Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the former chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced this morning that he’ll retire at the end of his current term. House GOP term limits would’ve prevented Brady from retaking control of the powerful committee, even if Republicans win a House majority in the 2022 midterms.
* Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), the only Republican governor to lose in 2016, this morning launched a U.S. Senate campaign, hoping to replace Sen. Richard Burr (R), who’s retiring.
* In Wisconsin, Sen. Ron Johnson (R) hasn’t yet said whether he’ll seek a third term, but Democrats apparently aren’t waiting around to hear about his plans: Wisconsin Treasurer Sarah Godlewski (D) today joined the field of Wisconsin Dems seeking the U.S. Senate seat.
* Speaking of Midwestern Senate races, Mike Gibbons, a former Cleveland investment banker and pro-Trump Republican, kicked off his U.S. Senate campaign in Ohio yesterday. It will be Gibbons’ second attempt, following an unsuccessful bid in 2018.
* Though the National Republican Congressional Committee had a very successful first quarter of 2021, raising $33.7 million in the first three months of the year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised just a bit more, finishing the quarter with $34.1 million.
* I quite enjoyed this Tampa Bay Times report about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R): “If the Florida governor gets his way, mail-in ballot signatures would have to match the most recent signature on file with the state. His own signature history shows how autographs evolve.” On a related note, “When then-Congressman Ron DeSantis cast his mail ballot for Florida’s primary election in 2016, election workers in his hometown flagged the signature as a mismatch.” * Speaking of Florida, Bryan Jones, a veteran Air Force pilot, is reportedly going to take on scandal-plagued Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) in a 2022 Republican primary. * As Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) tries to reclaim support from his party’s base, local Republican officials in Murray County and Whitfield County have censured their own party’s governor for failing to overturn the state’s election results last fall. * And speaking of Georgia, retired football player Herschel Walker told Fox Business over the weekend that he’s “really considering” running a Republican U.S. Senate campaign in Georgia next year, despite the fact that he lives in Texas.
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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