Politico: "During a fundraiser in Jupiter, Florida, on Tuesday, Biden rallied donors to help him make Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, a 'loser again' and made the sign of the cross after bemoaning that Florida faced a 'real dose of Trumpism.'"
"The president accused Trump of leaving the U.S. a 'mess' when he came into office during the height of the Covid pandemic and when the economy was 'reeling.' Biden swiped his opponent on mass shootings, the economy, abortion rights and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol."
"President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Michigan on Thursday as he tries to rally support among voters in a battleground state viewed as central to his reelection chances," Politico reports.
"The trip would be his first to Michigan this year. It would aim to capitalize on Biden's momentum among the state's blue-collar workers, after winning a full-throated endorsement from the United Auto Workers just six days ago."
NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR. Republican state Sen. Jon Bramnick announced over the weekend that he would compete in next year's race to succeed New Jersey's termed-out governor, Democrat Phil Murphy. Bramnick, who earned the title "Funniest Lawyer in New Jersey" in what Politico's Matt Friedman calls "a State Bar Association contest decades ago," launched his 2025 effort from a comedy club where he sometimes still takes the stage.
Bramnick has stood out for years as a rare Republican critic of Trump, giving him crossover appeal that helped him win reelection last year 53-46 in a seat that Joe Biden took 58-41 in 2020. But the state senator, who previously served as the state Assembly's minority leader, hasn't faced a primary opponent since well before Trump came on the political scene.
Still, Bramnick insisted to the New York Times' Tracey Tully that he wouldn't change his approach for a statewide bid. "I'm not going to try to thread the needle," he said, referring to the tension between appealing to Trump-loving primary voters and a more moderate electorate at large. "I don't think that's what people want. They want authenticity."
Bramnick joins a nomination battle that includes former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who announced a second bid days after losing the 2021 general election to Murphy by a surprisingly narrow 51-48 spread. Friedman adds that conservative radio host Bill Spadea "has also been making the rounds in New Jersey for a potential gubernatorial run."
The Democratic field is also still taking shape. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney both announced last year, though Tully adds that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, as well as Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill, are each "expected" to launch their own campaigns at some point.
WEST VIRGINIA U.S. SENATOR. Disgraced coal baron Don Blankenship decided to add "perennial candidate" to his résumé on Friday when he filed to run as a Democrat for West Virginia's open Senate seat.
The state Democratic Party quickly made it clear it wanted nothing to do with Blankenship, who spent a year in prison in connection to the 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners at one of his properties. "Blankenship, or as he'll forever be known, federal prisoner 12393-088, lost a previous race for U.S. Senate when he ran as a Republican," said chairman Mike Pushkin. "He followed that up with a failed race for president running on the Constitution Party ticket," Pushkin noted.
Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who has the backing of the NRSC and its allies, looked like the favorite to win the state's Senate race even before Donald Trump endorsed him in October and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin announced his retirement the following month. Rep. Alex Mooney and five other Republicans are still hoping to deny him the GOP nod, but every poll we've seen has found Justice far ahead.
Still, Mooney and his allies at the well-funded Club for Growth are betting that they can pull off an upset by questioning the conservative bona fides of Justice, who was elected governor as a Democrat in 2016 and switched parties the next year. Justice's side has hit back with ads attacking Mooney's past career in the Maryland state legislature and portraying the Club as an anti-Trump outfit.
Justice's critics are also hoping that ongoing news stories about his family's business problems will finally hurt him. Most recently, Carter Bank, which is trying to collect $300 million in defaulted loans, notified stakeholders and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week that it "plans to pursue aggressively all remedies afforded it to collect all amounts due and owing by the Justice Entities."
Three Democrats are waging longshot bids in what's become one of the reddest states in the nation. In addition to Blankenship, we have Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliot and Marine veteran Zachary Shrewsbury.
WEST VIRGINIA GOVERNOR. Six Republicans are competing to replace GOP Gov. Jim Justice, who cannot run again because of term limits, though every public poll has shown Attorney General Patrick Morrisey leading the pack. Morrisey, who lost the 2018 Senate race to Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin 50-46, also has the support of the Club for Growth.
Morrisey's main intra-party foes all come from notable political families in the Mountain State. The field includes former Del. Moore Capito, the son and namesake of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito; wealthy businessman Chris Miller, whose mother is Rep. Carol Miller; and Secretary of State Mac Warner, whose relatives have also been involved in West Virginia politics. (Morrisey, for his part, first ran for Congress in New Jersey in 2000.)
Two little-known Republicans are also in, while Huntington Mayor Steve Williams has the Democratic side to himself.
OHIO BALLOT. Republican Attorney General Dave Yost has, for the second time, rejected the proposed ballot summary for an initiative that would enshrine extensive voting access protections and policies in Ohio's constitution, which we've previously detailed.
Yost claims that the measure's proposed title, which supporters have called the "Ohio Voters Bill of Rights," is misleading, even though the amendment would, among other things, establish voting as a "fundamental right" and prohibit "any means whatsoever" that have the intent or effect of denying or unreasonably burdening the right to vote.
Proponents can revise and resubmit their summary, but this rejection further delays the start of gathering voter signatures, which must be submitted by an initial July 3 deadline to qualify for November's ballot.
NORTH CAROLINA REDISTRICTING. U.S. District Judge James Dever, a George W. Bush appointee, has rejected a request to block a pair of state Senate districts in northeastern North Carolina that Black plaintiffs alleged violate the Voting Rights Act by discriminating against Black voters.
