Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In Mississippi, home to one of this year’s three gubernatorial races, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) and former state Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. (R) were the top two vote-getters in yesterday’s GOP gubernatorial primary, and they’ll face off again in a runoff. The winner will face state Attorney General Jim Hood (D) in the fall.
* A national Quinnipiac poll released yesterday showed former Vice President Joe Biden (D) with 32% in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with 21%. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was third with 14%. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) rounded out the top tier with 7% and 5%, respectively.
* Jon Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to Russia in the Trump administration, submitted his resignation yesterday. It’s widely assumed that Huntsman will return to Utah to run for governor — a position he held before serving as U.S. ambassador to China in the Obama administration.
* Though former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) reiterated his commitment this week to his presidential campaign, he also conceded he hasn’t “ruled out” other options. This might include a possible U.S. Senate race next year against incumbent Sen. Cory Gardner (R).
* It seems hard to believe, but in Orange County, California, once a Republican bastion, registered Democrats are now the plurality. * The widely held assumption was that the number of Democratic presidential hopefuls competing in the party’s October debate would be fairly modest. But as Rachel noted on the show last night, after the Democratic National Committee clarified participation rules this week, the debate field may be larger than previously expected. * Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) caused a bit of a stir yesterday when he started tweeting the names of constituents in San Antonio who’ve donated the maximum to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. It’s important to emphasize that this information was already publicly available when the congressman identified the donors. * In Texas, state House Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R) recently sat down with a conservative activist to discuss 2020 primaries. What Bonnen didn’t know was that the activist secretly recorded the conversation, and while the recording hasn’t yet gone public, Bonnen apologized to his colleagues yesterday for having said “terrible things.”
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
