Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* When it comes to Republicans running for president, the race to the bottom is well underway: Former Ambassador Nikki Haley told voters this week that she believes it’s “likely” that President Joe Biden will die within five years.
* As expected, Gov. Jim Justice launched a U.S. Senate campaign in West Virginia yesterday, but he’s not running unopposed in the Republican primary: Rep. Alex Mooney has already launched a new campaign ad, reminding GOP voters that Justice was a Democrat until 2017.
* A federal judge rejected voting restrictions approved by Florida’s GOP-led legislature in the wake of the 2020 elections, but Republican-appointed judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals endorsed the voting restrictions and sent the case back to the district court for review.
* On the campaign trail in New Hampshire yesterday, Donald Trump embraced a woman convicted of defying police orders on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. The former president also agreed to sign the backpack she said she carried to the Capitol complex. Micki Larson-Olson, who served months in jail for her actions on Jan. 6, told NBC News that lawmakers who certified the results of the 2020 election deserve to be be killed for treason.
* Though it seems as if Sen. Tim Scott is already effectively a presidential candidate — he recently launched an exploratory committee — the South Carolina Republican now says he won’t officially announce his plan until the end of May. * With only two weeks remaining before the GOP gubernatorial primary in Kentucky, the Associated Press took a closer look at the race, and considered whether state Attorney General Daniel Cameron — by most measures, the clear frontrunner — can fend off his intraparty rivals. * And I’ve been meaning to take note of this story that broke during my recent vacation: “Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, who was indicted last year in a breach of Mesa County’s election system, was sentenced [on April 11] to home detention and community service for a misdemeanor obstruction conviction in a separate case.”
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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