Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In a bit of a surprise, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D) announced yesterday that she will not be a U.S. Senate candidate in Florida next year, clearing the path for Rep. Val Demings (D) to take on incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio (R) in the Sunshine State.
* There’s a growing field of Democrats running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, but Rep. Susan Wild (D) won’t be part of it. The congresswoman told Roll Call she will instead run for re-election to the U.S. House.
* Donald Trump lashed out yesterday against Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) for failing to get involved in the state’s utterly bonkers election “audit.” The condemnations from the former president may be relevant because Brnovich is seen as a potential U.S. Senate candidate in 2022.
* On a related note, Trump issued a statement yesterday claiming an election audit in New Hampshire has “revealed that large-scale voting machines” appear to have counted “NON-EXISTING VOTES.” Two sentences later, the former president added that he considered his own assertion is “probably” true.
* Following up on related efforts from last week, Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), the current chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), is reportedly “pleading with” Trump to support the party’s Senate incumbents in 2022, rather than endorse primary rivals against those the former president deems insufficiently loyal. * Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who appears to be running for re-election despite the fact that he’ll be 88 on Election Day, has picked up his first Democratic rival. Dave Muhlbauer, a fifth-generation farmer and a former county supervisor, kicked off his candidacy yesterday. He faces an uphill climb: though Barack Obama won Iowa twice, it’s been over a decade since a Democrat has won a Senate or gubernatorial contest in the Hawkeye State, and Trump won Iowa by eight points last fall. * An interesting polling tidbit: Joe Biden’s approval rating, according to FiveThirtyEight polling average, was 54% yesterday. Exactly one month earlier, it was also 54%. Exactly one month before that, it was also 54%. And exactly one month before that, it was also 54%.
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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