Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Remember, today is Primary Day in four states: Idaho, Nebraska, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. There are plenty of interesting races to watch, most notably in the Keystone State, which is dealing with a newly drawn congressional map.
* A new statewide poll in Missouri shows incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) with a four-point lead over state Attorney General Josh Hawley (R), 48% to 44%.
* On a related note, Hawley has two Republican rivals ahead of Missouri’s Aug. 7 primary, but they appear to be arguing with one another about which one should drop out.
* This will seem hard to believe, but in Florida’s U.S. Senate race, Gov. Rick Scott (R) and his allies are outspending incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D) and his allies by roughly 48 to 1.
* In South Dakota’s congressional race, Republican state Sen. Neal Tapio, Donald Trump’s former state director and one of three GOP candidates, recently said a terrorist attack would help propel his candidacy. * Disgraced former Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), who still owes taxpayers $84,000, appears to have landed on his feet. Just a month after resigning from Congress, the Texas Republican will return to Capitol Hill as a lobbyist. * In Montana, where Trump and his allies are trying to destroy Sen. Jon Tester (D) over his handling of Ronny Jackson’s VA nomination, VoteVets is spending over $350,000 to defend the senator. * And in Idaho, Republican congressional hopeful Michael Snyder appeared on Alex Jones’ program and vowed that if he’s elected, he will “go right to the floor of the House of Representatives and I’ll start ranting like Alex Jones.” Shortly thereafter, Snyder picked up an endorsement from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Snyder is one of four GOP candidates on the congressional primary ballot today, and former state Sen. Russ Fulcher is generally seen as the frontrunner.
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
