Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released this morning found Bernie Sanders with a narrow national lead over Joe Biden, 27% to 26%. Elizabeth Warren is third with 15%, and while no other candidate reached double digits in the poll, Michael Bloomberg came close with 9%.
* The Los Angeles Times released its latest national poll of likely voters, and it found Biden with 34% support, followed by Sanders at 18%, and Warren with 16%. These results seem out of step with nearly all of the recent data.
* Campaigning in Iowa yesterday, Biden stressed a detail that hasn’t yet played a significant role in the 2020: Sanders is technically an independent, not a Democrat. (As of this morning, the Vermonter has not changed his status as independent with the Senate, where he’s always caucused with Democrats, without formally joining the party.)
* The field of Democratic presidential candidates got a little smaller this morning, when former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) dropped out of the race. Delaney was the first candidate to enter the race — he kicked off his bid way back in July 2017 — but he failed to gain any traction.
* The Washington Post reports today that Donald Trump and his allies are coordinating efforts to undermine Biden’s candidacy in Iowa, reinforcing impressions that they, rightly or wrongly, see the former vice president as a 2020 threat. * Bernie Sanders picked up another labor endorsement yesterday, receiving the support of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union. It’s the second consecutive cycle in which the union has backed the senator for president. * A federal judge in Texas yesterday ordered state officials “to allow three citizens to register to vote after they renewed their driver’s licenses online.” As the Texas Public Radio report on this added, “This could open the door allowing more than 1 million new voter registrations in Texas.” * And former Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), trying to launch a political comeback in a new congressional district, has launched an attack ad that seems to strongly emphasize the fact that his Republican rival, Carl DeMaio, is gay.
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
