Other Races for 2023/24

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💰 Vulnerable House Republicans maintain fundraising edge

Data: Federal Election Commission; Note: Shows net contributions the campaigns received, excluding transfers from other campaign committees; Chart: Alice Feng/Axios As key House races begin to take shape for 2024, Republicans in competitive districts continue to raise more in individual contributions than their Democratic counterparts, Axios' Andrew Solender reports. Why it matters: Some of the top GOP fundraisers are in districts Biden carried in 2020 — which Democrats see as key to winning back the majority. By the numbers: Of the top 10 Q2 fundraisers in districts rated by Cook Political Report as toss-ups or leaning toward one party, seven are Republicans. Six of them represent Biden districts. Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) led the pack, raising $763,000 from April to June. The top Democratic fundraisers were Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez (D-Wash.) and Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.); each brought in more than $600,000. Seven of the lowest figures came from Democrats, though indicted Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) brought in the least with a reported $162,000. Between the lines: These figures only take into account individual contributions, excluding transfers from other campaign committees. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) joint fundraising committee, Protect The House 2024, topped off many of his vulnerable incumbents with transfers of $100,000 to $225,000. Share this graphic.

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Joel Rubin, veteran of a number of Jewish organizations, to run for Congress in Maryland

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Joel Rubin, who has had leading roles at a number of Jewish organizations, is entering a crowded Democratic congressional race in a Maryland district that stretches from Washington’s suburbs to the Pennsylvania border.

https://www.jta.org/2023/07/24/politics/joel-rubin-veteran-of-a-number-of-jewish-organizations-to-run-for-congress-in-maryland?

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Mother Of Uvalde School Shooting Victim Running To Be City’s Mayor

Kimberly Mata-Rubio, mother of Alexandria "Lexi" Rubio who was killed in the Robb Elementary School massacre last year, is running for mayor of Uvalde.

https://pocketcastnews.substack.com/p/mother-of-uvalde-school-shooting?

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Abigail Spanberger tells Democrats she will run for governor

The centrist Democrat would leave a highly contested House seat should she follow through on those plans.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/spanberger-future-00108756?

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Entire House Democratic Leadership Backs Anti-Choice Cuellar in 2024 Run

With well over a year before the 2024 election, and as a pro-choice immigration rights attorney is reportedly weighing a primary run, all four of the top Democratic leaders in the U.S. House on Thursday announced their support for anti-abortion rights Rep. Henry Cuellar in his reelection bid.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/democratic-leaders-back-cuellar?

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Private Equity Billionaire Tied to Jeffrey Epstein Led Industry Backing for Kyrsten Sinema

Now embroiled in scandal, Leon Black made a safe bet on Sinema during her 2018 Senate campaign.

https://theintercept.com/2023/08/03/kyrsten-sinema-private-equity-donors-jeffrey-epstein/?

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Scoop: Kari Lake's plan

Photo: Octavio Jones/Getty Images

Former Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake is staffing up for a Senate campaign in anticipation of an October launch, making Arizona ground zero to replay — and relitigate — Republican losses in the last two elections, Axios' Juliegrace Brufke and Hans Nichols report. Why it matters: A potential three-way battle, with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema running as an independent, will expose deep divisions in both parties on whether to appeal to their bases or independents in a critical 2024 battleground state. The race will have implications in the presidential campaign and give President Biden an opportunity to run against the "ultra MAGA" mindset that Lake represents, even if former President Trump isn't Biden's opponent in November 2024. Lake, who has not conceded her gubernatorial loss in 2022, is one of Trump's most ardent defenders and frequently amplifies the false election claims at the heart of the former president's most recent indictment. Between the lines: The race also offers a state-level experiment on the implication of a possible three-way presidential contest, with Sinema playing the role of a No Labels candidate. Driving the news: Lake is expected to spend most of September in Arizona interviewing potential staff and consultants, a source familiar told Axios. Biden hands a pen to Sinema at today's Grand Canyon National Monument ceremony. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images The big picture: If Lake wins the GOP's primary next August, she likely will face Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego and Sinema in the general election. Sinema, once the darling of her (old) party for being the first Democrat to win an Arizona Senate seat in 30 years, has spent most of the Biden presidency at odds with progressives — on corporate taxes, filibuster reform and other issues. Gallego, a Marine combat veteran, wants to replace Sinema by appealing to his party's base. He's convinced that Arizona voters want fundamental — and not incremental — change in Washington. Gallego out-raised Sinema last quarter and greeted Biden when he landed at Grand Canyon National Park Airport yesterday. Sinema appeared with Biden when he designated the greater Grand Canyon a national monument today. What's next: Sinema has not announced whether she will seek re-election, but she reported nearly $10.8 million in cash-on-hand last quarter. A recent poll showed Sinema narrowly trailing both Gallego and Lake in a three-way race. Pinal County sheriff Mark Lamb also is seeking the GOP nomination and has raised more than $600,000. The bottom line: Sinema's decision on whether to run again is expected to have a significant impact on the race, as party campaign arms and outside groups gear up to spend millions in Arizona.

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David McCormick is gearing up for a Senate run in Pennsylvania. But he lives in Connecticut

WASHINGTON (AP) — David McCormick had a clear explanation for why his fellow Republican, Dr. Mehmet Oz, lost a critical Pennsylvania Senate seat last year: Voters viewed the daytime television celebrity as an interloper from New Jersey with limited ties to the state he hoped to represent.

https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-mccormick-residency-mansion-connecticut-oz-e84500b848f0be7efb9f9b3c495dd066?

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• IA-01: Former state Rep. Christina Bohannan announced Tuesday that she'd seek a rematch against Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who beat her last year 53-47 in Iowa's 1st District. Bohannan, who is the first notable Democrat to launch a campaign for any of the Hawkeye State's four House seats, is trying to flip a southeastern Iowa constituency that supported Donald Trump by a small 51-48 margin in 2020.

The former state representative, who is a law professor at the local University of Iowa, launched her second effort days after the New York Times ran a story detailing Democratic pessimism about a rebound anytime soon in a one-time swing state that's moved hard to the right over the last decade. "It's difficult even to recruit people to run when we're so far down," said former Rep. Dave Loebsack, who represented previous versions of this district back when it was still numbered the 2nd. (Loebsack beat Miller-Meeks in 2008, 2010, and 2014; she finally won the 2020 race to succeed Loebsack after he retired by just six votes.)

Bohannan, though, has an angle of attack that wasn't available to her last time. Upon her entry into the race, she immediately emphasized her opposition to a state law banning most abortions after just six weeks, a bill that GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law in July. "My view is we should go back to Roe v. Wade," she told the Des Moines Register. "No more, no less. That's what people support."

Bohannan also highlighted Miller-Meeks' cosponsorship of a proposed constitutional amendment that, without exception, calls for a "right to life of each born and pre-born human person." The Republican, who identified herself as "pro-choice" during her successful 2018 bid for the state Senate, last year told the Quad-City Times, "I'm pro-life with exceptions for life of the mother, rape, and incest."

