Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In Georgia’s congressional special election, early voting began yesterday. The official Election Day, meanwhile, is June 20 — which is three weeks away.
* On a related note, there’s apparently an effort underway to convince Democratic voters in Georgia’s 6th district that if they voted in the first round of the special election, they don’t need to vote in the runoff. That’s false: votes are not “carried over.”
* In Maryland, Ben Jealous, the former head of the NAACP at the national level, has launched a 2018 gubernatorial campaign. This is Jealous’ first bid for public office, and he’s running as a Democrat.
* Following a mass purging of Ohio’s voter rolls, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear the case of whether the state’s policies have improperly disenfranchised eligible Ohio voters.
* Donald Trump’s re-election campaign had scheduled a rally in Iowa today, but the event has been cancelled. * There’s polling evidence that suggests Mike Pence is more popular among Republican voters than Trump. There’s no modern precedent for a vice president to enjoy stronger intra-party support than a president. * There’s been far less attention focused on South Carolina’s congressional special election next month, but there’s apparently a Democratic poll showing Archie Parnell (D) closing the gap against Ralph Norman (R), though the Republican remains the favorite. * And in case we needed any fresh evidence that we may be stuck in 2016 for a while, Kellyanne Conway, a prominent figure in Trump’s White House, highlighted unflattering polling results yesterday for Hillary Clinton. The election, in case Conway’s forgotten, was nearly eight months ago.
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
