Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In Florida’s 20th congressional district, voters yesterday elected Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to succeed the late Rep. Alcee Hastings, who died in April 2020. Once Cherfilus-McCormick is sworn in, the House Democratic conference will climb to 221 members.
* On a related note, there weren’t any silver linings for Republicans in the south Florida race: President Joe Biden won Florida’s 20th with 77 percent support, and Cherfilus-McCormick won the special election with 79 percent support.
* In North Carolina, Republicans received some good news yesterday when a state court upheld the GOP’s new gerrymandered congressional map. While voting rights advocates have vowed to appeal, the ruling clears the way for candidate filings to resume next month.
* In Michigan, a new poll commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV found Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with a 56 percent approval rating. Looking ahead to November, the same survey showed the governor leading each of her likely Republican rivals by relatively comfortable margins, including a nearly 10-point advantage over former Detroit Police Chief James Craig.
* Just when it seemed Herschel Walker’s U.S. Senate candidacy in Georgia couldn’t get weirder, The Daily Beast reports that the Republican touted unproven mystery treatments for Covid-19 in 2020, “including an allegedly FDA-approved ‘dry mist’ that will ‘kill any COVID on your body.’” * In case there were any doubts about the importance of secretary of state races this year, HuffPost reported, “Republicans who’ve pushed the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump are hauling in massive amounts of money to fuel secretary of state campaigns this year, with candidates in key swing states on pace to raise record sums for contests that have taken on new significance thanks to the GOP’s efforts to exert all-out partisan control over the country’s election systems.” * And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed yesterday that he will seek his members’ support later this year, hoping to remain the top Senate Republican. Though Donald Trump is reportedly looking for an intra-party challenger to take on McConnell, the Kentuckian is likely to maintain his current role.
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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