Bohannan told the Register she intends to carry her "message out far and wide and reach people that maybe didn't hear from us last time" and likely is hoping she'll receive considerably more outside support to accomplish that task than she got in 2022. Pro-Miller-Meeks groups, led by the Congressional Leadership Fund, spent $2.7 million on the congresswoman's behalf last time, compared to less than $100,000 for Bohannan's side.

Democrats had every reason to be pessimistic going into 2022. Two of Iowa's best-known Republicans, Sen. Chuck Grassley and Reynolds, were heading toward decisive wins, and Hawkeye State Republicans caught the red wave that so many of their fellow travelers elsewhere waited for in vain. Grassley carried the 1st 53-47 as he was beating Democrat Mike Franken 56-44 statewide, while Reynolds did even better.

The midterms also saw Zach Nunn narrowly unseat 3rd District Rep. Cindy Axne, who was the state's only remaining Democratic member of Congress, on the same night that a pair of 10-term incumbents, Attorney General Tom Miller and Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, also fell to Republican challengers. About the only bright spot for state Democrats was the reelection of Auditor Rob Sand, whose 50.1-49.9 victory made him the party's most prominent elected official by default.

Bohannan is counting on 2024 to be a far better year for her party, but it remains to be seen whether other potentially vulnerable Republicans in Iowa's House delegation earn credible challenges. Axne likely removed herself from contention two months ago when she accepted a post in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and no serious Democrats have publicly expressed interest in taking on Nunn in the 3rd. Inside Elections reported in June that unnamed Democrats were trying to recruit Dave Price, who recently retired as political director for the station WHO 13, but we've heard no new developments since about this 49.3-48.9 Trump seat around Des Moines.

Things have been even quieter in northeastern Iowa's 2nd District, where Rep. Ashley Hinson remains unopposed for a constituency that favored Trump 51-47. Rep. Randy Feenstra, though, will almost certainly remain secure in his dark red 4th District even if 2024 turns into a strong cycle for Democrats.

Senate

• MD-Sen: Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks unveiled a high-profile endorsement Tuesday from Sen. Chris Van Hollen ahead of next year's Democratic primary to succeed Maryland's other senator, retiring incumbent Ben Cardin. Van Hollen joins Reps. Steny Hoyer and Kweisi Mfume in Alsobrooks' corner even though their colleague, Rep. David Trone, is also competing for the nomination.

• MI-Sen: Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig told The Detroit News Monday that he'd decide within the following 60 days if he'd seek the GOP nod for Senate. Craig remains as modest as ever a year after the end of his disastrous campaign for governor, saying of potential intra-party foes, "I think they're watching me. And they should."

Governors

• LA-Gov: Stephen Waguespack, a Republican who served as then-Gov. Bobby Jindal's chief of staff before spending a decade heading what reporter Greg Hilburn called "Louisiana's most powerful business lobby," is using his new $600,000 ad campaign to promote himself as an "outsider" challenging the power of "the insiders." Hilburn calls this the "first major TV ad buy" from the Waguespack campaign ahead of the Oct. 14 all-party primary, though the candidate is not exactly a stranger to viewers: His allied super PAC began a $1.75 million ad campaign in May just before Waguespack said he was launching an opening "six-figure ad buy."

GOP Attorney General Jeff Landry, meanwhile, is looking to maintain his frontrunner status with a new piece where he stands in a classroom and bemoans "woke politics." A pro-Landry group, Protect Louisiana's Children, also is running its own commercial touting his battles with the Biden administration.

House

• CA-22: Former Assemblyman Rudy Salas has earned an endorsement from Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi for his rematch campaign against GOP Rep. David Valadao. Salas is the only notable Democrat who has announced a bid so far, though state Sen. Melissa Hurtado set up a fundraising account in late July.

• CA-49: Margarita Wilkinson, who works as an executive at the TV broadcaster Entravision, filed FEC paperwork this week to run as a Republican against Democratic Rep. Mike Levin.

• NJ-07: Jason Blazakis, who is the former head of the U.S. State Department's Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, declared Monday that he would seek the Democratic nod to take on GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in a competitive seat that includes the southwestern New York City suburbs and exurbs.

The New Jersey Globe's Joey Fox writes that Blazakis grew up in the 7th District but only recently started living there again, to which he responded, "I've worked on national security for the last 20-plus years, trying to keep Americans safe from terrorists. That took me away [from New Jersey]―working on the hardest national security challenges in the world." Fox also notes that Blazakis served as a legislative aide for GOP Rep. Jim Saxton from 1997 to 2001; Blazakis says that Saxton, who retired in 2009 from a South Jersey seat, is the last Republican he ever voted for.

Blazakis used a separate interview with Punchbowl News to identify himself as a "centrist, moderate," while declaring labeling Kean "an enabler of an extremist agenda." The new candidate joins Sue Altman, who heads the state branch of the progressive Working Families Party, and Roselle Park Mayor Joe Signorello in the primary for this 51-47 Biden district.

• NY-03: Air Force veteran Greg Hach this week became the latest Republican to launch a primary bid against still-Rep. George Santos, telling the conservative Washington Examiner, "I'm as confused about George Santos' life as he is." Hach is now part of a field that includes a pair of businessmen, Kellen Curry and Mike Sapraicone.

• PA-01: Anti-abortion activist Mark Houck tells Punchbowl News that he launched his GOP primary bid against Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick after receiving encouragement from Freedom Caucus head Scott Perry, who represents the 10th District. Houck claimed of Perry, "He said, 'This is a decision you need to make,' but if he were in my shoes, he would do it, were kind of his words, which is exactly what he did, so yeah, he did encourage me." Perry's team responded, "While Congressman Perry greatly respects Mr. Houck's tireless dedication to fighting for the unborn, he only encouraged Mr. Houck to pray about a decision to run for Congress."

• PA-17: Republican state Rep. Rob Mercuri announced Tuesday that he'd take on freshman Democratic Rep. Chris Deluzio in a suburban Pittsburgh constituency that favored Joe Biden 52-46. Mercuri, who served with the Army in Iraq, represents a legislative district is contained entirely within Deluzio's seat, but because Pennsylvania House districts are so small, the Republican only serves about 8% of the 17th Congressional District.

Mercuri launched his campaign by telling triblive.com that he identifies as "pro-life" but believes the federal government should let the states define their abortion laws. But while the state representative wouldn't say when he thinks abortions should be prohibited in Pennsylvania, reporter Ryan Deto notes that Mercuri cosponsored a 2021 bill that would have largely outlawed the procedure after six weeks. The DCCC also quickly posted a CBSN clip from his 2020 bid where, upon being asked if he's a "Trump supporter," Mercuri replied, "I am a Trump supporter. I am a fan of his policies."

