Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* As part of the broader national trend, Arizona Republicans are proposing “drastic” changes to its mail voting systems in the wake of key election defeats in the Grand Canyon State last fall.
* On a related note, Arizona Republicans have hired a fringe conspiracy theorist to help conduct an “audit” of the election results in Maricopa County, where Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump, en route to carrying the state.
* Texas’ latest voter-suppression bill has passed the Republican-led state Senate, but as of today, it’s still pending in the Republican-led state House.
* Newly elected Sen. Jon Ossoff (R-Ga.) doesn’t want to see a boycott of his home state, but he is calling on major corporate donors to end their financial support for Georgia Republican legislators responsible for the state’s new voter-suppression law.
* Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) this week signed into a law “sweeping legislation to recreate pivotal elements of the federal Voting Rights Act that were struck down by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in 2013.” Bucking the trend seen in red states, Virginia’s Democratic-led state government, the New York Times noted today, “has become a voting rights bastion.” * In a bit of a surprise, Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) announced this morning that he will run for re-election to the U.S. House, but will not run for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat. The Philadelphia-area congressman had been recruited for the statewide race by party leaders. * Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) hasn’t yet said whether he’ll run for a third term next year, but Politico reports that Wisconsin Democrats are actively hoping that he does run — because they see him as a highly vulnerable incumbent. * And those waiting to see what Democratic Party leaders will do with their 2024 presidential nominating process will have to wait a bit longer: the DNC has scheduled a new round of meetings over the summer, with a final decision expected sometime in 2022.
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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