Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* As if there weren’t enough going on, it’s Primary Day in Alaska, Florida, and Wyoming today. Among the most competitive statewide contests is the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Alaska, where several Dems are vying for the right to take on incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) in the fall. There are also several competitive U.S. House primaries in Florida.
* As the Democratic convention progresses, party Chair Tom Perez told the Associated Press yesterday he’s moving forward with plans to scrap presidential caucuses altogether in future cycles.
* We haven’t heard much lately from former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, but the billionaire is reportedly planning to invest $60 million in the coming weeks to bolster the Democratic majority in the U.S. House. It’s not yet clear what he intends to do, if anything, to back Joe Biden or Senate Democratic candidates.
* Despite Biden’s opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters — a union with hundreds of thousands of members in North America — is throwing its support behind the Democratic presidential ticket.
* A senior Trump administration official known only as “Anonymous,” who wrote an extraordinary 2018 op-ed and a 2019 best-selling book, is now urging voters to elect Biden and remove Donald Trump from office. * In North Carolina, the latest statewide poll from East Carolina University found Biden and Trump tied at 47% each. * On a related note, the same ECU poll found Cal Cunningham (D) with a modest lead over incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis (R) in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, 44% to 40%, while incumbent Gov. Roy Cooper (D) leads challenger Dan Forest (R) by an even larger margin, 52% to 38%. * And tonight will be the second night of the Democratic National Convention, and among the prominent speakers will be former President Bill Clinton and Dr. Jill Biden.
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."
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