Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* There are two congressional special elections today, one in California’s 25th district, and the other in Wisconsin’s 7th. Don’t be surprised if the Republican candidate prevails in both.
* A new national CNN poll found, among other things, that Donald Trump’s approval rating is holding steady at 45%. That said, the same results found only 36% of American say they consider the president “a trusted source of information” about the coronavirus outbreak. In other words, a chunk of people support Trump, but know not to trust what he says about the pandemic.
* Ahead of the Democrats’ national nominating convention in August, the Associated Press reports that party officials are “making new moves toward a virtual” event, with “party officials preparing to grant convention organizers in Milwaukee the authority to design an event that won’t require delegates to attend in person.”
* Joe Biden’s presidential campaign released a rather brutal video overnight, making a persuasive case that Trump “failed to act” to properly address the public-health crisis, which in turn created an economic crisis. The video, however, is nearly three minutes long, which means it almost certainly won’t air as a television commercial.
* Trump’s 2020 operation raised a bit more money in April than Biden’s operation, $61.7 million to $60.5 million. That said, the incumbent and his RNC partners have significantly more cash on hand. * Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is reportedly a top contender for the Democratic ticket, and as Politico noted the other day, her operation is making it clear that the senator has moved past “the PR missteps and staff drama” that surrounded her unsuccessful presidential campaign. * A “Republicans for Biden” effort is reportedly just now taking shape. “It is literally just forming,” one former top Republican Party official involved with the preliminary discussions told The Daily Beast. “I’ve had several conversations with people who have approached me. It’s going to take off, it’s going to happen.” * And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told the Washington Post yesterday that’s it’s “very, very” unlikely he’ll run for president again. For what it’s worth, on Election Day 2024, the Vermont senator will be 83 years old.
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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