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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* As expected, Sen. Joe Manchin appeared at a campaign-style event in New Hampshire yesterday with the No Labels organization, fueling speculation that the conservative West Virginia Democrat might run for president and indirectly help Republicans take back the White House. In an interview with NBC News, Manchin declined to rule out a national candidacy.
* President Joe Biden announced this morning that his re-election campaign headquarters will be located in Wilmington, Delaware.
* Sen. Ron Johnson recently repaid himself hundreds of thousands of dollars for loans he made to his earlier statewide campaigns, which is legal, but which is the opposite of what the Wisconsin Republican said he’d do.
* In recent months, Gov. Brian Kemp seemed to leave the door slightly ajar when asked about a possible presidential campaign, but yesterday, the Georgia Republican closed that door altogether, telling CNN that he’s “certainly not running” for the White House next year.
* The examples of campaigns using AI in advertising keep piling up: A super PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid uses a computer-generated version of Donald Trump’s voice in a new ad that will run in Iowa.
* As ridiculous as this might seem, Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy appeared at a far-right event late last week and claimed that “pervasive censorship“ was the cause of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He did not appear to be kidding.
* Speaking of Ramaswamy, the first-time GOP candidate yesterday released a list of conservatives he’d consider for the U.S. Supreme Court. Among the more notable names were two sitting Republican U.S. senators: Texas’ Ted Cruz and Utah’s Mike Lee.
* And ahead of next year’s election cycle, the Republican Parties in Michigan and Minnesota appear to be struggling financially. The Daily Beast reported that the Minnesota GOP’s latest Federal Election Commission filing said it had just $53.81 cash on hand, while The Detroit News reported that the Michigan GOP’s latest filing said it had about $93,000 in its bank accounts — a total party insiders characterized as “alarming.”