Deluzio, a Navy veteran who also served in Iraq, won an expensive open seat battle 53-47 last year, and Democrats hope that Trump's toxicity will continue to keep this seat out of GOP hands. The only other declared Republican is pastor Jim Nelson, who raised a mere $29,000 during his opening fundraising quarter and finished June with $14,000 to spend. Deluzio, meanwhile, took in $348,000 and had $368,000 available.

• RI-01: The Rhode Island Board of Elections announced Tuesday that its review of Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos' petitions found "no obvious pattern of fraud," and that it only disqualified four additional signatures. The body, though, voted to subpoena everyone who collected petitions for Matos, but it said this would not happen until after the Sept. 5 special Democratic primary. The attorney general's office and state police are conducting their own probe into allegations that Matos' campaign handed in petitions ostensibly from dead voters and people who said they'd never signed.

One of the other Democrats, state Sen. Sandra Cano, meanwhile went up with her own commercial featuring her young daughter. Cano, who like Matos would be the first woman to hold this seat, declares she's running "because a woman's perspective matters, and no woman has ever represented us in Congress." The only Rhode Island woman to ever serve in either chamber is Republican Claudine Schneider, who served the 2nd District from 1981 to 1991.

• WI-01: Caledonia Village Board Trustee Anthony Hammes and Navy Reserve Officer Lorenzo Santos are the first two Democrats to announce bids against Republican Rep. Bryan Steil in a 50-48 Trump district that fair-maps advocates are hoping will be redrawn. Hammes previously lost a 2022 general election for a dark red seat in the state Assembly months before he unseated an incumbent to win his current post in this community of 25,000. Santos, for his part, is the deputy emergency management coordinator for Racine County and head of the Young Democrats of Wisconsin, and this appears to be his first run for office.

Delavan Mayor Ryan Schroeder also tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he's interested in taking on Steil, while the paper reports that former Racine Police Chief Art Howell is considering; Howell has yet to say anything publicly about his interest.

State Legislatures

• GA State Senate: One of the co-conspirators indicted alongside Donald Trump by Georgia prosecutors on Monday is Shawn Still, a fake elector who managed to win a freshly gerrymandered seat in the state Senate last year. That makes Still the first sitting elected official to be formally charged in Trump's plot to steal the 2020 election—and his fast-changing district tells the story of Georgia Republicans' desperate bid to cling to power. In a new piece, David Nir explores Still's path to the legislature and explains why, even if he isn't on the ballot next year, shifting demographics and GOP malfeasance will make his district competitive.

Mayors & County Leaders

• Nashville, TN Mayor: Republican Alice Rolli declared Monday evening that she'd "separated ties" with her consulting firm after learning that one of its executives, Woodrow Johnston, had "more than a strong connection to Proud Boys." But Johnston, who praised the extremist group in 2020 in what he now says was a joke and denies having any ties with them, told both Axios and The Tennessean that he'd communicated all this to Rolli in their first conversation and that she's "now throwing me under the bus to protect herself."

Johnston also claimed he'd been the one who'd quit days before, and he showed The Tennessean his resignation email from Saturday where he said he was leaving because he and Rolli were "too far apart on what direction we want to take the campaign." The candidate later acknowledged that Johnston had indeed quit, but her team claimed Tuesday that she'd parted ways with his firm, McShane, because it was too close to the Proud Boys. Rolli faces Democrat Freddie O'Connell in the Sept. 14 nonpartisan general election to lead this blue city.

Prosecutors & Sheriffs

• Northampton County, PA District Attorney: Incumbent Terry Houck announced Monday that he was ending his general election campaign, a move that leaves the man who beat him in the May Democratic primary, former local Judge Stephen Baratta, as the only candidate on the Nov. 7 ballot. Houck won the GOP nod through a write-in effort even as he was losing to Baratta 54-46, but the head of the local Republican Party quickly made it clear that his organization wouldn't do anything to help the registered Democrat hold his post.

Houck himself admitted Monday how difficult it would be to prevail in this Lehigh Valley county by saying, "I'm a candidate without a party, right?" Baratta, for his part, acknowledged that Republicans could still field their own write-in candidate against him in this 50-49 Biden county, saying, "I respect the people in charge of the Republican Party, and they have the ability, if they want, to attempt to fill that spot." He added, "We still may have to run a campaign, so we don't want to rest on our laurels or act smug about this. We want to be prepared."

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• IN-Gov: Former Indiana Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers announced Thursday that he was joining the race to succeed his old boss and fellow Republican, termed-out Gov. Eric Holcomb, and the first-time candidate's presence will likely make what's already a pricey May primary even more expensive. And while Sen. Mike Braun had long looked like the favorite to win the nomination, Chambers' decision to run could also be a sign that the senator's status is not secure.

Chambers spent nearly four decades running the Buckingham Companies, a prominent Indianapolis-based commercial real estate firm that he founded, before becoming both state commerce secretary and head of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation in 2021. Howey Politics wrote last month that Chambers, who at the time was about to step down from Holcomb's cabinet, would "likely" self-fund a campaign, though it's not clear how much money he's willing and able to throw down.

Some of the cash that Chambers long ago parted ways with, though, could give him trouble as he tries to win over conservatives. Journalist Adam Wren reported in March that Chambers has donated a total of $20,000 to state and federal Democrats, including a committee to support Barack Obama's 2008 presidential bid and to then-Sen. Joe Donnelly in 2015. (Braun unseated Donnelly three years later.) His most recent contribution to a Democrat came in 2020, when he gave $250 to aid a state lawmaker.

Wren also noted at the time that some of Buckingham's priorities could further leave Chambers vulnerable to attack on his right flank. "[W]e aim to fully integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices that are aligned with our business strategy and stakeholder interests," according to a company statement. "Our ESG strategy is informed by industry best practices and intended to reduce our carbon footprint, preserve communities, increase value, and reduce risk."

Needless to say, these are not popular positions in the GOP: Earlier this year, Braun enlisted his entire caucus in support of a resolution bashing the Biden administration over these corporate governance practices. The senator, however, might be the wrong person to make Chambers' past donations an issue: CNN reported in 2018 that Braun had a long history of voting in Democratic primaries that continued through 2008, something he claims he did because he lived in a blue county and wanted to have a say in local politics.

The senator announced in December that he'd run for governor rather than seek a second term, and he released an internal poll around that time showing him beating Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch in a 47-10 landslide, with self-funding businessman Eric Doden at 5%. (Only Doden had announced when that survey was conducted, while Braun and Crouch entered a short time later.) No one, though, has released any reliable numbers since then of what's now a much more crowded race.

The field grew last month when former Attorney General Curtis Hill, a one-time rising star who lost renomination in 2020 after multiple women accused him of sexual assault, launched a comeback effort. Hill echoed Donald Trump's own protestations of innocence by claiming to the Indiana Capitol Chronicle that, as soon as he was elected in 2016, "there was a target because I was a proven, conservative leader but also someone that would stand up to the status quo." Doden, who also ran the state's Economic Development Corporation under then-Gov. Mike Pence, meanwhile beat everyone else to TV this month when he launched a $2 million media buy.

