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Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Civil rights leaders, voting rights advocates and members of the Congressional Black Caucus led a rally on the National Mall over the weekend, demanding Senate support for voting-rights protections. Conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's name came up more than once.
* In related news, NBC News reported this morning on new surveys, commissioned by Fair Fight and conducted by Public Policy Polling, measuring public support for Democrats' voting rights legislation. The polling found broad public support across seven key states for advancing the protections by majority rule, the Senate's 60-vote threshold notwithstanding.
* With time running out in California's gubernatorial recall election, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders stars in a new television ad in support of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Hoping to rally progressive support for the Democratic incumbent, Sanders says in the ad, "The last thing we need is to have some right-wing Republican governor in California." The Vermonter won the state's presidential primary last year with relative ease.
* On a related note, Politico reported this morning that the Democratic Governors Association has invested another $3 million in defense of Newsom, "bringing the national outfit's total outlay to $4.5 million so far." The recall election is Sept. 15.
* Did House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik launch a fundraising campaign based on recent developments in Afghanistan? It sure looks like it.
* Missouri's congressional delegation only has two Democrats left, and one of them may be a victim of gerrymandering. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver told the Kansas City Star, "I hear that literally every day from somebody. So I guess I have to, at this point, assume that it's going to be a serious effort to alter the present construct of the Fifth District."