Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Only five states remain in this year’s primary season, and all the races will wrap up over the next nine days, starting today in Massachusetts. The marquee contest is Rep. Mike Capuano’s Democratic primary against Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley.
* The new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows Democrats with a 14-point advantage on the generic congressional ballot, 52% to 38%, the largest Democratic lead since 2006, when they rode a wave to a new congressional majority. A new USA Today/Suffolk University poll also put the Dems’ lead over the GOP in double digits: 50% to 39%.
* In case you’re wondering if those generic-ballot polls are outliers, the FiveThirtyEight averages, as of this morning, give Democrats a lead of 10.5 points. That’s the largest advantage for either party since January.
* In Missouri’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, a new NBC News/Marist poll shows a dead heat: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) is tied with state Attorney General Josh Hawley (R), 47% to 47%. When the Green and Libertarian candidates are added to the mix, however, McCaskill has a four-point lead.
* Speaking of competitive Senate races, a Metro News/Dominion Post poll in West Virginia, released late last week, found Sen. Joe Machin (D) with an eight-point lead over Patrick Morrissey (R), 46% to 38%. * It took just three days after Florida’s statewide primaries before racist robocalls began targeting Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee. * Donald Trump announced on Friday that he’ll host a “major rally” in October in support of Sen. Ted Cruz (R), to be held in “the biggest stadium in Texas we can find.” (The Lone Star State has more than one stadium that can hold over 100,000 people.) Perhaps the most notable aspect of this went unsaid: Republicans are having to invest a surprising amount of effort into holding onto a Senate seat in Texas. * And on a related note, progressive activists are reportedly raising money to publish some of Trump’s anti-Trump tweets onto billboards ahead of this year’s election. There are several tweets to choose from, including the one in which Trump said in 2016, “Why would the people of Texas support Ted Cruz when he has accomplished absolutely nothing for them. He is another all talk, no action pol!”
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
