Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Ahead of a possible 2020 presidential campaign, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will meet tomorrow with women who said they experienced harassment and discrimination while working for his 2016 campaign.
* As part of his latest round of attacks on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) ancestry, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter yesterday, “If Elizabeth Warren, often referred to by me as Pocahontas, did this commercial from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash!” Many Native Americans were not at all pleased. Neither were South Dakota’s Republican senators.
* Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told MSNBC this morning that her family is “on board” with her launching a 2020 presidential campaign. She quickly added, “But I’ll make this decision on my own course regardless of what other candidates are doing.”
* Despite New York’s reputation as a reliably progressive state, it has some of the least progressive election laws. That’s finally changing: state lawmakers approved some major voting reforms yesterday, including an overdue early-voting change, all of which appear likely to become law.
* A new national Gallup poll found Trump’s approval rating inching lower to 37% — the same approval rating the Republican had in the latest CNN poll. Before the shutdown began, Gallup showed the president with a 39% rating. * The race for the Republicans’ Senate nomination in Kansas is already starting to get a little crowded in the wake of Sen. Pat Roberts’ (R) retirement announcement. Kansas state Senate President Susan Wagle (R) is the latest to throw her hat into the ring. * And in Tennessee, where Sen. Lamar Alexander is retiring, James Mackler (D) is launching another statewide campaign. Mackler, an attorney and Iraq War veteran, originally ran for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee last year, but he bowed out to make way for former Gov. Phil Bredesen’s (D) campaign. In November, Bredesen lost by about 10 points to then-Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R).
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
