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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* As primary results in Maryland come in, it looks like Republican voters ignored outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan’s advice and instead nominated Trump-backed state Del. Dan Cox in the GOP’s gubernatorial primary.
* The latest national CNN poll found Democrat and Republicans tied on the congressional generic ballot, with both parties garnering 46 percent support. It’s worth noting for context that a CNN poll in May showed the GOP with a seven-point advantage.
* In Florida’s U.S. Senate race, Republican incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio is launching a series of new attack ads targeting Democratic Rep. Val Demings, including one ad slamming the congresswoman for using TikTok.
* On a related note, Rubio was a little more honest than he probably intended to be on Fox News this week, saying the network helps Republicans get the party’s message out “without having to pay for it.”
* Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers was formally censured by his own Republican Party last night in the wake of his cooperation with the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation. The state GOP chair declared that Bowers, a lifelong conservative Republican who’s done nothing wrong, “is no longer a Republican in good standing.”
* In Georgia’s U.S. Senate race, Republican Herschel Walker managed to deliver a 10-minute stump speech in which he didn’t say anything utterly bonkers, so The New York Times published an article about the success of the “team of Republican operatives who have swooped in to turn around his campaign.”
* And former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s comeback bid has come to a rather abrupt end: The Democrat, who previously eyed the presidency and the governor’s office, announced yesterday that he’s ending his congressional campaign because “people are looking for another option.”