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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* While on the presidential campaign trail in New Hampshire, Gov. Ron DeSantis had no interest in telling local voters about the far-right abortion bans the Florida Republican signed into law.
* Speaking of DeSantis, much of the right has tried to make “ballot harvesting” a controversial practice, but the GOP governor said yesterday that he has every intention of using the practice as part of his candidacy.
* Donald Trump, taking a veiled rhetorical shot at his intra-party Florida rival, told voters in Iowa yesterday, “I don’t like the term ‘woke’ because I hear ‘woke woke woke’ — it’s just a term they use, half the people can’t even define it, they don’t know what it is.” Soon after, the former president sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, and used the term anyway.
* On a related note, during an appearance in the Hawkeye State, Trump also said Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds “was not going to win” without his support. It wasn’t altogether clear how he arrived at this conclusion.
* In Maryland’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, Angela Alsobrooks got a big boost yesterday, picking up an endorsement from Rep. Steny Hoyer, a former House majority leader. The move was all the more notable because Rep. Jamie Raskin hasn’t yet said whether he intends to run.
* Bill Gates, the Republican county supervisor in Arizona’s Maricopa County, is stepping down after more than a decade on the job. Gates’ national profile rose after he combatted right-wing election conspiracy theories in the wake of the 2020 race.
* After his failed presidential campaign in 2016, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie became a political analyst for ABC News. Now that the Republican is poised to run again, the network has suspended its relationship with the former governor.