Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said yesterday he will not run for elected office again — though he’d be open to an ambassadorship to Ireland “in a decade or so.”
* Republicans will need a candidate to run in Ryan’s district, of course, but it apparently won’t be Reince Priebus, Donald Trump’s first White House chief of staff, who said this morning he’s not interested in this race.
* Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd yesterday, “I am convinced that there won’t be a lot of other retirements coming.” Does that mean Stivers still expects some additional retirement announcements?
* The Associated Press reported that voters in Anchorage, Alaska, are “on track to becoming the first in the U.S. to defeat a so-called bathroom bill in a referendum that asked them to require people using public bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender at birth.”
* On a related note, Anchorage’s vote-by-mail model has worked wonders in boosting participation rates. * As the teacher walkout in Oklahoma continues, a growing number of educators are “registering to run for office.” CNN added yesterday, “Laura Griesel, who was at the Capitol for most of last week, feels that many legislators are not hearing her concerns. The best way to change that, she believes, is to become a representative herself.” * On a related note, as Republican policymakers make regressive changes to teachers’ retirement plans, educators are becoming candidates in the Bluegrass State, too: “Across the state, teachers are seeking public office in numbers unprecedented in modern Kentucky history, political observers say. By the end of January, as the battle over their pensions intensified, more than 25 teachers had filed to run for office, with most of them running as Democrats.”
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
