Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania’s far-right Republican gubernatorial nominee, has hired Jenna Ellis to serve as a senior legal adviser on his campaign team. Ellis is perhaps best known as a member of Donald Trump’s campaign legal team, and her efforts to help undermine democracy after the 2020 elections.
* There was some question as to whether Republican Rep. Young Kim would advance to the general election following California’s recent primaries, but it now appears she survived. She’ll face physician Asif Mahmood in the 40th congressional district in the fall.
* After having been disqualified from Michigan’s gubernatorial ballot, Republican James Craig, a former Detroit police chief, announced late last week that he intends to run anyway as a write-in candidate.
* On a related note, businessman Perry Johnson, who also failed to make it onto the ballot because of forged petition signatures, didn’t sound too eager to follow Craig’s lead. Johnson told The Detroit News that it would likely cost $22 million to win a successful write-in primary campaign, and success would be “very, very difficult.”
* Republicans vying for the gubernatorial nomination in New York met for a debate last night, but Andrew Giuliani wasn’t there: Candidates were required to be vaccinated against Covid, and Giuliani refused. * In the wake of his recent primary defeat in Oregon, centrist Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader hasn’t exactly rushed to support his party’s new nominee: The outgoing congressman told KATU in Portland that he expects Jamie McLeod-Skinner to lose. Schrader added, “I think people are exhausted with the extreme, far-right Trumpites. I think they’re very concerned about the socialist drift on the Democrat left.” * In South Dakota, it initially appeared that Republican Sen. John Thune would run unopposed, Democrat Brian Bengs has apparently made the statewide ballot. * And don’t forget that it’s a busy day for campaign watchers, with four states — Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, and South Carolina — holding primaries today. Also keep an eye on Texas, where voters in the 34th district will fill the vacancy left by former Democratic Rep. Filemon.
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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