Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Ahead of Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses in January, the latest Fox Business poll found Donald Trump with 46% support, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 16% and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott with 11%. Three other candidates topped 3%: Vivek Ramaswamy had 6%, former Ambassador Nikki Haley was close behind with 5%, and former Vice President Mike Pence was in sixth place with 4%.
* The latest Fox Business poll in South Carolina, meanwhile offered even better news for the former president: Trump led the GOP field with 48%, followed by Haley who enjoyed 14% support in her own home state. DeSantis was third in the poll with 13%, followed by Scott — another South Carolinian — with 10%. Pence was in fifth place with 4%.
* In New Hampshire, former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who narrowly lost a re-election bid in 2016, is making a comeback bid of sorts: The Granite State Republican kicked off a gubernatorial campaign this morning. She joins former state Senate president Chuck Morse, who ran a failed U.S. Senate campaign last year, in the GOP field.
* The latest statewide poll in Kentucky found incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear leading Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, 52% to 42%. The survey was conduced by Public Opinion Strategies for the Prichard Committee, an education-focused group in Kentucky. The Bluegrass State is one of three states holding gubernatorial races this year.
* When DeSantis was riding high in national polls months ago, the Florida Republican was benefiting from support from college-educated GOP voters who were looking for a credible Trump alternative. As DeSantis’ 2024 campaign falters, The Miami Herald reports that it’s because the college-educated Republicans are “leaving his campaign in droves.” * Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has ruled out a Republican presidential campaign, at least in the 2024 cycle, but he continues to express an interest in a possible third-party candidacy, including during an interview over the weekend with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki. * Pence seemed to concede during a CNN interview yesterday that his presidential campaign hasn’t yet met the fundraising threshold to qualify for next month’s debate, though he expressed confidence that his operation will reach the threshold by the deadline. * And speaking of the former vice president, he’s apparently heard about Trump’s plan to consolidate White House power as part of an authoritarian-style power grab, and Pence said on Friday that he’s not on board with such a gambit.
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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