Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In a close primary runoff, Republicans in Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district yesterday chose state Sen. Stephanie Bice (R) to take on incumbent Rep. Kendra Horn (D) in November.
* The chair of Maine’s Republican Party, Demi Kouzounas, told reporters yesterday that Donald Trump and Sen. Susan Collins (R) “both support each other.” That’s a message the senator herself has carefully avoided this year.
* Given Trump’s fixation on television ratings, the president probably won’t be pleased to learn that ratings for the first night of the Republican convention were down compared to the first night of the Democratic convention.
* Trump’s re-election campaign isn’t running any television ads this week in battleground states, apparently hoping the party’s convention is giving the president and his party enough attention. In contrast, the Biden/Harris campaign is spending more than $9 million this week in broadcast advertising.
* Appointed Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s (R-Ga.) new campaign ad twice refers to her as the nation’s “most conservative senator.” When Gov. Brian Kemp (R) chose her for the seat, wasn’t it predicated on the idea that Loeffler would help broaden the Georgia GOP’s appeal? * The Montana Republican Party filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court, seeking to add Green Party candidates to the statewide ballot this year, but that appeal was dismissed yesterday. * On a related note, it was a mixed bag yesterday for GOP operatives trying to get Kanye West’s name onto the 2020 ballot as a presidential candidate. Republican efforts in Missouri fell short, but the party succeeded in getting the entertainer onto the statewide ballot in Minnesota. Trump lost Minnesota in 2016 by less than 2 percentage points, making it his narrowest defeat.
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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