Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Donald Trump delivered brief remarks before a dinner last night with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, where the American president boasted about his international political prognostication skills. “A lot of people didn’t expect” Moon Jae-in to win, Trump said, but “I did expect it. I thought that was going to happen.”
* In Wisconsin, the latest Marquette University poll found Gov. Scott Walker (R), who’s likely to run for a third term next year, with a 48% approval rating. The same poll showed the Republican governor with a 48% disapproval rating.
* Trump’s approval rating in the Badger State, meanwhile, is down to 41%. Trump unexpectedly won Wisconsin last year, becoming the first Republican to prevail in the state since 1984.
* In more Wisconsin-based news, Nicole Schneider, a wealthy Badger State Republican, announced this week she’s passing on next year’s Senate race against incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D). She’d been eyed by GOP officials as a prominent possible contender. * In Alabama, Democrats probably face long odds in the state’s gubernatorial race, but Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox (D) launched an exploratory committee this week. * And in Miami, where Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) is retiring, Democrats see her district as a key pick-up opportunity, and this week the party landed one of its top recruits: state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez (D) kicked off his congressional bid.
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
