Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* To no one’s surprise, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) ended the suspense and announced plans to run for re-election next year. Though the Maine Republican previously told voters that she wouldn’t serve more than two terms, she’s now seeking a fourth.
* Joe Biden’s presidential campaign released a medical report from his physician yesterday, and while the former vice president has had some health issues, the doctor concluded that the Delaware Democrat is a “healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”
* Politico reported yesterday that the RNC has fired Eric Mitchell as the director of its Trump Victory Team in New Hampshire. After starting in the job in mid-August, Mitchell was ousted over unspecified performance issues.
* A group of prominent Republican critics of Donald Trump — George Conway, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, and Rick Wilson — have launched an initiative they’re calling the Lincoln Project. It reportedly includes the creation of a super PAC that intends to help defeat Trump and his most sycophantic “enablers.”
* On the eve of his likely impeachment, Donald Trump published four tweets yesterday announcing his “total endorsement” of four Republican congressional incumbents: Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Reps. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), and Kay Granger (R-Texas). * FiveThirtyEight this week launched its polling-average feature for the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. As of this morning, Biden is leading the 2020 pack at the national level with 26.8%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 18%, Elizabeth Warren at 14.4% and Pete Buttigieg at 9.1%. No other candidate is above 5%. * Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), facing a tougher path to his party’s presidential nomination, is shifting his emphasis to Iowa and South Carolina, and has “all but vanished” from New Hampshire.
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
