Much can change in the closing days of a U.S. presidential race.

Donald Trump, for example, received enough late-campaign support from previously undecided voters in battleground states in 2016 to lift him to the presidency. As another example, the pre-election disclosure in 2000 of a drunken-driving arrest years before may have cost George W. Bush a popular vote victory.

Drawing on those and other lessons of presidential elections past, here are some reminders about what could command attention in the campaign’s final days. This is not to say these prospective developments will all materialize, of course. But if the past is any guide, they might. Some already have.

• Speculation about an October or November surprise, which is an unanticipated development that bursts across the political landscape with potentially shattering effect. Bush’s drunk-driving case, made public by a television reporter in Maine five days before election, certainly was such a surprise. Bush adviser Karl Rove figured the disclosure kept Bush from carrying states that would have ensured him clear popular vote and Electoral College victories. As it was, the 2000 election pivoted on a prolonged dispute about who carried Florida, a dispute settled in Bush’s favor by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A more recent October surprise was the FBI’s announcement, just 11 days before the 2016 election, that it was reopening an inquiry into the private email server Hillary Clinton used during her time as U.S. secretary of State.........

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