Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Facing scandals and protests, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello announced yesterday he won’t seek re-election next year. That almost certainly won’t satisfy his many critics, who are calling for his immediate resignation.
* The RNC outraised the DNC in June, $20.7 million to $8.5 million, and as Politico noted, that’s not the only bad news for Democrats: in the latest FEC report “The DNC also spent almost as much money as it raised — $7.5 million — during that time and finished the month with $9.3 million cash on hand. Meanwhile, the RNC is building a large war chest during the lead-up to 2020 and had $43.5 million cash on hand at the end of the month.”
* In Virginia, Republicans control the House of Delegates by the narrowest of margins — it’s a 51-49 chamber — which made it all the more notable on Friday when Del. Nick Freitas, the GOP incumbent in a ruby-red district withdrew after “missing a filing deadline and submitting incomplete paperwork.” There’s talk of a possible write-in campaign.
* In Massachusetts’ heavily Democratic 1st congressional district, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse (D) this morning kicked off a primary campaign against House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D).
* Five years after her unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign, former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) officially launched a congressional campaign in the state’s 21st district. Davis intends to take on incumbent freshman Rep. Chip Roy (R) in a fairly conservative part of the state. * The latest national poll from the Pew Research Center found Democratic voters largely pleased with their 2020 presidential choices: “[R]oughly two-thirds of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters (65%) say they have an excellent (23%) or good (42%) impression of the Democratic presidential candidates as a group. By comparison, in September 2015, only about half of Democratic voters (51%) said the same.” * In 2016, Donald Trump won the presidential election, despite receiving nearly 3 million fewer votes than his Democratic rival. On Friday, David Wasserman published an analysis for NBC News noting that in 2020, Trump’s popular-vote loss could be even larger, though that wouldn’t necessarily prevent him from winning a second term.
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
