Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In CNN's new national poll, Democrats lead Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, 50% to 42%. That eight-point advantage is up from a three-point lead Dems had in the same poll last month.
* In West Virginia, a Monmouth University poll found Sen. Joe Manchin (D), a top GOP target this year, leading state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R), 49% to 42% in a head-to-head match-up.
* In West Virginia's 3rd congressional district, the same poll found Richard Ojeda (D) narrowly leading Carol Miller (R), 43% to 41%, which wouldn't be especially notable were it not for the fact that Donald Trump won this same district by literally 50 points two years ago.
* In North Dakota's U.S. Senate race, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R) yesterday defended the Trump administration's policy of keeping immigrant children in chain-link pens, arguing, "Chain link fences are around playgrounds all over America, all over North Dakota. And chain link fences allow line-of-sight visual connectivity with children and families.... You know, there's nothing inhumane about a chain link fence. If it is, then every ballpark in America is inhumane."
* Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has reportedly approved "a plan to pour at least $80 million" into the 2018 election cycle, with the hopes of helping elect a Democratic majority in the U.S. House.
* That will be excellent news to officials at the DNC, who find themselves in a difficult financial spot. The Washington Post reported today, "The Republican National Committee entered the summer with nearly twice the fundraising power of its Democratic counterpart."
* Voters in Michigan will have an opportunity to vote this year on an anti-gerrymandering measure.
* In Wisconsin, a new Marquette University Law School poll found Tony Evers, superintendent of the state's schools, as the leading candidate in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, though many of the state's Dems remain undecided. In a hypothetical general election match-up, the poll also found incumbent Gov. Scott Walker (R) leading Evers by just four points, 48% to 44%.
* RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was supposed to speak at the National Association of Latino Elected Officials' annual conference this week. She "abruptly" canceled yesterday.
* And the latest survey from the Pew Research Center found Democratic voters more engaged than Republican voters in a midterm cycle for the first time since 2006 (which makes sense since that was the most recent cycle in which there was a GOP president in office).