Plaintiffs quickly indicated they would appeal Dever's ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while the case continues at the district court level. Republicans passed new gerrymanders last year and claimed the VRA no longer applied in North Carolina despite extensive evidence that voting patterns remain polarized along racial lines, particularly in rural regions such as those challenged in this case.
MONTANA and NEVADA U.S. SENATORS. Major outside groups from both parties that are involved in Senate races announced this week their first TV ad reservations for the general election, a move that allows these super PACs to lock in cheaper ad rates before high demand for pushes prices up.
Politico reports that the pro-Democratic Senate Majority PAC has booked $27 million to defend Montana Sen. Jon Tester and $36 million to protect Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen. For Republicans, NBC says that the Senate Leadership Fund is reserving $24.6 million in Montana, with its allies at American Crossroads booking a similar $23.3 million in that state. SMP's ads will start sometime in the summer, while the GOP's spots are set to begin Sept. 3 and continue through Election Day.
MONTANA U.S. SENATOR. Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale has essentially stopped pretending that he's undecided about seeking a rematch against Sen. Jon Tester—to the consternation of the Republican establishment, and to the delight of Democrats. "I'm going to win the primary," Rosendale told white nationalist Steve Bannon in a Thursday podcast appearance. "I will be the nominee for the United States Senate in Montana."
The congressman's team quickly said that he was speaking only hypothetically about what would happen if he "were to run," but no one else seems to be treating an eventual launch as a mere hypothetical. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz recently tweeted, "Send @MattForMontana to the US Senate!" and is campaigning with his House colleague across the state Friday and Saturday. Bannon himself also said at the end of his interview that he "may have a very special announcement next week with Congressman Rosendale."
The NRSC and its chief—Montana's junior senator, Steve Daines—have long made it clear that they want wealthy businessman Tim Sheehy as their nominee instead of Rosendale, who lost his 2018 battle with Tester 50-47. Democrats, by contrast, would love to have another shot at Rosendale, a far-right lawmaker who was one of the eight House Republicans who voted to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
And powerful groups from each party are taking action to secure their preferred general election matchup. The Huffington Post's Liz Skalka reports that a super PAC called Last Best Place has already spent $5.8 million on ads targeting Sheehy well ahead of the June 4 Republican primary. Senate Majority PAC, which is the largest super PAC that supports Democratic Senate candidates, tells Skalka that it's the one financing this offensive.
Last Best Place has previously aired ads attacking Sheehy for not paying back a $770,000 loan from the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program. Now it's up with a new spot hitting him for investing in Tencent, which the narrator describes as a "Chinese tech company [that] has deep ties to the Communist Party."
The voiceover continues by saying that while Donald Trump "banned it to protect national security," Sheehy "invested in that company to make more money for himself." Trump himself has not taken sides in the primary, though CNN reported in July that he told Rosendale he wouldn't be backing him.
The GOP establishment, however, isn't sitting back as these machinations unfold. The Times says the NRSC is launching a six-figure buy for its preferred candidate, while a conservative group called More Jobs, Less Government has already deployed close to $1.2 million on pro-Sheehy efforts.
NEW JERSEY U.S. SENATOR. Republican Curtis Bashaw, a developer who is the former executive director of the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Authority, announced Monday that he would run for the Senate. Bashaw would be the state's first gay member of the upper chamber, though he'd need exceptional luck to win a state that hasn't elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972.
WEST VIRGINIA 2ND DISTRICT. State Treasurer Riley Moore has spent most of this contest on a glide path to replace Rep. Alex Mooney, a fellow Republican who is leaving this seat behind to run for the Senate. Moore is the nephew of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and also has Mooney's backing. Of his four primary foes, his most prominent rival appears to be retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chris Walker, who launched his campaign this month. This seat in the northern part of the state favored Donald Trump 68-31.
WEST VIRGINIA 1ST DISTRICT. Rep. Carol Miller's only Republican primary foe is former Del. Derrick Evans, who served 90 days in prison for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Evans resigned from the legislature days after the riot after only about a month in office and attracted media attention when he began talking about taking on Miller, but there's still little indication that the incumbent is in any trouble. Donald Trump won this district in the southern half of the state 70-29.
NEW YORK 3RD DISTRICT. Republican Mazi Pilip's newest TV ad is replete with fabricated imagery that invents moments that never happened, even going so far as to have Joe Biden photobomb a press conference he didn't attend.
As Business Insider's Bryan Metzger documents, one altered photo shows former Rep. Tom Suozzi speaking at an event outside the Capitol hosted by the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus in December of 2020 promoting a COVID relief bill.
The original image depicts then-Rep. John Katko and Rep. Abigail Spanberger wearing masks, but those have been removed or concealed. Former Rep. Elaine Luria, meanwhile, has been interposed between Suozzi and Katko, while Biden—who was not president at the time—has been dropped in behind Suozzi's left shoulder.
Another photo purports to show Suozzi shaking hands with Biden in the Oval Office. However, as Inside Elections' Jacob Rubashkin notes, it's actually taken from a picture of the two at a United Federation of Teachers event in New York City celebrating Teacher Union Day in 2019. Because that gathering was held after a walk to raise money to fight breast cancer, many of the attendees, including Suozzi and Biden, wore pink ribbons. Those have been photoshopped out of Pilip's ad.
In addition, Metzger points out that the Oval Office that the two politicians were dropped into was Donald Trump's, not Joe Biden's, based on a comparison of how the decor shifted when the presidency changed hands. Pilip does not appear to have commented on the new ad.
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