Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Texas’ Supreme Court, led entirely by Republicans, ruled yesterday that most of the state’s voters need a good reason to vote by mail, and fearing a deadly pandemic can’t count as a good reason.
* Election officials in Wisconsin yesterday announced plans to send absentee ballot applications to voters this fall, though as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted, Democratic and Republican officials will need to “agree on the wording of the mailing,” which may be impossible.
* Donald Trump this morning promoted online content featuring a supporter saying, “I’ve come to a place where I’ve come to a conclusion where the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” Couy Griffin, who leads Cowboys for Trump, added in the video that he wasn’t talking “in a physical sense.” How reassuring.
* The Lincoln Project, led by anti-Trump Republicans, launched a new ad today taking aim at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The 60-second spot labels the senator “Rich Mitch,” noting how wealthy the Republican became during his time in D.C.
* Business Insider reported yesterday that Brad Parscale remains Trump’s campaign manager, but Jared Kushner has placed former Chris Christie aide Bill Stepien “as the campaign’s new de facto campaign manager.” Tim Murtaugh, the president’s campaign communications director, denied the accuracy of the report. * Joe Biden told a group of donors yesterday he expects to announce his running mate around Aug. 1. If the former vice president sticks to that schedule, it would mean the announcement would come about two weeks before the start of the Democratic convention. * Trump has said he has to vote by mail because he’s not in his adopted home state of Florida, but CNN reported that in March, ahead of the state’s presidential primary, he had multiple opportunities to take advantage of in-person early voting; he just didn’t want to. * And Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who filed a defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton in January in the midst of the congresswoman’s ill-fated presidential campaign, reversed course yesterday, announcing that she’s dropping the 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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