By
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola won re-election in Alaska last week, defeating former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin. The Republican enjoyed Donald Trump’s backing, but she fell far short anyway.
* On a related note, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski also won re-election last week, defeating her far-right rival, Kelly Tshibaka, a former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner. Trump hoped to defeat Murkowski because of her vote last year to convict him after his impeachment.
* And before we move on from Alaska, incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy also won re-election. As the Anchorage Daily News noted, he’s the first Alaska governor to earn a second consecutive term since Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles in 1998.
* Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff election is a week from tomorrow, and early voting began on Saturday.
* In related news, there will be no debate between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker ahead of the Dec. 6 election, though the Republican said he is willing to debate MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid. “Any day of the week she want to debate, she can show up here and I’ll debate her,” Walker said last week, adding, “She can come up with the subject, and let’s go at it.”
* For her part, Reid said on the air that Walker is welcome on the program, just so long as he doesn’t appear with another Republican sitting next to him.
* And speaking of Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, fresh off his successful re-election campaign, has reportedly created a new federal political action committee that will help him build a national profile. There’s already speculation that the governor is eyeing a 2026 race against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.