Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* The NRA’s Political Victory Fund was poised to begin an ad campaign yesterday in Virginia’s gubernatorial campaign on Ed Gillespie’s (R) behalf. Following the news out of Las Vegas, the group reportedly postponed the investment by a week.
* Over the weekend, Donald Trump’s political operation sent out two rather provocative fundraising appeals to donors: one on football players who protest and another that referenced disaster relief.
* Now that former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has been released from a federal penitentiary, he’s officially launched another congressional campaign, hoping to reclaim his old seat.
* On a related note, Michael Caputo, a longtime Donald Trump ally, has agreed to join Grimm’s campaign team.
* Over the weekend, the president said the media should give him credit for boosting Luther Strange’s failed Senate bid in Alabama. Strange lost to Roy Moore by nearly 10 points, and Trump’s endorsement appears to have had no meaningful effect on the race. * Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), with an eye toward 2020, told CNN’s Jake Tapper over the weekend, “If the party can’t be fixed, Jake, then I’m not going to be able to support the party. Period. That’s the end of it.” * And speaking of 2020, Iowa’s inaugural Polk County Steak Fry welcomed a group of ambitious Democratic “rising stars” over the weekend, including Reps. Seth Moulton (Mass.), Tim Ryan (Ohio), and Cheri Bustos (Ill.).
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
