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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* It’s Primary Day in Delaware, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. We had an item yesterday afternoon reviewing some of the biggest races worth watching.
* On a related note, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has endorsed state Senate President Chuck Morse in the Granite State’s Republican U.S. Senate primary. That’s not too surprising: Morse is running against retired Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, who called the GOP governor a “Chinese communist sympathizer” and a member of a family that “supports terrorism.” Sununu has responded by saying Bolduc is not “a serious candidate.”
* Why are Republicans nervous about Ohio? Because of polls like this one: The latest Suffolk/USA Today survey found Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan ahead of Republican J.D. Vance, 47% to 46%. In May, the same pollster showed Vance ahead by three points.
* As for the Buckeye State’s gubernatorial race, the news was far more encouraging for the GOP: The Suffolk/USA Today poll found incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine leading former Democratic Mayor Nan Whaley by 15 points.
* In Texas’ gubernatorial race, former Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke is poised to get a big boost from a group called Coulda Been Worse: The new organization is investing $6 million in attack ads targeting Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The name of the group comes from comments Abbott made after the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
* In Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race, Mehmet Oz’s claim to fame is his role as a celebrity physician. With this in mind, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s campaign is running new ads touting Oz’s controversial history of promoting highly dubious medical treatments.
* Speaking of notable ad campaigns, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is launching new spots in Arizona, reminding voters about Republican Blake Masters’ recent rhetoric about privatizing Social Security.
* A striking statistic about U.S. House races for you to be aware of: “Using the latest data from FiveThirtyEight’s 2022 midterm election forecast, we can see that 118 election deniers and eight election doubters have at least a 95 percent chance of winning.”