Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Donald Trump was in Indiana yesterday selling his tax plan, and was joined by Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), who’s up for re-election next year. The president said during his remarks, “If Senator Donnelly doesn’t approve it, because you know he’s on the other side, we will come here. We will campaign against him like you wouldn’t believe.”
* On a related note, there are two House Republicans vying for the chance to run against Donnelly next year: Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita. Yesterday, Trump thanked “Mike Messer” for being there and neglected to mention Rokita altogether.
* With only seven weeks remaining before New Jersey’s gubernatorial election, Phil Murphy (D) is just now launching his first general-election ad. It’s emblematic of the Democrat’s advantage that he hasn’t aired television commercials up until now.
* In a move that will matter a great deal in a couple of years, California is moving up its presidential primary from June to early March.
* Will retired football player Peyton Manning run for retiring Sen. Bob Corker’s (R) U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee next year? Manning told a Nashville radio station yesterday, “I just have zero interest in being a politician.” * Jared Kushner, who’s apparently very bad at paperwork, reportedly registered to vote in 2009 as a woman. * Hillary Clinton will host a fundraising event for Ralph Northam, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, next week. I believe this will be her first event for a Democratic candidate in 2017. * And on a related note, former First Lady Michelle Obama appeared at an event in Boston yesterday in which she said, in reference to the 2016 race, “Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice in a way.”
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
