Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In the state of Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed a major voting-expansion bill into law yesterday, which includes automatic voter registration and pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-old students.
* It’s Primary Day in Illinois, and many election watchers will be keeping an eye on Rep. Dan Lipinski (D), one of Congress’ most conservative Democrats, who faces a credible primary challenger in the state’s 3rd district.
* On a related note, both parties are holding gubernatorial primaries in Illinois today, and while incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) is generally expected to prevail, his success is hardly assured. (Illinois Dems have taken steps to intervene, trying to boost Jeanne Ives’ chances.)
* Donald Trump’s re-election campaign sent out an appeal to donors this week, “fundraising off a controversial request from his Justice Department that the 2020 Census include a question about citizenship.”
* Fresh off his apparent special-election defeat last week, Rick Saccone (R) yesterday made his first on-camera comments since the race, insisting, “It’s not over yet.” * In New York, Cynthia Nixon, perhaps best known as a co-star of the “Sex and the City” television show, launched a gubernatorial campaign yesterday. She’ll take on incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a Democratic primary. * On a related note, the latest Sienna poll suggests Nixon is facing long odds: the statewide survey found Cuomo leading the actor among New York Democrats, 66% to 19%. * And in New Jersey, an activist with Our Revolution, the group created out of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, planned to lead an anti-Hillary Clinton protest at her upcoming speech at Rutgers University. The protest, however, has now been cancelled.
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
