Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* We’re one day out from Virginia’s congressional special election, and Democrat James Walkinshaw, a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, is expected to prevail in the race to succeed the late Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly. The result would narrow the House Republicans’ majority in the chamber just a bit more.
* Speaking of the commonwealth, Virginia’s gubernatorial election is just eight weeks away, and with GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears trailing in statewide polls, Republicans are leaning into anti-transgender attacks.
* In Iowa, almost immediately after Republican Sen. Joni Ernst announced that she wouldn’t seek a third term, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson launched a Senate bid to succeed her. The congresswoman quickly picked up endorsements from Donald Trump and several GOP leaders.
* Democrats already enjoyed a majority in Oregon’s state legislature, but the party’s advantage just grew: State Rep. Cyrus Javadi just switched parties, leaving Republicans behind.
* For years, groups like the League of Women Voters have registered new voters at naturalization ceremonies. Last week, the Trump administration announced that nongovernmental groups will now be barred from doing so.
* In Texas, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, widely seen as a rising star in the party, is reportedly poised to kick off a U.S. Senate race, setting the stage for a tough primary with former Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, who ran a competitive but unsuccessful Senate campaign last year. * After the 2020 election cycle, Gabriel Sterling, a conservative Republican who helped oversee Georgia’s elections operations, defended the integrity of the state’s election results and urged Trump to stop lying. Now, Sterling is looking for a promotion: He’s running for secretary of state. * In Florida’s gubernatorial race, Rep. Byron Donalds isn’t running unopposed in the Republican primary: Former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner launched his own bid last week. * And in 2023, Joe Biden nominated Scott Colom, a district attorney in Mississippi, to serve as a federal judge, but Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked his nomination. Two years later, Colom launched a Democratic U.S. Senate campaign, taking on the senator who blocked him.
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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