Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In a bit of a surprise, CNN’s new national poll found Joe Biden leading Elizabeth Warren, 34% to 19%, in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. A month ago, Biden led Warren by a smaller margin, 24% to 18%. Bernie Sanders was third in the latest poll with 16%, down a point since CNN’s September poll.
* The same poll found Amy Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke tied for sixth place with 3% each, which is important because it brings each of them a little closer to qualifying for next month’s primary debate. (The Minnesota senator needs just one more poll at 3% or greater to become eligible.)
* Speaking of polling, a new Quinnipiac poll, for the first time, found that a 48% plurality of Americans support impeaching Donald Trump and removing him from office. The same poll found the president with a 38% approval rating, down three points from the last Quinnipiac survey.
* In yet another poll, Emerson offered Bernie Sanders better news: it found Biden with a narrow lead over the Vermont senator nationally, 27% to 25%, with Warren close behind with 21%.
* Speaking of Warren, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) endorsed the Massachusetts senator this morning. He’s the first big-city mayor to publicly announce his support for Warren. * With only two weeks remaining in Kentucky’s gubernatorial race, William Woods, a Republican who ran against Gov. Matt Bevin in a GOP primary, this week announced his support for the governor’s Democratic challenger, state Attorney General Andy Beshear (D). “This election isn’t about politics for me,” Woods said on Monday night. “I’m ready for a governor who will respect all of us regardless of political affiliation.” * Kansas Democrats’ U.S. Senate primary got a little more straightforward a few days ago, when former U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom ended his campaign and endorsed state Sen. Barbara Bollier (D). Bollier is perhaps best known as the former Republican who left the party over its radicalism. * And the Washington Post‘s Eugene Scott noted late yesterday that while some of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (D-Hawaii) 2020 rivals have defended her from claims that she’s a Russian asset, “some have argued that Gabbard doesn’t have to be proactively working with Russia for that government to be using her campaign to interfere in the 2020 election.”
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
