Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota has died after a lengthy battle with kidney cancer. Gov. Tim Walz has not yet set the date for a special election to fill the congressional vacancy.
* In the wake of the state Supreme Court’s ruling on Oregon’s residency requirements, former New York Times columnist Nick Kristof confirmed yesterday that he will not be on the 2022 ballot. It’s not yet clear what he’ll do with the $2.7 million he raised for his candidacy.
* In Georgia, Herschel Walker has struggled repeatedly as a Senate candidate, but Republican voters don’t appear to care, at least not yet: The latest statewide Trafalgar poll found the former football player with 70 percent support in the GOP primary, trouncing his intra-party rivals.
* Though there may have been questions months ago about New York’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, those questions appeared to be answered yesterday at the Democratic State Convention: Elevated Gov. Kathy Hochul “easily secured her party’s endorsement in her race for a full term.”
* Against a backdrop of multiple reports that Donald Trump regrets having endorsed Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama’s Senate race, the former president met at Mar-a-Lago this week with Katie Britt — one of Brooks’ high-profile rivals for the GOP nomination. * In case it seemed things couldn’t get tougher for Rep. Henry Cuellar, the Texas Democrat lost three top campaign consultants after the FBI raided Cuellar’s house. * And speaking of the Lone Star State, the Republican primary in the Texas attorney general race has reached an odd new level: Scandal-plagued incumbent Ken Paxton has launched an attack ad that accuses Rep. Louie Gohmert of, among other things, spending “billions on wasteful earmarks and Obama’s liberal agenda.” In case this isn’t obvious, Gohmert is one of Congress’ most far-right members, and did not support the Obama White House’s policy agenda.
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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