"As Democrats play defense in U.S. Senate races this year, two battleground-state incumbents start out ahead in their reelection campaigns," CBS News reports.
"Bob Casey in Pennsylvania and Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin are currently leading their lesser-known Republican challengers by seven points."
- PA-Sen: YouGov for CBS: Bob Casey (D-inc): 46, Dave McCormick (R): 39
- WI-Sen: YouGov for CBS: Tammy Baldwin (D-inc): 48, Eric Hovde (R): 41
NEW YORK 26TH DISTRICT SPECIAL ELECTION. Democratic state Sen. Tim Kennedy defeated his Republican opponent, West Seneca Supervisor Gary Dickson, 68-32 in Tuesday's special election to replace former Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democrat who resigned in February to lead a local performing arts center. New York's 26th District, which is based around Buffalo, favored Joe Biden 61-37 in 2020, and there was no major outside spending for either candidate.
Kennedy got some further welcome news earlier that day when election officials announced that former Grand Island Town Supervisor Nate McMurray had failed to submit enough valid petitions to appear on the June 25 Democratic primary ballot.
McMurray, who twice came unexpectedly close to flipping the now-defunct 27th District, acknowledged he wouldn't be able to continue his bid against Kennedy, who is now unopposed for renomination. McMurray may not have been much of a threat to the new congressman even if he had qualified, though, as his campaign was almost penniless at the end of March.
Washington Post reports "When Kennedy is sworn in as a member of the House Democratic conference, it will temporarily shave the chamber's Republican majority to one seat, leaving a small margin for error for party-line agenda items."
"Donald Trump's campaign staff has assembled a dozen dossiers on possible running mates, but they largely remain unopened by the presidential candidate, who's conducting his own vetting process by asking friends, consultants, and insiders whom they think he should pick and why," The Bulwark reports.
"In these discussions, two names consistently rise to the top: Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, who was this weekend the subject of a flattering story in the New York Times and has been pushed by Don Jr."
"But Rubio has strong support in Trump's circle of advisers, especially among those with Florida ties. There's just one problem."
"Trump and Rubio are both Florida Men."
"99% of the people claiming they know who's up or who's down are either full of it or have their own agenda. The reality is the only thing Trump is truly focused on right now is his own trial."— A person in Donald Trump's inner circle, quoted by Semafor, on Trump picking a running mate.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is quickly moving up former President Trump's list of possible vice presidential picks because Trump's team believes he would be a safe choice who could attract moderate voters, Axios reports.
"Joe Biden's path to reelection has become increasingly clear: It's the Rust Belt or bust," Politico reports.
"The alternative route to the White House he appeared to break open in 2020 — winning Arizona and Georgia on the strength of changing Sun Belt demographics — would be far more challenging this time."
"While polls broadly show Biden continuing to fall behind former President Donald Trump in swing states across the country, they consistently show the older, whiter states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as the most competitive for Biden. Trump has larger leads in the Sun Belt states, in large part owing to Biden's loss of support with younger voters and voters of color."
A three-judge federal district court panel barred the use of Louisiana's new congressional map in a ruling on Tuesday evening, concluding that the redrawn 6th District violated the Constitution because map-makers impermissibly relied on race when crafting the district. The court said it would hold a status conference with the parties on Monday to begin discussing a remedy.
It's not yet clear how this ruling will interact with a separate federal case pending in Baton Rouge. In that lawsuit, a different judge ruled two years ago that Louisiana could not use its previous map because it likely violated the Voting Rights Act by failing to create a second district where Black voters could elect their preferred candidates.
John Hendrickson: "In the book, the governor recalls the day she realized that her puppy, Cricket, had crossed the line from poorly behaved menace to, well, a problem that needed solving. Noem led Cricket to a gravel pit. Then she pulled the trigger."
Wrote Noem: "It was not a pleasant job. But it had to be done."
"It's the phrase gravel pit that stands out most—imagery fit for a Cormac McCarthy novel. Typically, campaign books don't scream 'literature.' They're more or less marketing tools meant to showcase a politician's character and leadership skills. Noem likely believed that recounting this saga (in addition to a story about killing a goat) would serve as a testament to her courage and her rural bona fides, endearing her to millions of potential voters. Instead, Noem publishing these sentences may one day be remembered as the gravest mistake of her career."
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) has "no shot" at being Donald Trump's running mate after revealing in a forthcoming book that she shot and killed her puppy, the New York Post reports.
Said one Trump ally: "Trump isn't a dog person necessarily, but I think he understands that you can't choose a puppy killer as your pick, for blatantly obvious reasons."
Amanda Marcotte: Noem doubled down on dog-killing to win over MAGA — now her story is backfiring in her face.
