Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) may now be a Republican with Donald Trump’s backing, but three conservative Republicans are moving forward with plans to run against him in a GOP primary next year.
* Bolstered by Trump’s efforts, the RNC is headed into 2020 with $63 million in the bank. The DNC, in contrast, has $8.3 million.
* According to the Trump campaign, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) called for the president to be hanged. In reality, the campaign removed all context from the Democratic leader’s quote, apparently in the hopes of trying to deceive the president’s own supporters.
* In remarks to a group of far-right students over the weekend, Trump praised Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) for voting “present” on the articles of impeachment against him.
* Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), the only incumbent Republican governor who lost in 2016, announced late last week that he doesn’t intend to run for his old office in 2020, but he will “seriously consider” parlaying his defeat into a U.S. Senate campaign in 2022. * Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Democratic presidential campaign doesn’t yet have any congressional endorsements, but he’s picked up some support from current and former mayors: former two-term Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D) is now backing the New Yorker and will serve as Bloomberg’s national political chair. * And in Virginia, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) told a group of voters last week that he’s moving forward with plans to run for governor in 2021, despite facing allegations of sexual assault from two women. Fairfax has repeatedly denied the claims.
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." Recommended