Whoever wins the GOP nod will likely face former state education superintendent Jennifer McCormick, a former Republican who so far has the Democratic primary to herself. McCormick, who like Crouch would be the first woman to lead the state, has gone after her old party for pushing an ultra-conservative agenda, including a near-total abortion ban, while arguing that schools and the economy have suffered. Democrats will face a tough task next year, though, as they last won Indiana's governorship in 2000, when incumbent Frank O'Bannon secured reelection.

 

Governors

• LA-Gov: Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry this week earned the support of the Louisiana Sheriffs Association, which backed termed-out Democratic incumbent John Bel Edwards during both of his successful bids. In Louisiana, sheriffs tend to be very influential figures: When he turned down a gubernatorial bid, the late Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee famously asked, "Why would I want to be governor when I can be king?"

• MO-Gov: While state Sen. Bill Eigel's site is still emboldened with the words "exploratory," the Republican hardliner has otherwise abandoned the pretense that he's anything other than a declared candidate to replace termed-out incumbent Mike Parson.

"When I'm the governor of this state, I'm going to bring the Republican Party together by calling on Republicans to do Republican things," Eigel said Thursday at the Missouri State Fair as he bashed his nominal boss, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden. Eigel earlier in the month also responded in the affirmative when This Week in Missouri Politics host Scott Faughn said, "You're running against [Secretary of State] Jay Ashcroft" for the GOP nod. (Faughn presented this as a basic statement of fact rather than as a question.)

Eigel, who formed his exploratory committee last year, pissed off Rowden and plenty of other colleagues in May as they were trying to use the final hours of the legislative session to place an amendment on the ballot that aimed to thwart citizen-backed initiatives to roll back the state's near-total ban on abortion. Eigel was one of the far-right renegades who instead used that precious time to hold up legislative business in order to promote their own pet issues, and he memorably used his filibuster to protest that the chamber refused to take up his bill to cut property taxes.

"Perhaps the Darth Vader moment we face today is for this chamber because we have spent an entire session, with few exceptions, passing bills that will not change the trajectory of this state," Eigel told the floor as he accused his fellow senators of having failed like Anakin Skywalker did when he turned to the Dark Side. "You've seen the movie, right? Episode III." ("[W]e're not Darth Vader," protested Senate Majority Leader Cindy O'Laughlin.) But even the Force is insignificant next to the power of the clock: The session ended with the Senate failing to advance several priorities, including the plan to require amendments earn the support of at least 57% of voters.

Eigel, characteristically, is continuing to argue that Rowden is the one at fault for the failure of what conservatives have dubbed "initiative petition reform." He responded last week to the defeat of Issue 1 in Ohio, which would have required a 60% supermajority to approve future amendments, by tweeting out a St. Louis Post Dispatch article where Rowden expressed pessimism that Missouri voters would sign off on a similar proposal. "⁦@calebrowden⁩ says NO to IP reform in MO," Eigel wrote, adding that "Senate leadership" was why it failed to move forward in his state. "IP reform should be the first thing we vote on this coming session."

Eigel is competing against Ashcroft and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe in the primary to lead this dark red state, and the few polls we've seen have shown the legislator running a distant third. The most recent numbers came from the GOP firm Remington Research's early July survey for the political tip-sheet Missouri Scout: They showed Ashcroft beating Kehoe 34-14, with Eigel at just 4%.

Eigel and his PAC also finished June behind in the money race, though he at least has the resources to get his name out. Kehoe's side enjoyed a $4.1 million to $1.9 million cash on hand advantage over Ashcroft's forces, while Eigel's backers had $1.1 million available. State House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, who currently is the only notable Democrat in the running, launched her campaign the following month.

Parson himself hasn't publicly backed any of his would-be successors, though he very much sounds like he prefers Kehoe. The incumbent appointed his fellow Mike to his old job as lieutenant governor in 2018 after Parson replaced scandal-ridden Gov. Eric Greitens, and Parson used his Thursday appearance at the state fair to praise his second-in-command.

House

• IN-05: Howey Politics reports that Max Engling, who has worked as an aide for Speaker Kevin McCarthy since 2019, plans to enter the GOP primary to replace retiring Rep. Victoria Spartz. Engling, an Indiana native whom The Hill named to its 2012 "50 Most Beautiful list," has yet to confirm this, though Howey adds that he recently had a going away party in D.C.

Meanwhile, Howey also says that former state Sen. Mike Delph, who became Spartz' chief legal counsel this year, is also mulling a campaign to succeed his boss. The article adds that the departing congresswoman plans to use at least some of her $390,000 war chest to aid Delph, who badly lost reelection in 2018 to Democrat J.D. Ford, in a quest for this gerrymandered seat.

We should hold off on buying any "Mike Delph for Congress" beer koozies, though, because he has a long history of talking about running for higher office but not actually doing it. The conservative hardliner talked about running for the U.S. Senate in 2012, 2016, and 2018 only to defer to someone else each time. And while Howey wrote in October of 2019 that he was "expected" to launch a bid for the old 5th after that year's elections, he also sat that contest out.

• OH-09: 2022 GOP nominee J.R. Majewski threatened to reenter the race Thursday more than two months after he ended his rematch campaign against Democratic incumbent Marcy Kaptur, a development that would delight Democrats who would like another chance to beat one of the most disastrous candidates of last cycle.

Majewski railed against the party establishment for throwing its backing behind former state Rep. Craig Riedel, whom Majewski defeated 36-31 in last year's primary. "Endorsing a guy who lost the primary last cycle, even after attacking a solid fellow Republican, is a stupid move that takes away the votes of every Republican in the District," Majewski tweeted. "Just goes to show everyone how much they care about the voter. They're about to piss me off to the point that I get back into the race and show them their stupidity."

• VA-07, VA-Gov: Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger has yet to confirm Politico's late July report saying she's decided not to seek reelection this cycle in order to prepare a 2025 bid for governor, and it sounds like we'll need to wait until after this year's legislative races for any declaration. "Right now, I am focused on being a congresswoman for the 7th District and visiting my incredibly interesting constituents all over," she told The Daily Progress when reporter Luke Fountain asked about her plans. When Fountain inquired if she'll have a different answer after Nov. 7, though, she responded, "Yes. I'll talk to you then."

Ballot Measures

• OH Ballot: Ohio election authorities confirmed Wednesday that the campaign to legalize recreational marijuana had turned in enough signatures to place a statutory initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot. Organizers last month initially fell 679 petitions short of hitting the 124,046 minimum, but state law gave them a 10-day period to turn in more.

"[T]his is going to be easy," said a spokesperson in a statement, and they soon proved that by submitting just over 4,400 additional valid signatures. Polling from Civiqs shows that two-thirds of Ohio voters believe "the use of cannabis should be legal," but opponents, including the state branches of the Association of Chiefs of Police and Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, are determined to beat the measure.

