Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In Wisconsin, Sen. Ron Johnson isn’t winning any popularity contests: The latest Marquette Law School poll found the Republican incumbent with a favorability rating of just 33 percent. That’s down from 36 percent last fall, and 40 percent in the summer of 2019.
* As for who might take advantage of the GOP senator’s poor standing, the same poll found Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes with more support than his rivals, though most of Wisconsin’s Democratic voters didn’t have opinions of the candidates in the field.
* Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who’s also up for re-election this year, had a 50 percent approval rating in the Marquette Law School poll. The Democratic incumbent’s support has climbed from 45 percent last October.
* Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis apparently isn’t embarrassed by yesterday’s video in which he berated children for wearing masks at an indoor photo-op. On the contrary, the Republican released a new online video this morning celebrating his bullying.
* Despite party overtures and President Joe Biden’s State of the Union message, Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri told the Associated Press, “I’m not going to change how I feel. I’m not going to stop saying ‘defund the police’ at all.”
* Donald Trump vowed to derail Sen. John Thune’s career, but as The Hill noted, the South Dakota Republican is heavily favored to win re-election this year, and efforts to recruit a competitive primary challenger appear to have failed.
* And in Oklahoma, state Sen. Nathan Dahm was running a Republican primary campaign against incumbent Sen. James Lankford, but this week, the state legislator changed his mind: Dahm will instead run for Oklahoma’s open U.S. Senate seat, now that Sen. Jim Inhofe is stepping down.
