Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Though I suppose it’s possible the plans may yet change, former Vice President Joe Biden will reportedly launch his 2020 presidential bid tomorrow.
* Among Biden’s challenges will be an uphill financial climb: the New York Times noted yesterday that the Delaware Democrat has empty campaign coffers, and “it would take his raising more than $100,000 every day until Christmas just to match what [Bernie Sanders] had banked at the start of April.”
* Today’s “She the People” conference will offer an important opportunity to several Democratic presidential hopefuls.
* Need to Impeach, an organization financed by Tom Steyer, has launched a new $325,000 ad campaign in support of a commercial that argues the Mueller report “lays out a road map for impeachment proceedings against this president.”
* Voters in Tampa yesterday easily elected Democrat Jane Castor, the former Tampa police chief, as the city’s new mayor. Castor, a former Republican, is the first lesbian to lead a large southeastern city. * In South Carolina yesterday, Republican Stewart Jones won a state House special election. This did not come as a surprise: Donald Trump won this district by 37 points in 2016. * Similarly, Bill Powers (R) won a Tennessee state senate special election yesterday, though real estate agent and Army veteran Juanita Charles (D) kept it relatively close, losing by only seven points in a district Trump won by 22 points. * And in New Mexico, where the field of Democratic U.S. Senate candidates may yet grow, the DSCC isn’t waiting to see who else is running: the party has officially thrown its support behind Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D).
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