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• FL-Sen: Former Florida Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell kicked off her campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Rick Scott on Tuesday, a development that gives national Democrats the recruit they want for what will be a challenging contest. Mucarsel-Powell, though, is hoping that Scott's own vulnerabilities, as well as a backlash to Gov. Ron DeSantis' far-right agenda, will give her the chance to score an upset in a longtime swing state that veered sharply to the right in 2022.

Mucarsel-Powell, who flipped a competitive Miami-area House seat in 2018 but lost it two years later, first needs to win the primary. However, she begins as the strong favorite to become the first Latina Democrat ever nominated for statewide office.

The only other notable candidate who has launched a bid is Navy veteran Phil Ehr, who raised $2 million for his 2020 campaign against the nationally infamous Rep. Matt Gaetz in the safely red 1st District, but he's so far attracted no major allies. Former Rep. Alan Grayson also is talking about running and even filed FEC paperwork in late June, but his deliberations have attracted little attention now that he's well into the perennial candidate stage of his career.

Scott, who became wealthy running what was the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, HCA, used his vast personal resources to win two tight races for governor in 2010 and 2014 before narrowly unseating Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018.

His political fortunes, though, took a sharp downturn last cycle after a chaotic tenure as head of the NRSC that was defined by a feud with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and saw the GOP manage to defy history by actually losing a seat. One of Scott's many mistakes came early in 2022 when he unveiled a plan to "sunset" all federal legislation, including Social Security, after five years, an agenda that Democrats were only too happy to make Republican Senate candidates answer for.

Scott's proposal received new attention earlier this year when President Joe Biden attacked it in his State of the Union address—a pile-on that McConnell was only too happy to join. "I think it will be a challenge for him to deal with this in his own reelection in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any state in America," said McConnell of the senator who months before had tried to oust him as the GOP's Senate leader. (The bad blood between the two camps continues to linger, with one unnamed McConnell ally using just two words to describe Scott to Time magazine in April: "Ass clown.")

Scott soon edited his "sunset" plan to include "specific exceptions of Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services," but Mucarsel-Powell made it clear this week that his belated about-face wouldn't deter her from making Scott's blunder an issue. "He wrote the plan that could take away the Social Security and Medicare you worked and paid for," she said in a kickoff video that also insinuated Scott had shirked his duties to the public while becoming even richer during his time in office.

The former congresswoman went on to highlight the most notorious chapter of Scott's business career: his company's 2003 guilty plea in what the Department of Justice at the time proclaimed was "the most comprehensive health care fraud investigation" it had ever undertaken. (HCA wound up paying a record $1.7 billion in fines.)  The scandal was never quite enough to deny Scott victory in any of his previous elections, but Mucarsel-Powell is hoping it will help her frame this race as a battle between an immigrant from Ecuador who once "worked for minimum wage in a donut shop" and a wealthy incumbent "who cuts taxes for himself, but he'd raise them for you."

Mucarsel-Powell is also hoping to get some help at the top of the ticket if she's to give Florida Democrats their first win in a federal statewide race since 2012. Donald Trump carried the Sunshine State 51-48 in 2020 even as he was losing most other swing states, but it was landslides by DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio in 2022 that truly left Democrats in a funk. However, there are signs that Joe Biden is serious about keeping Florida in play next year, as his campaign included the state as part of a new $25 million TV and digital buy covering several battlegrounds.

And Democrats have some reason to be optimistic that, if serious resources are allocated here, their message could gain traction. Abortion rights advocates are collecting signatures to place a constitutional amendment on next year's ballot that would both undo the six-week abortion ban that DeSantis signed into law in April and allow the procedure to take place up to 24 weeks into pregnancy. That could create problems for Republican candidates like Scott, who backed DeSantis' ban and has indicated support for a federal ban as well.

The former congresswoman is also betting that voters are tired of other parts of DeSantis' agenda. "These out-of-touch extremists cannot continue to wield the levers of power in our state," she declared last month. Democrats are hoping that Donna Deegan's upset win in the May race for mayor of Jacksonville was an early sign that Floridians are indeed growing weary of what the DeSantis-era GOP has to offer. They'll also have an early chance to prove that victory was no fluke in a Jan. 16 special election where they'll try to flip a competitive state House seat in the Orlando area.

Democrats also hope that Mucarsel-Powell, who was the first immigrant from South America ever elected to Congress, will be able to appeal to the many Latino voters who switched sides and backed Trump in 2020 after voting for Hillary Clinton four years earlier. Mucarsel-Powell herself experienced that swing the hard way in 2020 as the old version of her 26th Congressional District, where the electorate had a large number of Cuban Americans and voters with ties to elsewhere in Latin America, veered from a 57-41 win for Clinton all the way to a 53-47 Trump victory, a transformation that helped Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez unseat her 52-48.

"Yes, the fear of socialism is real and engrained for those of us who fled dangerous places in search of the American dream," Mucarsel-Powell wrote in a Twitter thread two weeks after her defeat. "My own father was murdered by a criminal with a gun in Ecuador. But it's not why I lost and it's not the only reason South Florida went red."

"There were many factors," she continued, including "a targeted disinformation campaign to Latinos; an electorate desperate to re-open, wracked with fear over the economic consequences; a national party that thinks racial identity is how we vote." Mucarsel-Powell went on to argue that state and national Democrats need to "step back and deeply analyze how we're talking to Latinos and every voter." Now she'll have the chance to test out her own prescription statewide.

Senate

• NV-Sen: Duty First, a super PAC that backs Army veteran Sam Brown, has publicized an internal from Public Opinion Strategies that shows him beating election conspiracy theorist Jim Marchant 33-15 in the GOP primary, with no one else taking more than 2%. This is the first survey we've seen of the contest to face Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen.

House

• CA-22: Democratic state Sen. Melissa Hurtado announced Tuesday that she would challenge Republican Rep. David Valadao in California's 22nd District, a Central Valley constituency that favored Joe Biden by a 55-42 margin in 2020. Hurtado joins former Assemblyman Rudy Salas, a Democrat who is running to avenge his 52-48 loss last year against Valadao, in the top-two primary.

Hurtado joined the state Senate in 2018 when she unseated Republican incumbent Andy Vidak 56-44, a victory that made the 30-year-old the youngest woman ever elected to the chamber. She faced a tough battle four years later to remain there, though, especially after the state's independent redistricting commission left her with a seat that was about one-third new to her.

Democrats were also only too aware that the party's long struggle to turn out their Central Valley base in non-presidential cycles meant that the electorate would be considerably more conservative than the one that favored Biden 53-45 two years before in Hurtado's revamped 16th Senate District. Republican Brian Dahle ended up scoring a 55-45 victory here over Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, but Hurtado narrowly held on and beat Republican David Shepard by 13 votes.

