she said that smuggling and illegal crossings had declined as trade had ramped up.

“For too long we’ve been thinking about the U.S.-Mexico relationship being one about security,” Ms. Pritzker said, adding that trade had created jobs and growth to both countries. “I wish we spent more time talking about how we grow our economic bond,” she said.

— Alan Rappeport

What We’re Reading Elsewhere

An initiative while Mr. Bush was governor of Florida to spend $500 million enticing Scripps Research Institute to expand in the state, depended, The Los Angeles Times reports, “on the type of generous government subsidy that many conservatives now frown upon” and “failed to deliver the blockbuster biotech cluster Bush promised.”

Mr. Trump‘s campaign, The New Yorker suggests, has tapped into a “confederacy of the frustrated — less a constituency than a loose alliance of Americans who say they are betrayed by politicians, victimized by a changing world, and enticed by Trump’s insurgency.”

Central to Mr. Biden‘s deliberations of whether to run for president are the considerations of his family so shortly after the death of his son Beau, The Washington Post reports.

The Boston Globe calls it the new poll tax: the fact that many coming presidential debates will not be aired on free television, but only on cable.