Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) yesterday unveiled a new initiative that would impose new corporate taxes on companies with profits over $100 million.
* NBC News’ First Read raised an interesting point about 2020 fundraising: Democratic presidential contenders are raising less money than the 2008 candidates, but there are a lot more donors overall.
* The latest Monmouth poll of Iowa Democrats found former Vice President Joe Biden leading the pack with 27%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 16% and Pete Buttigieg at 9%.
* CNN has uncovered letters Joe Biden wrote in 1977 to then-segregationist senators as part of his efforts at the time against busing.
* The latest Gallup poll found Donald Trump receiving a bump in his support, with an approval rating of 45% — matching a level of support he had last summer. Most other recent polling shows the president’s standing a little lower.
* Indifferent to his party’s 2020 plans, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced his endorsement of Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-Maine) re-election campaign. To put it mildly, these kinds of cross-party endorsements, especially in key contests, are extremely rare. * On a related note, former White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice ruled out a campaign against Susan Collins next year. * There was a state House special election in Georgia this week, where Republican Chris Erwin easily kept a “red” seat in GOP hands. * Last summer, Kelly Sadler, a special assistant to the president in Trump’s Communications Office, left the White House, a month after her rude comments about then-Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) health became a notable political controversy. Today we learned that Sadler will work for the super PAC committed to re-electing the president.
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