Hurtado's tight win came the same night that Valadao defeated Salas in one of the year's most expensive House races as Dahle was carrying his seat 52-48. Salas soon began laying the groundwork for a rematch, but Hurtado's name only surfaced a week after the former assemblyman launched his campaign in July. She begins the contest with a big geographic base of support, though: Hurtado already represents 96% of the 22nd District, according to calculations by Daily Kos Elections, while Salas served just over half of the seat when he lost to Valadao.

Both Salas, who earned an endorsement last week from Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, and Hurtado would be the first Latino to represent the Central Valley in the House. Valadao, for his part, is one of several people of Portuguese descent who has represented this heavily Latino area.

• CO-03: Democrat Adam Frisch has publicized an internal from Keating Research that shows him edging out far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert 50-48 less than a year after she only fended him off by 546 votes; the memo notes that Keating's October 2022 survey showed Boebert ahead 47-45 at a time when almost everyone expected her to win easily. The sample favors Donald Trump 49-44, which would mark a small drop from his 53-45 margin in 2020. The memo does not mention Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout, who joined the Democratic primary last month.

• RI-01: We still haven't seen any negative TV ads two weeks ahead of the packed Sept. 5 Democratic primary, and both Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos and former Biden administration official Gabe Amo are remaining positive in their newest spots. Matos is emphasizing her support for abortion rights in what WPRI's Ted Nesi says is her campaign's first TV commercial in two weeks. (EMILY's List and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC have been airing pro-Matos ads while she's been off the air.) Amo, meanwhile, touts his White House experience.

Legislatures

• MI State House: The Michigan Board of Canvassers on Monday approved recall petitions against state Rep. Sharon MacDonell while once again rejecting those filed against five other Democrats; recall proponents also withdrew their paperwork against a seventh Democrat, state Rep. Reggie Miller. Biden carried MacDonell's 56th District 57-41, which makes it the bluest of the targeted seats. Democrats currently hold a 56-54 majority in the chamber.

Conservatives looking to oust MacDonell will have 180 days to collect roughly 11,000 signatures, a figure that represents 25% of the votes cast in the district during the most recent general election, but all of them must be gathered within a 60-day timeframe. However, the attorney representing the six Democrats, former state party chair Mark Brewer, declared that he'll appeal the decision, which he says will automatically prevent signature collection efforts from going forward for 40 days.

The bipartisan Board of Canvassers voted 3-0 to approve the recall campaign against MacDonell (one Democrat was absent) after determining that her detractors, by citing her vote for gun safety legislation, provided enough information about why they want her ousted. (Brewer argues the paperwork is still too vague.) The body, though, voted 2-1 to reject petitions filed against the other five Democrats, with the majority saying the language didn't do an acceptable job summarizing the legislation they supported.

Mayors and County Leaders

• Houston, TX Mayor: Candidate filing closed Monday for Houston's Nov. 7 nonpartisan primaries, and the wealthy attorney Tony Buzbee waited until the final hours of qualifying to announce that he'd campaign for a spot on the city council rather than wage a second bid for mayor. Buzbee, an independent who serves as GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton's lead attorney for his upcoming impeachment trial, was the only notable politician who was still publicly undecided about running to succeed termed-out Democratic Mayor Sylvester Turner, and there were no other last-minute developments in the mayoral contest.

A pair of prominent Democrats, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and state Sen. John Whitmire, remain the frontrunners in the 17-way race to succeed Turner. Also in the running are City Council member Robert Gallegos; former METRO board chair Gilbert Garcia; attorney Lee Kaplan; and former City Councilmember Jack Christie, who is the only notable Republican in the contest. A runoff would take place either on Dec. 9 or Dec. 16 unless one candidate wins a majority, though that likely second round has not yet been scheduled.

The only poll we've seen in months was a July survey from the University of Houston that showed Whitmire and Jackson Lee taking 34% and 32%, respectively, with Garcia at just 3% (Christie, who was not yet running, was not included.) Responds, though, decisively favored Whitmire 51-33 in a runoff.

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• NC Supreme Court, NC-Gov: Retiring Democratic Justice Mike Morgan said Thursday that he would resign in the first week of September rather than serve out the remaining 16 months of his term on North Carolina's Supreme Court, a development that could give his party a better chance to defend this crucial seat next year. We may see Morgan's name on the 2024 ballot anyway, though, as his announcement came two months after he unexpectedly expressed interest in running for governor.

First, though, it's up to the state's current chief executive, termed-limited Democrat Roy Cooper, to appoint a new justice to succeed Morgan on the seven-member body. Cooper's choice does not need to be confirmed by the GOP-dominated legislature, and they'll be able to run for a full eight-year term as an incumbent.

The News & Observer's Lars Dolder mentions four state Court of Appeals judges―John Arrowood, Allegra Collins, Toby Hampson, and Allison Riggs―as possible picks. Dolder also speculates that former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who lost reelection to the court by just 401 votes in 2020 and was the party's unsuccessful 2022 nominee for U.S. Senate against Republican Ted Budd, could also be considered.

Democrats will want the eventual appointee to be able to quickly organize a strong statewide campaign because the party needs to hold this seat in November of 2024 as part of a multi-cycle plan that represents their only realistic path toward rolling back the GOP's iron grip on state politics. Republicans last year flipped two Supreme Court seats to turn what had been a 4-3 Democratic edge into a 5-2 GOP majority, and Democrats have little room for error if they're to regain control in the next several years. To take a 4-3 majority, Democrats would need to win four of the next five races, which include Morgan’s seat in 2024, fellow Democratic Justice Anita Earls in 2026, and three Republican-held seats in 2028.

It's also critical that Democrats prevail in next year's race to succeed Cooper in order to stop Republican legislators from adding two seats to the court for a GOP governor to fill, which they’ve been contemplating for years. A Democratic governor could also fill any other vacancies that arise, including in 2027 when Republican Chief Justice Paul Newby hits the mandatory retirement age of 72 (Newby’s seat will be up in 2028 regardless).

For most of the year it looked all-but-certain that Attorney General Josh Stein would be the party's nominee for governor, but Morgan himself said two months ago he was also thinking about waging his own campaign for the top job. Morgan, who would be North Carolina's first Black chief executive, wouldn't tell Dolder if his early departure means that he’s about to run.

"I don't want to allow my focus to be so distracted by anything personally about what my plans may be that I take my focus away from making sure I leave the court in the best situation," said the outgoing justice. "So I'm not fully prepared to talk about what I shall be doing, but soon after I leave the court I can more directly focus on myself." The Tar Heel State's candidate filing deadline is Dec. 15, so we'll know what Morgan's doing within a few months.

Senate

• AZ-Sen: Republican Kari Lake told The Hill Wednesday that she would decide "by the end of the year" if she'd run for the Senate, though Arizona's not-governor also evaded answering when she was repeatedly asked if she was interested in serving as Donald Trump's running mate. Axios reported weeks ago that Lake was "staffing up for a Senate campaign in anticipation of an October launch."

