Morning Headlines
- The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democrats’ primary campaign and fundraising arm aimed at supporting and electing House Democrats, announced an ad buy of over $400,000 in the Grand Rapids Media Market for the week leading up to the heavily contested MI-03 Primary. The DCCC aims to boost the Trump-endorsed John Gibbs over Trump-impeacher Peter Meijer, hoping to make the seat more winnable for Democrats in the general election. Given that Biden carried this seat by over 8% in 2020, Gibbs is indeed unlikely to hold the seat for more than one cycle. But the very principle of the act has proven to be extremely unpopular with House Democrats. Democratic Congresspeople called the act “disgusting,” “very dangerous,” and “wrong,” especially since Gibbs could hold the seat during the 2024 presidential election. This continues Sean Patrick Maloney’s tumultuous lead of the DCCC, which also included him switching districts from NY-18 to NY-17 to bolster his re-election chances.
- Alex Lasry, son of Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Mark Lasry, dropped out of the Wisconsin Democratic Senate primary this morning and endorsed Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes. Given that Lasry was polling in second place, behind Barnes but well above Wisconsin State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, his endorsement effectively decides the primary. Barnes is extremely likely to advance to the general election, where he will face incumbent GOP Senator Ron Johnson. We give Johnson about a 95% chance to hold the seat in the most recent DecisionDeskHQ Forecast.
- OH-14 GOP Representative David Joyce was elected the lead the Republican Governance Group, a caucus of over 40 moderate Republicans. The previous chair of the caucus, John Katko, is retiring in 2022. Although Joyce did not vote for Trump’s impeachment (Katko did), he did vote for the bipartisan committee established to investigate the January 6th riot at the Capitol. Joyce is, like Katko, a massive electoral over-performer in his district, which he won by 21% in 2020 as Trump only carried it by 9%.
- Voters in Tunisia chose to give the President “sweeping” powers in a referendum in the North African nation. Over 90% of voters chose to give the president more authoritative powers, effectively overturning the last remnants of the Arab Spring.
- Over at Elections Daily, Head of the Elections Team Joe Szymanski outlines some rating changes in 2022 House Races.
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