Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* According to the latest national NBC News poll, Donald Trump is ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the race for the Republicans’ 2024 presidential nomination, 46% to 31%. Former Vice President Mike Pence was a distant third with 6% support, and no other candidate reached 5% in the survey.
* The landscape looked even worse for the Florida governor in the latest Wall Street Journal poll, which found the former president leading DeSantis by an even wider margin, 48% to 24%. As recently as December, a Wall Street Journal poll found DeSantis leading Trump.
* After Trump faced far-right pushback for saying abortion should be a state-by-state issue, Pence insisted over the weekend that a federal abortion ban is an idea “that ought to be a part and parcel of debate.”
* The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Friday that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional under the state constitution.
* The New York Times reported that a bipartisan group called the Mission Democracy PAC “will challenge far-right members of Congress in their often deep-red home districts, running ads and messaging campaigns that accuse the politicians of holding antidemocratic and extreme positions.” The outfit has a long way to go — it only has roughly $500,000 in the bank — but it intends to raise $18 million for the 2024 election cycle. * Two years after failing badly in California’s gubernatorial recall effort, conservative talk radio host Larry Elder announced late last week that he’s running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. * And in a bit of a surprise, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday that he’s passing on the 2024 presidential race. “To those of you this announcement disappoints, my apologies,” he said. “And to those of you this thrills, know that I’m 59 years-old. There remains many more opportunities for which the timing might be more fitting as presidential leadership becomes even more necessary.”
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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