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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* It’s Election Day in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, where local voters will fill the vacancy left by disgraced former Rep. George Santos. Most expect a close race between Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi and Republican Mazi Pilip.
* Though there was widespread Republican skepticism about Kari Lake’s Senate campaign in Arizona, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has decided to endorse the election denier’s candidacy. The NRSC’s Democratic counterparts responded to the news with a statement that read in part, “An election loser despised by Arizona Republicans, Lake brings massive baggage and disqualifying flaws to the campaign. We’re thrilled with the NRSC’s choice. Lake is the perfect candidate — to lose the race.”
* With 11 days to go before South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary, the latest CBS News/YouGov poll found Donald Trump with a massive lead over Nikki Haley in her own home state, 65% to 30%.
* In related news, Haley is trying to capitalize on the former president’s controversial rhetoric over the weekend about NATO and her husband’s military deployment.
* Haley’s presidential campaign also launched a new television ad this week, investing $2 million into a commercial characterizing Trump as a tax-raiser who’s weak on Russia.
* For his part, Trump argued by way of his social media platform that he believes his former ambassador to the United Nations “has become a crazed lunatic.”
* And while it seemed unlikely in the recent past, Trump and the far-right Club for Growth “appear to have made peace.”