Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* We knew Rep. Val Demings (D) would run for statewide office in Florida next year; we just didn’t know which one. NBC News reported this morning that the congresswoman and former chief of the Orlando Police Department has decided to run against Sen. Marco Rubio (R) in 2022.
* If Republicans retake the House majority next year, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will run for Speaker, but he won’t have Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) support. “I think that we’ve got to have leaders who lead based on principle, and that’s not what we’ve seen from him,” she told Politico.
* After drawing Donald Trump’s wrath, Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) announced yesterday that he won’t seek a second term and will instead try to “change the trajectory of the Republican Party” away from its radical course.
* Despite his many scandals and criminal indictment, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said yesterday that he will seek a third term next year. Paxton will face a GOP primary challenge from Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush (R).
* Montana’s new Republican-imposed voting restrictions are facing a new lawsuit filed yesterday by the ACLU and the Native American Rights Fund. “The legislature knows that Native Americans are very distant from registration opportunities,” said Jacqueline De León, a staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund. “They know that they have a very limited window to register and vote on the reservation, and they know that so many homes don’t receive residential mail delivery, and so they are again, I think, taking advantage of those barriers and amplifying them.” * According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report, former appointed Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) “has had to refund millions of dollars in campaign donations, many to people who said they unknowingly signed up to make recurring contributions.” * And in New York, Andrew Giuliani this morning kicked off a gubernatorial campaign. The 35-year-old Republican, son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has never before sought or held elected office, though he served as a special assistant to the president in Donald Trump’s White House. Despite his lack in qualifications and experience, Andrew Giuliani told the New York Post, “I’m a politician out of the womb.”
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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