Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) presidential campaign announced yesterday that it raised $6 million in the first quarter of the year. That’s a bit better than the hauls from Amy Klobuchar ($5.2 million) and Cory Booker ($5.1 million), but it’s short of the totals from Bernie Sanders ($18.2 million), Beto O’Rourke ($9.4 million), and Pete Buttigieg ($7 million).
* Speaking of fundraising, I was surprised to see Dan McCready (D) raise $1.6 million for his congressional campaign ahead of the do-over election this fall in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district.
* Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reintroduced his Medicare for All blueprint yesterday, though the proposal is still a little fuzzy on its finances. The Vermonter’s plan already has 14 Democratic co-sponsors, and the list includes four other Democratic presidential candidates.
* On a related note, Sanders opposes changing the Senate’s filibuster rules, but he believes his health care plan can advance through the Senate’s reconciliation process (which would allow it to pass with 51 votes).
* In New Hampshire, a new Saint Anselm College poll found Biden leading the Democratic presidential field with 23%, followed by Sanders with 16%, and Buttigieg with 11%. No other Dem reached double digits, though Warren was a close fourth with 9%. * Despite Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface scandal, the latest statewide poll from the Wason Center found that 52% of Virginians believe he should remain in office. Under the commonwealth’s system, Northam will not, however, be eligible to run for re-election in 2021. * And Donald Trump this morning pointed to a poll that purportedly showed him with a 55% approval rating. In reality, that poll showed him with 43% approval rating — and a 55% disapproval rating. The same poll, which the president really should’ve read before promoting, also found that most Americans do not want him to win a second term.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
