Good morning and thank you for checking out the DDHQ Morning News Spotlight. Early primary voting starts in two states today, and special elections are being held in four others. We will have full coverage of it all at DecisionDeskHQ.com.
Morning Headlines
- Early voting starts today for the Indiana and Ohio primaries. Indiana will be voting on its full slate of offices up this year, while Ohio will not be voting on state legislative offices as new maps there have not yet been approved. The Ohio Redistricting Commission gave their arguments to the state’s Supreme Court for why they should not be held in contempt of court after they submitted a fourth attempt at a constitutional map that was only a minor variation on the 3rd map that was already ruled unconstitutional.
- Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has approved a new congressional map drawn by the General Assembly last week. This comes after the initial map, that Governor Hogan vetoed but was overridden by the heavily Democratic General Assembly, was struck down by a judge who called it an extreme partisan gerrymander. The new map contains more compact districts and keeps Maryland’s lone Republican district less competitive.
- Ketanji Brown Jackson picked up the support of two more Republican senators yesterday, all but ensuring that she will ascend to the highest court. Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah announced their intentions to vote for confirmation a year after voting against Judge Jackson’s nomination to a lower court. Her nomination could have a final vote before the Senate as early as Thursday.
- The Senate struck a deal yesterday for $10 billion more in Covid spending that uses unused funds from other Covid bills to pay for more treatments for future outbreaks. It does not include a global vaccination program that many Democrats were pushing for. Republican Senators Blunt, Burr, Graham, and Romney were all key to the negotiations.
- The White House plans to announce today that they will change some federal rules to allow more families to purchase health care plans through ACA marketplaces. Former President Obama will join President Biden at the White House today for the announcement, marking the first time he has returned to the White House since he left office.
- Pakistan is in the midst of a political crisis that is currently playing out in the country’s Supreme Court. Prime Minister Imran Khan moved to dissolve parliament and call early elections in a bid to remain in power. The opposition coalition in response called for a vote of no-confidence to remove the Prime Minister from power. The vote was blocked by Khan’s allies, which enraged the opposition leading them to file a petition with the Supreme Court to decide whether the no-confidence vote could legally be blocked. The Court will continue to hear arguments today.
- The special election to replace Devin Nunes in California’s 22nd Congressional District is taking place today. You can join us tonight for full election results for that race and many other special elections happening across four states today. First polls close in Georgia at 7 p.m. (EDT). Stop by DecisionDeskHQ.com for all the results in one place.
- ICYMI: Sarah Stook over at Elections Daily continues her fantastic series on America’s first ladies with a look at the Civil War and reconstruction era.
Upcoming Elections
| Tues April 5 | GA State House 45 Special General |
| PA State House 19 Special General | |
| PA State House 24 Special General | |
| PA State House 116 Special General | |
| Milwaukee, WI Mayoral Special General | |
| CA US House 22 Special Primary | |
| CA State Assembly 11 Special Primary | |
| CA State Assembly 62 Special Primary | |
| CA State Assembly 80 Special Primary | |
| Thurs April 7 | NY State Assembly 20 Special Election |
| Tues April 19 | CA State Assembly 17 Special General |
| Tues May 3 | Indiana Primary |
| Ohio Primary | |
| MI State House 15 Special General | |
| MI State House 36 Special General | |
| MI State House 43 Special General | |
| MI State House 74 Special General | |
| GA State House 45 Special General Runoff (if necessary) |