Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With two months remaining in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, the latest Quinnipiac poll show shows Phil Murphy (D) with a big lead over Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R), 58% to 33%.
* An interesting observation about this year’s special elections thus far: “According to data assembled by Daily Kos and mapped by Daniel Donner, Democrats have performed better than Hillary Clinton in 27 out of 35 congressional and state-legislative special elections held this year. And they’ve done better than President Barack Obama’s 2012 margins in 25 out of 35.”
* It’s still unclear whether Sen. Bob Corker (R) will seek re-election in Tennessee next year, but if he does, the incumbent will have at least one primary rival: conservative activist Andy Ogles, who heads the state chapter of the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, announced his candidacy this morning.
* Nearly 12 full months since the first presidential debate last fall, Donald Trump declared on Twitter last night that he still believes Hillary Clinton “lost the debates.” * No one seriously doubted her intentions, but Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) made it official yesterday, announcing that she will seek a second term next year. Given North Dakota’s political leanings, Republicans have made Heitkamp one of their top 2018 targets. * And though it’s a partisan survey from a Democratic firm, GBA Strategies polled Arizona Republicans and found incumbent Sen. Jeff Flake (R) getting crushed by former state Sen. Kelli Ward (R) in their upcoming GOP primary. With Donald Trump eager to help take Flake down, this is likely to be the primary to watch in the upcoming cycle.
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
