Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* The new national Monmouth poll shows Donald Trump’s approval rating dipping from 44% last month to 40% now. While Gallup recently found a bump in presidential support following the release of Bill Barr’s memo, other polling isn’t yet pointing to a broad shift.
* While Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) weighs a re-election bid despite being under criminal indictment, the Republican incumbent did not receive a campaign contribution from literally any individual in the first three months of 2019. Collins did, however, receive a couple of checks from political action committees.
* In Connecticut’s state House special election yesterday, Tammy Exum (D) won by a two-to-one margin, keeping a “blue” seat in Democratic hands. That said, at a national level, Democratic performance in special elections in 2019 isn’t quite as strong as the results we saw in 2018.
* As the Stop & Shop strike continues in the northeast, several Democratic presidential candidates have expressed their support for striking workers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who brought them coffee and donuts over the weekend.
* Dan Baer, who served as the Obama administration’s Ambassador for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, launched a Democratic U.S. Senate campaign in Colorado this week, hoping to take on Sen. Cory Gardner (R). More recently, Baer served as head of his state’s Department of Higher Education. * The latest Marquette Law School poll found Trump with a 46% approval rating in Wisconsin, a swing state he narrowly carried in 2016 with 47% of the vote. * Add Illinois to the list of states weighing new measures that would require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns as a prerequisite to appearing on the ballot. * And in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, Democratic leaders are no longer waiting for possible primary contenders: the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has officially endorsed retired astronaut Mark Kelly.
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
