The virus has fundamentally transformed political life in America, affecting how candidates communicate with voters, raise money from donors and confront their opponents. This is for now the country’s first virtual campaign, as the risk of disease physically separates candidates from the people they seek to represent, and pushes officeseekers from Mr. Biden on down to appeal to homebound voters and contributors through balky web videos.

Even when more traditional electioneering resumes, the nature of this race will be profoundly different…

Incumbents at every level, starting with Mr. Trump, will be judged on how they prepared for and steered the country through a crisis that has turned the life of nearly every voter upside down.

“This is the question that is going to dominate the election: How did you perform in the great crisis?” said Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, who has canceled fund-raisers and instead scheduled tele-town hall events with guests like the provost at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.