Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With only a few days remaining ahead of Alabama’s Republican Senate primary runoff, a new statewide poll from the Fox affiliate in Mobile found Roy Moore with a decent lead over appointed Sen. Luther Strange, 54% to 46%.
* The Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate majority leadership’s super PAC, reportedly made an additional $630,000 investment in support of Strange’s campaign this week.
* Moore and Strange debated last night, with the latter repeatedly emphasizing his endorsement from Donald Trump. On a related note, the president has tweeted twice over the last 24 hours that Strange is in contention thanks to Trump (because everything is always about him).
* Speaking of the president, nearly a full year after the 2016 campaign, Trump declared this morning that he believes “Crooked Hillary Clinton … was a bad candidate.” I’m going to assume he’ll continue to periodically tweet this, apropos of nothing, for the rest of his life.
* The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows the president’s approval rating inching higher, though when it comes to the 2018 midterms, Democrats still enjoy a six-point advantage on the generic congressional ballot. * During his presidential campaign, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) generally didn’t focus much attention on foreign policy, but ahead of a possible 2020 bid, he’s apparently expanding his repertoire of interests. The Vermont independent presented his vision on international affairs in a speech yesterday. * Barack Obama’s interest in electoral matters continues to steadily grow, and the former president has reportedly agreed to host an event next month for Phil Murphy, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in New Jersey. * And while I know such a measure will never be considered in a Republican Congress, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) unveiled the Weekend Voting Act this week, which would “move federal Election Day from the first Tuesday in November to the first full weekend.” Can we at least have a debate about it?
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
