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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin didn’t just endorse Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s re-election bid, the West Virginian’s leadership PAC gave $10,000 to the Alaskan’s campaign last month.
* Republican Senate hopeful Mehmet Oz wrote multiple columns warning of potential health risks associated with fracking. But now that “Dr. Oz” is running for office in Pennsylvania, he’s endorsing fracking and claiming he didn’t write the columns that were published under his byline.
* It seems hard to believe, but Scott Pruitt, who had a scandalous tenure as head of Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, is reportedly weighing a Republican U.S. Senate campaign in Oklahoma this year.
* Amid reports that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is moving closer to a comeback bid, the New York Democrat told reporters yesterday, “I have a lot of options open, and I’m considering them.”
* It took a while, but a competitive Democrat has launched a gubernatorial campaign in New Hampshire: State Sen. Tom Sherman announced his candidacy this week, hoping to take on Republican incumbent Gov. Chris Sununu, who’s seeking a fourth term.
* The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $19.3 million in February, crushing the record for the party’s best-ever February. As CBS News noted, the DCCC benefited from a $5 million transfer from the Democratic National Committee.
* And in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock made clear this week, “I’ll tell you I believe in science and my faith has no quarrel with science.” He made the comments after being asked about Herschel Walker, his likely Republican rival, who falsely argued this week that the existence of apes disproves evolutionary biology.