Dan Pfeiffer: “The fundamental mistake of Democrats in the Biden era is that we interpreted the 2020 victory as the American people voting for a return to normalcy after Trump. Because of that analytical error, Biden et al. began touting a return to normalcy and defending the status quo. That’s how we ended up with a message focused on defending democracy rather than reforming it.”

“As we sit here today, Democrats have a good chance of winning the presidency in 2028. If things stay on this trajectory, the 2028 election looks a lot like 2008, and Donald Trump looks like George W. Bush: a toxic incumbent who will drag down his party.”

“But it would be a huge error to treat that win as evidence that voters are yearning for some pre-Trump normalcy. Four of the last five presidential elections have been change elections where voters threw out the party in power. The only exception was Obama’s reelection in 2012.”

“Nancy Mace thinks she knows why she didn’t get President Donald Trump’s endorsement,” Politico reports. 

“The embattled South Carolina House Republican, who’s in the midst of a bruising race for governor, has a long history of bucking — and then cozying back up to — Trump. But her leading role in releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files was likely a bridge too far for the president, who has spent significant time and energy this year to get revenge against his GOP defectors.”

“Trump’s recent decision to back one of Mace’s primary opponents, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, in the crowded field will carry monumental weight in the crimson-red state. Past elections suggest that, with the president’s endorsement, Evette has all but secured her place in a runoff, as Mace and three other Republicans continue to scramble for the second spot on the ballot.”

CBS News: “Outcomes in California’s two most closely watched primaries for governor and Los Angeles mayor remained unresolved Saturday evening, but new results saw the mayoral race tighten significantly as voters await who will advance to the November election in both key races.”

Wall Street Journal: “One of this year’s biggest political gambles began at 5:30 a.m. one day last July, when liberal activists Daniel Moraff and Leanne Fan showed up at the home of Graham Platner, a combat veteran and oyster farmer in this forested town.”

“Moraff and Fan had no ties to Maine or to the Democratic Party’s election machinery, which made their mission all the more audacious: to recruit a working-class candidate to run for the U.S. Senate on a populist platform. The idea, Platner recalled telling his visitors, was ‘quite literally the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.'”

“Nearly a year later, it has become clear just how big a gamble it was. Platner, 41 years old, has improbably become the Democratic Party’s presumed nominee in one of its most important Senate elections. In doing so, he has saddled the party with the risks of an untested candidate who has a messy life story.”