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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* A new Mississippi Today/Siena College poll suggests Gov. Tate Reeves is by no means a lock for re-election this fall: The incumbent Republican leads Democrat Brandon Presley, a four-term public service commissioner, by only four points: 43% to 39%.
* It took a while, but in the wake of the midterm elections, Alaska’s tripartisan state House has finally settled on a new speaker, electing Republican Rep. Cathy Tilton yesterday.
* Though Donald Trump is currently the only GOP presidential candidate in the 2024 field, the Republican National Committee apparently expects that to change: Party officials have reportedly met with network executives about hosting presidential primary debates later this year.
* On a related note, the former Republican president is apparently feeling a bit defensive about the fact that his 2024 campaign isn’t doing much. “Do not fear, MANY GIANT RALLIES and other events coming up soon,” Trump wrote this morning by way of his social media platform. “It will all be wild and exciting.”
* In Wisconsin, Robert Spindell, a Republican state election official and former fake elector, recently celebrated depressed turnout among Black and Hispanic voters in the state. As the Associated Press reported, Democrats are now calling for his removal from the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
* Rep. Jim Banks has already launched a Republican Senate campaign in Indiana, but former Purdue University president and former two-term Gov. Mitch Daniels is reportedly set to soon join him. Mark Lubbers, Daniels’ closest advisor and confidante, told Politico that the race could be “ground zero of the Republican Civil War.” Banks, he added, “has become the proxy for beating everything that’s gone wrong since the grifters took over our party. This is Gettysburg.”
* And in Arizona, it’s not yet clear which Republicans will run in next year’s U.S. Senate race, but The Washington Post reported that failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is “considering” another campaign, as is failed Senate candidate Blake Masters, who conceded he’s “seriously” eyeing another statewide bid.