• IN-Sen: Wealthy egg farmer John Rust's already difficult campaign for the GOP nod received some potentially terminal news Tuesday when Jackson County party head Amanda Lowery told IndyStar.com's Kayla Dwyer she wouldn't sign off on paperwork certifying that he's a Republican. Lowery insisted this was "nothing personal" against Rust because she also won't be taking this step for anyone else who didn't meet the state's requirements for competing in primaries.

Rust, who would be the first gay Republican to serve in the upper chamber, is in this predicament because the state only allows candidates to run with the party they belong to, and the easiest way for Hoosiers to establish party affiliation is to cast their two most recent primary votes in that side's nomination contests. (There is no party registration in Indiana.) But while Rust most recently participated in the 2016 GOP primary, his prior vote was in the 2012 Democratic race. Candidates can get an exemption if their local party chair certifies that they belong to the party, but Lowery made it clear she won't be doing that.

Rust says he'll continue his campaign to deny the GOP nod to Rep. Jim Banks, the frontrunner he castigated as a "career politician," but it's not clear what options he has. Dwyer writes that he's "looking into a path around the statute," but Rust wouldn't say what options he was thinking of pursuing. He'll eventually need to think of a strategy, though, because Dwyer says that Banks already plans to formally challenge his right to seek the Republican nomination.

Governors

• MO-Gov: Businessman Mike Hamra, whose eponymous company operates almost 200 restaurants nationwide, tells the St. Louis Business Journal that he'll decide "in the upcoming weeks" if he'll join state House Minority Leader Crystal Quade in the Democratic primary.

House

• ME-02: Republican state Rep. Mike Soboleski told the conservative Maine Wire this week that he's interested in challenging Democratic Rep. Jared Golden for this 52-46 Trump constituency in the northern part of the state. The state representative, who was elected to his first term representing a conservative seat months after he won his primary by 5 votes, did not say when he expects to make a decision; Soboleski is a Marine veteran, a distinction he shares with his would-be opponent.

The only notable Republican who has announced a bid so far is Robert Cross, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nod for a state Senate seat last year, but he finished June with barely more than $30,000 banked. State Rep. Laurel Libby, who is one of the most prominent hardliners in the legislature, didn't rule out her own bid in March, and the Bangor Daily News writes that she remains the "focus of the most speculation in Republican circles." Golden, for his part, finished the second quarter with $610,000 on hand.

• RI-01: WPRI's Ted Nesi reported Wednesday night that Williams College told businessman Don Carlson in 2019 that he wouldn't be allowed to teach there again, a decision Nesi says occurred "after administrators were alerted to an overture he made to a student."

Carlson, who is now competing in the Sept. 5 special Democratic primary, had been serving as a temporary economics instructor when, according to WPRI, a second student notified the school about what they felt was unacceptable conduct by Carlson towards their classmate. While there was never a complaint through Title IX, the federal act that outlaws sexual harassment in schools that receive federal assistance, Williams reportedly told Carlson he wouldn't be returning.

Nesi writes that Carlson's team would not discuss the allegations on the record until Tuesday when the campaign said, "WPRI has repeatedly refused to provide the campaign with the specifics of each of the allegations it intends to report, and we're not going to respond to rumors and unnamed third-party sources. WPRI has an ethical duty to Don and the voters to provide us with specific assertions and the basis for those assertions that it intends to air so we can have the opportunity to address them." (WPRI says its discoveries “had been laid out in detail to the campaign the prior week.)

Nesi continues that a Carlson attorney soon unsuccessfully tried to convince the station not to run the story because there was no "formal Title IX complaint, a formal investigation, or any formal findings of wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Carlson." Williams, for its part, would not address Carlson's time as an instructor, saying, "While we can't comment on specific personnel matters, we want anyone who has experienced sexual harassment or unwanted attention at Williams to know that you can contact our Title IX office and you'll have our full support."

The story comes less than two weeks before a crowded and unpredictable primary, and we got our first survey of the contest since last month on Wednesday when former Biden administration official Gabe Amo publicized a week-old Blueprint Polling internal. The survey shows former state Rep. Aaron Regunberg leading Amo 28-19 as two other candidates, Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos and state Sen. Sandra Cano, take 11% each.

Carlson is further back with 8% as another 15% are undecided, while the remaining respondents selected "another candidate not mentioned here." (A total of 12 people are on next month's ballot.) The memo argues that, while Amo is trailing, "t is clear that Gabe is the only chance at beating Regunberg."

Mayors & County Leaders

• Manchester, NH Mayor: EMILY's List has endorsed Alderman June Trisciani in the Sept. 19 nonpartisan primary to succeed incumbent Joyce Craig, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, as mayor of New Hampshire's largest city.

Trisciani is competing in a four-way field that features former Republican congressional staffer Jay Ruais and two fellow Democratic aldermen: Kevin Cavanaugh, who has Craig's endorsement, and Will Stewart. The two contenders with the most votes will compete in the Nov. 7 general election.

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Two Trump favorites poised for ugly primary fight

Blake Masters is readying a GOP Senate primary campaign that would put him on a potential collision course with Kari Lake, multiple media outlets reported Wednesday.

https://www.axios.com/2023/08/30/blake-masters-senate-arizona-kari-lake?

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Nancy Pelosi says she’ll seek House reelection in 2024, dismissing talk of retirement at age 83

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that she will seek reelection to Congress in 2024 as Democrats try to win back the majority.

https://apnews.com/article/pelosi-house-speaker-democrat-congress-san-francisco-a251e03986a589d5c0bd7f1122f291e4?

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Candidate in high-stakes Virginia election performed sex acts with husband in live videos

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A candidate in a high-stakes legislative contest in Virginia had sex with her husband in live videos posted on a pornographic website and asked viewers to pay them money in return for carrying out specific sex acts.

https://apnews.com/article/susanna-gibson-virginia-house-of-delegates-sex-acts-9e0fa844a3ba176f79109f7393073454?

Virginia candidate who livestreamed sex videos draws support from women and a leading Democrat

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Democratic Virginia legislative candidate whose race was rattled by the revelation that she and her husband livestreamed themselves having sex moved forward with her campaign Tuesday and drew some early support in the high-stakes contest.

https://apnews.com/article/susanna-gibson-virginia-house-sex-acts-c2a130b84452b524279b0a496fca2c99?

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Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney won’t seek reelection in 2024, marking end to decadeslong political career

Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he will not run for reelection, ending a storied two-decade political career that included the 2012 Republican GOP nomination for president and a term as Massachusetts governor.

https://apnews.com/politics/massachusetts-utah-general-news-e80ae66f9572ddcdcc63a666913be886?

👀 Retiring Romney unleashes on GOP colleagues

The Atlantic's McKay Coppins is out with the first excerpt of his highly anticipated biography of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), timed to the 2012 GOP presidential nominee's announcement today that he will not seek re-election.

