Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In North Carolina’s 9th congressional district, state Sen. Dan Bishop easily won the Republican nomination for the upcoming do-over election, and he’ll face Dan McCready (D) on Sept. 10. Bishop is perhaps best known for authoring his state’s so-called “bathroom bill.”
* It looks like Democrats aren’t the only ones having Senate recruiting difficulties: Republicans practically begged New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) to run against incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) next year, but the governor announced late yesterday that he’ll instead seek a third term.
* Though some Democratic presidential hopefuls have agreed to participate in Fox News town-hall events, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced yesterday that she’s rejecting the network’s offers. The Democratic senator condemned Fox News as “a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists.”
* Following an FBI briefing, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) conceded that Russian hackers “gained access to voter databases in two Florida counties ahead of the 2016 presidential election.” The Republican governor said he couldn’t share information about which counties were compromised because of a non-disclosure agreement he signed with federal authorities. (I have no idea why DeSantis was asked to sign an NDA.)
* A new national Emerson poll found former Vice President Joe Biden (D) leading the Democrats’ 2020 presidential field with 33% support, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who had 25%. In third place, Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren had 10% each, followed by Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 8%. No other candidate topped 3% in this poll. * Speaking of polling, the New York Times reported the other day that the Trump campaign’s internal polling of 17 competitive states found the president trailing Biden in a head-to-head match-up, but leading Sanders. * Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D), who’ll be on the show tonight with Rachel, is still facing intra-party pressure to shift his focus from the presidential race to the U.S. Senate race. Bullock, however, insists he’s committed to his White House bid. * And we’re now less than a week away from the congressional special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district, which isn’t generating much national attention because the Republican is expected to win easily. Voters will choose a successor to Tom Marino (R-Pa.), who quit just two weeks into the new Congress.
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
