Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* The latest NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll found, “[B]y a 53%-to-39% margin, Americans said they would definitely vote against” Donald Trump in 2020.
* That said, the same poll showed the president’s approval rating inching higher, reaching 44%.
* Things have been a little quiet on the congressional-endorsement front lately, but yesterday, Joe Biden (D) picked up an important new supporter: Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, threw her backing behind the former vice president.
* Speaking of Biden, the Delaware Democrat is unveiling a new criminal-justice agenda today, which would, ironically, undo some of the provisions of the 1994 crime bill he helped author during his time in the Senate.
* Unionized employees of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign have reached a new labor agreement with management, including raises for field organizers.
* In Louisiana, Rep. Ralph Abraham (R) reportedly pledged to serve no more than three terms before getting elected in 2014, but he officially filed for a fourth yesterday. The Republican congressman is also running for governor this year. * Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) yesterday published a new warning about a looming economic disaster, though her reasoning wasn’t as strong as it could’ve been. * City officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, last night approved a resolution “strongly” condemning Trump’s recent racist antics. Charlotte is also the host city for the 2020 Republican National Convention (and I think it’s a little too late for the president to change this). * And former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared at a Republican Governors Association-hosted retreat over the weekend, reinforcing suspicions that the controversial former presidential spokesperson is preparing a gubernatorial campaign in her native Arkansas in 2022.
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