Rolling Stone: "Several Republicans close to Trump — who, admittedly, are aligned with others vying for the Trump VP slot, or who simply don't like Noem — are using the MAGA governor's story of shooting and killing an unruly puppy to try to help nuke the former president's opinion of her."
"In the days since the story from Noem's memoir went viral, multiple Trump allies and confidants flagged the dog-killing and press coverage of it directly to Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter and another source briefed on it, hoping it would cause him to view her as an out-of-touch buffoon."
"Vice President Kamala Harris made a new effort to energize Black voters in battleground states on Monday, visiting Atlanta for the kickoff of a national economic tour that will highlight how the Biden administration says its policies are helping a constituency that will be vital to Democrats' success in November," the New York Times reports.
"Speaking to a largely Black crowd of about 400 people, Ms. Harris laid out ways that she and President Biden have sought to improve Black Americans' upward mobility and help them realize their business ambitions."
"Donald Trump and the Democratic National Committee are hammering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His supporters are thrilled," Politico reports.
"As Kennedy raised money in a series of private events Monday inside the downtown Boston hotel where he launched his quixotic presidential bid just over a year ago, attendee after attendee said they were convinced the bipartisan pile-on would only aid the independent candidate."
"As Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s independent presidential campaign mounts a bruising state-by-state battle for ballot access, he has often credited enthusiastic volunteers and grass-roots backers with driving the effort," the New York Times reports.
"In fact, the operation has become increasingly reliant on consultants and paid petitioners whose signature-gathering work has yielded mixed results and raised questions of impropriety, even among Mr. Kennedy's fans. In order to get Mr. Kennedy on the ballot in all 50 states, as is his goal, his campaign has deployed a multipart strategy: aggressive legal action, shrewd political alliances and surprise filing tactics meant to slow or prevent challenges."
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign has hired a former top spokesperson to hard-right Republican candidates who has called the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol "Democrat misdirection," NBC News reports.
Pro-life activist Randall Terry was nominated as the Constitution Party's presidential candidate, Ballot Access News reports. He is likely to be on the ballot in battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
"Donald Trump is slated to attend a fundraiser in swing-state Nevada in June as he looks to close the money gap with President Joe Biden ahead of their November rematch," Bloomberg reports.
"Tickets for the event range from $1,000 per person to a 'Team 47' ticket at $844,600 per couple, the maximum donation to Trump and the Republican Party's joint fundraising entity."
"Donald Trump will make another stop in Wisconsin this week for a campaign rally as his criminal hush money trial continues in New York," USA Today reports.
"The Republican National Committee was poised to open and staff 40 satellite campaign offices across key battlegrounds when former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive GOP nominee, abruptly replaced RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and her deputies with fresh leadership," The Dispatch reports.
"Trump's new RNC team, led by Chairman Michael Whatley, Co-Chair (and Trump's daughter-in-law) Lara Trump, and senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita, killed McDaniel's 2024 blueprint. Roughly six weeks later, neither the committee nor the Trump campaign has much infrastructure or personnel in the swing states that will decide the November 5 election."
"That means few if any regional and local campaign headquarters; little to no deployed field staff; and little to no traditional voter turnout activities, such as door-knocking, phone banking, or volunteer organizing. Even after the Trump-led RNC's reimagined field program eventually emerges, their strategy is to concentrate almost exclusively on the half-dozen states that will determine Trump's fate. Republicans elsewhere? They're on their own."
"As Donald Trump campaigns for a return to the White House, he often reaches back more than 40 years and seven administrations to belittle President Joe Biden by comparing him to 99-year-old Jimmy Carter," the AP reports.
"Most recently, Trump used his first campaign stop after the start of his criminal hush money trial in New York to needle the 46th president by saying the 39th president, a recently widowed hospice patient who left office in 1981, was selfishly pleased with Biden's record."
Said Trump: "Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot. Jimmy Carter is happy because he had a brilliant presidency compared to Biden."
Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) announced he is back into drag after 18 years. He had previously denied he'd ever been a drag performer.
New York Times: "Among archconservative House members, only [Republican Pennsylvania Representative Scott] Perry must sell those same views to voters in a politically competitive district… Perry, a historically lackluster fund-raiser who has had to divert substantial donations to paying for legal fees relating to his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, finds himself increasingly at risk."
WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT. Court of Appeals Judge Pedro Colón, a liberal jurist who had been considering a bid for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, told WisPolitics on Friday that he would not run in next year's open-seat race.
Colón did, however, say he could seek a seat on the court in the future. Following the April contest for the spot held by retiring liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, two conservatives will be up for election in the ensuing two years: Rebecca Bradley in 2026 and Annette Ziegler in 2027.
Colón's move means that Dane County Circuit Court Susan Crawford is the only progressive still weighing a bid. WisPolitics reports that she says she is "continuing to do her due diligence in exploring a run."
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