Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* It’s only been nine weeks since Election Day 2024, but in Virginia, it’s Election Day again in three state legislative districts. Voters in the commonwealth will decide one House of Delegates race and two state Senate races.
* On the heels of her 18-point victory in the fall, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand made no secret of interest in becoming the next chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. This week, party leaders announced that the New York senator would, in fact, lead the DSCC in the 2026 midterm cycle.
* Following a lengthy career on Capitol Hill, Rep. Barbara Lee gave up her House seat for an ill-fated U.S. Senate race. Now, however, the California Democrat appears to have her eyes on a different office: Lee has filed the paperwork to run for mayor of Oakland.
* In Texas, Republican Sen. John Cornyn generally isn’t seen as a vulnerable incumbent ahead of his 2026 re-election bid, but he might yet have a GOP primary rival to worry about: The Lone Star State’s highly controversial attorney general, Ken Paxton, continues to talk openly about a possible Senate campaign against the incumbent. * Voters in Alabama haven’t elected a Democratic governor since 1998. Is there a chance that former Sen. Doug Jones, who lost a re-election bid in 2020, might try to break the GOP lock on the office? According to local party officials, the Democrat hasn’t ruled it out. * In Massachusetts, incumbent Democratic Sen. Ed Markey recently announced that he’s running again in 2026, and there’s been some chatter about former Gov. Charlie Baker taking on the incumbent. That said, a spokesperson for Baker’s current employer, the NCAA, said the Republican former governor is “not running for any political office and is solely focused on the future of college sports.”
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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