Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With Republican Sen. Mike Braun giving up his seat to run for governor in Indiana, far-right Rep. Jim Banks launched a Senate campaign this morning. The announcement comes on the heels of Banks’ failed bid for House majority whip.
* When Josh Shapiro is sworn in today as Pennsylvania’s new Democratic governor, The Washington Post reports that he’ll take the oath of office “on a stack of Hebrew Bibles, including one that was on the prayer platform at a Pittsburgh synagogue during a 2018 mass killing.”
* Though it was generally assumed that Donald Trump would support Ronna McDaniel’s bid for a fourth term atop the Republican National Committee, the former president sent a different message during a conservative media appearance last night. “Well, I can honestly say I like both of them,” he said, referring to McDaniel and challenger Harmeet Dhillon. “I mean, I get along with both of them. I haven’t taken a stance, you know, let them fight it out.”
* This year’s gubernatorial race in Louisiana has a growing field of GOP contenders, with state Sen. Sharon Hewitt kicking off her candidacy late last week. For now, she’s the only woman in the crowded race.
* The Associated Press had a good report on Ohio Republicans’ new voting restrictions, noting that the narrower window for postal ballots, “despite no evidence that the extended timeline has led to fraud or any other problems,” is “angering active-duty members of the military and their families because of its potential to disenfranchise them.” * Speaking of the Buckeye State, state Sen. Matt Dolan formally kicked off his Republican Senate campaign this morning. This comes two years after Dolan finished third in a GOP primary in Ohio’s 2022 Senate race. * And in case there weren’t already an army of Republicans eyeing the 2024 presidential race, former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, after already having expressed an interest in a national campaign, has scheduled a trip to New Hampshire and will arrive in the Granite State next week.
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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