Why it matters: Romney — the only GOP senator to vote to convict former President Trump in his first impeachment trial — was brutally honest about his Republican colleagues during two years of interviews with Coppins, a fellow Utahn.

Highlights:

• On Jan. 2, 2021, Romney texted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to warn about extremist threats law enforcement had been tracking in connection with pro-Trump protests on Jan. 6. McConnell never responded.
• Romney shared a unique disgust for Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who he thought were too smart to believe Trump won the 2020 election but "put politics above the interests of liberal democracy and the Constitution."
• He also was highly critical of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who reinvented his persona to become a Trump acolyte after publishing a bestselling memoir about the working class. "I don't know that I can disrespect someone more than J. D. Vance," Romney said.

Zoom in: After House impeachment managers finished a presentation about Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, McConnell told Romney: "They nailed him."

• Taken aback, Romney said Trump would argue he was just investigating alleged corruption by the Bidens — the subject of House Republicans' present-day impeachment inquiry.
• "If you believe that," McConnell replied, "I've got a bridge I can sell you." McConnell told Coppins he does not recall this conversation and it does not match his thinking at the time.

Read the full excerpt

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Leading Democrat in Maryland Senate Race Once Blamed Murders On Decriminalized Pot

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks ran tough-on-crime campaigns for prosecutor. Now she’s fashioning herself as a reformer.

https://theintercept.com/2023/09/16/maryland-senate-angela-alsobrooks/?

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🚀 McCormick makes it official

Republican David McCormick — a former hedge fund CEO and the runner-up in last year's Pennsylvania Senate primary — launched his second campaign tonight, making it clear he plans to run against Biden as much as incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Axios' Hans Nichols reports.

Why it matters: The Pennsylvania Senate race in 2024 will be among the most expensive — and consequential — in the country, with control of the Senate potentially at stake.

• McCormick has lined up endorsements from the entire Pennsylvania GOP congressional delegation, which could help him avoid a brutal primary to face the Democratic incumbent.
• McCormick lost in last year's primary to Trump-backed candidate Mehmet Oz in a brass-knuckle fight that divided the party. Oz lost in the general to John Fetterman (D-Pa.).

Between the lines: McCormick's announcement was accompanied by a statement for support from Sen. Steve Daines (D-Mont.), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

• While short of an official endorsement, the Daines statement is a strong signal that McCormick is the NRSC's preferred candidate.
• The NRSC also launched a digital ad, with a five-figure buy, suggesting that Casey's family has profited from his time in office.

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📖 Reads of the week: Texas party switch

1. "The challenge ahead for David McCormick as he launches his Senate campaign" (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Why it matters: McCormick's Senate candidacy will be a pivotal test of whether Republicans can successfully reconcile the traditional wing of their party with the ascendant MAGA movement.

• McCormick's business background is at odds with the growing populism of the GOP, but he has successfully won over some of his bigger skeptics within the party. Every Republican in the state's congressional delegation endorsed him.
• With McCormick as the nominee, Pennsylvania will be one of the biggest and most expensive swing states in the country, thanks to its role as a presidential and Senate battleground.

2. "America's Cities Need Republicans, and I'm Becoming One" (Wall Street Journal)

Why it matters: Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced Friday he was switching parties, making him the only Republican to lead one of the country's 10 largest cities.

• Johnson cited the left-wing views of Democrats on urban policy — particularly relating to crime, homelessness and tax policy — as the main reason for the switch.
• Johnson ran unopposed for re-election in 2022. As a popular big-city mayor, he will likely be on the GOP's short list of prospects for statewide office in Texas. Already, he is one of the highest-ranking Black Republicans in the country.

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AIPAC Targets Black Democrats — While the Congressional Black Caucus Stays Silent

AIPAC has given at least $3.6 million to the CBC’s old guard since last year, while members of the Squad draw the Israel lobby’s ire.

https://theintercept.com/2023/09/21/aipac-cbc-progressive-black-democrats/?

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🌵 Sinema's independent play

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) is counting on winning more Republicans than Democrats in a likely re-election bid next year — but sees the vast majority of her support coming from independents, Axios' Hans Nichols reports from a new pitch to donors.

Why it matters: Team Sinema's bold strategy to prevail in a potential three-way race is the clearest indication yet that she plans to run for re-election in 2024.

• Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) launched his campaign earlier this year, while Kari Lake, the GOP's failed candidate for Arizona governor in 2022, is eyeing an October launch.
• "If the parties nominate extremists, as expected, Kyrsten will win a majority of IND and at least a third of REP and a percentage of DEM voters — making her the first Independent to win a three-way statewide race in American history," Sinema's team wrote in a two-page pitch first reported by NBC News.

By the numbers: In a potential 2024 contest, Sinema is expecting to claim between 25%-35% of Republicans and only 10%-20% of the Democrats.

• But it's among independent voters, who represent more than a third of the Arizona electorate, where Sinema hopes to run up the score — eyeing 60%-70% of the vote.

Keep reading

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Race to replace Sen. Mitt Romney heats up as Republican Utah House speaker formally enters race

DRAPER, Utah (AP) — Promising to fight against liberal activism in Washington if elected, Republican Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson formally announced Wednesday night that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney, who recently announced he won’t run for reelection.

https://apnews.com/article/romney-utah-senate-wilson-announcement-3de3116312752951925b9f5d878371b4?

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Kari Lake to announce Senate run for Sinema's seat in Arizona

Kari Lake told the WSJ she'll announce at a rally on Oct. 10 that she's running for Senate in 2024, setting up a possible three-way race with Independent incumbent Kyrsten Sinema and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego.

https://www.axios.com/2023/09/28/kari-lake-announce-senate-run-kyrsten-sinema?

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👀 Scoop: Vindman twin eyes Congress

Yevgeny "Eugene" Vindman — the NSC official whose twin brother, Alexander, was a star witness in Trump's first impeachment — is actively considering a run for Congress as a Democrat in northern Virginia, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.

Why it matters: The campaign would give Democrats the opportunity to reward Vindman with a seat in Congress, after the Trump White House fired the then-Army lieutenant colonel from his NSC job as a senior lawyer and ethics official.

• If Vindman emerges from the primary, he will become another frontline soldier in Democrats' broader attempt to make the 2024 election a referendum on Trump's presidency and threats to democracy.
• Born in Ukraine, both Vindmans have been forceful advocates for continued military assistance to help Kyiv fend off Russia's invasion.

Keep reading

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Former baseball MVP Steve Garvey joins California US Senate race, gives GOP ballot dash of celebrity

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former baseball MVP Steve Garvey joined the race Tuesday to succeed the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, giving Republicans a splash of star quality on the ballot in a heavily Democratic state where the GOP hasn’t won a Senate race in 35 years.

https://apnews.com/article/california-senate-steve-garvey-baseball-ce5fb39988916e7eb91ec0c5a31c9c1b?