Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With the qualifying deadline having passed, we now know that former Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be the only Republican presidential candidates competing in CNN’s upcoming debate in Iowa. Donald Trump also qualified for the event, but he’s refusing to participate.
* On a related note, while the Iowa debate airs, the former president will simultaneously participate in a town-hall event on Fox News, which will also be held in Iowa. Vivek Ramaswamy, who did not make the cut for the CNN event, said he would do a live show with the right-wing commentator Tim Pool on the same evening.
* Ahead of the special election in former Rep. George Santos’ New York district, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is hitting the airwaves this week with this new ad tying Republican nominee Mazi Pilip to some of her party’s most radical House members. Election Day is Feb. 13.
* In Utah, the GOP field of U.S. Senate candidates hoping to succeed retiring Sen. Mitt Romney keeps growing, with Rep. John Curtis kicking off his statewide bid this week. Trial lawyer Brent Hatch, one of the late Sen. Orrin Hatch’s six kids, also launched a Senate bid. * In Pennsylvania, a former congressional candidate filed a lawsuit this week challenging Republican Rep. Scott Perry’s eligibility for the 2024 ballot. The underlying allegation is that the right-wing congressman’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election make him an “insurrectionist.” * And in Iowa, DeSantis was the first GOP presidential hopeful this cycle to visit each of the state’s 99 counties — a move known as the “Full Grassley,” named after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley — but Ramaswamy announced this week that he’s now done the same thing twice.
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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