Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With roughly five months remaining before Iowa’s Republican caucuses, first 2024 NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll found Donald Trump leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 42% to 19%, among likely caucusgoers. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is third in the survey with 9%, followed by former Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence, who each garnered 6% support.
* Meanwhile, at the national level, the latest CBS News/YouGov poll, released yesterday, found Trump in an even more dominant position, leading the field with 62% support. DeSantis is second in the survey with 16%, followed by businessman Vivek Ramaswamy at 7%. No other GOP contender topped 5% in this poll.
* New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu wrote a new op-ed for The New York Times, arguing that if several Republican candidates were to quit the 2024 race, a narrower field would open the door to a possible Trump defeat. As a matter of arithmetic, that might be a more persuasive pitch if the former president’s support were well below 50%.
* In the meantime, the super PAC supporting Trump’s candidacy, MAGA Inc., appears to already be shifting its attention to the general election, launching a new ad targeting President Joe Biden with a message focused on the economy.
* The Associated Press reported late Friday that federal judges in Georgia and Texas “have ruled against key provisions of two controversial election laws passed two years ago as the Republican Party sought to tighten voting rules after former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential contest.” * DeSantis apparently caused a stir during an interview last week in which he seemed to refer to some Trump followers as “listless vessels.” As the governor put it, “A movement can’t be about the personality of one individual. If all we are is listless vessels that’s just supposed to follow, you know, whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement.” * Though it’s likely that the Republican Party’s presidential field won’t get any bigger, The Washington Post reported that media mogul Rupert Murdoch has “repeatedly encouraged” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to launch a national bid.
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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