Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah cities and towns will have to push their municipal elections back a couple of weeks as lawmakers will postpone the elections in order to replace outgoing Rep. Chris Stewart in Congress as soon as they legally can.”
“It will be the first time in at least the last several decades, and perhaps in Utah history, that a general election will not be held on the first Tuesday in November.”
“Former Colorado state senator Mike Johnston claimed victory as opponent Kelly Brough conceded Tuesday night in a runoff election to become Denver’s next mayor,” the AP reports.
“Republican worries are growing that Colorado is slipping further into the hands of Democrats after recent defeats and close calls in the most conservative parts of the state,” The Hill reports.
“The latest blow to the GOP in the Centennial State came this week when Republicans lost the mayoral race in Colorado Springs, marking the first time in decades that a member of the party wouldn’t take the helm of the conservative bastion.”
You are reading the free version of Political Wire.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) “is set to issue a third round of endorsements Thursday in Virginia legislative races, backing 19 more Republican candidates, including six who are in contested primaries,” the AP reports.
“Republicans suffered surprising losses Tuesday in mayoral races in Jacksonville, Fla., and Colorado Springs, dealing a blow to the GOP in two longtime conservative strongholds and highlighting the limits of waging hyperpartisan campaign battles in local races,” the Washington Post reports.
“The battle lines are drawn in what could be the hardest-fought election of 2023: Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear will run for a second term against Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron,” NBC News reports.
“Cameron started the GOP primary as the front-runner, but before he won the nomination Tuesday, he had to manage a challenge from opponents including Kelly Craft, the former ambassador to the United Nations, who sank millions of her own dollars into an unsuccessful bid. Now Republicans turn to the general election, where they face a new fight: dethroning the popular Beshear, no easy task even with the state’s rightward lean.”
After Daniel Cameron (R) won the Republican nomination to challenge Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), the Cook Political Report rates the race as Lean Democrat.
Minutes after Cherelle Parker (D) won the Democratic mayoral primary in Philadelphia, her supporters learned that she would not be able to attend her election party due to an emergency, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
She was apparently hospitalized for a “dental emergency.”
“Let me just say, the Trump culture of winning is alive and well in Kentucky!”
— Daniel Cameron (R), quoted by Politico, after winning the GOP nomination for governor. Ron DeSantis had backed his challenger, Kelly Craft (R).
“Democrats maintained their narrow Pennsylvania House majority Tuesday by winning a special election and along with it continued control over how the chamber will handle abortion, gun rights and election law legislation,” the AP reports.
“Heather Boyd won a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives representing the Philadelphia suburbs, beating Republican Katie Ford for a vacancy created by the resignation of Democratic Rep. Mike Zabel. Zabel quit the Legislature in March, shortly after a lobbyist accused him of sexually harassing her.”
“Yemi Mobolade, a Nigerian immigrant and businessman with no political experience, will be the first elected Black mayor of Colorado Springs after he defeated Wayne Williams on Tuesday night in the city’s runoff contest,” the Colorado Sun reports.
“Mobolade had received 57% of the vote to Williams’ 43% as of 7:15 p.m. Tuesday. Williams conceded at about 7:30 p.m.”
Former TV anchor Donna Deegan (D) beat JAX Chamber CEO Daniel Davis (R) “in a stunning upset for Jacksonville mayor, becoming the first woman ever and only the second Democrat to win a mayor’s race here in three decades despite Davis outraising her four-to-one,” the Tributary reports.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R), who’s backed by Donald Trump, is projected to win the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, the Lexington Herald Leader reports.
He will face Gov. Andy Beshear (D) in the fall election.
“Kentucky Republicans are heading to the polls Tuesday to pick the party’s nominee to take on incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, in what is expected to be one of the most high-profile gubernatorial contests this year,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The political parties will be scrutinizing the Kentucky governor’s race, along with the ones in Louisiana and Mississippi, for clues about voter sentiment ahead of the 2024 presidential election.”
The final Emerson College Polling/Fox 56 Lexington survey of Kentucky Republican primary voters finds Attorney General Daniel Cameron with 33% support, followed by former UN Ambassador Kelly Craft with 18%.
Agricultural Commissioner Ryan Quarles trails with 13%, and Eric Deters holds 10%.
An Emerson College Polling/PHL17 survey of Philadelphia Democratic primary voters finds a tight race for mayor ahead of the May 16 election.
Helen Gym leads the field with 21%, followed by Cherelle Parker with 18%, Rebecca Rhynhart with 18%, and Allan Domb with 14%. Jeff Brown trails with 10%.
Former U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft (R), who is running in a hotly contested primary race for Kentucky governor, promised that, if elected, “we will not have transgenders in our school system.” the AP reports.
“As Kentucky’s GOP primary campaign sprints toward the finish line, some Republicans are looking ahead to the November election with an eye toward who best can reclaim the governorship — a job that the state’s dominant party has struggled to hold despite its strong showing in other races,” the AP reports.
“With candidates dashing from the hills of Appalachia to the suburbs of Lexington and Louisville and rural communities out west, some of the voters they meet along the way say they are basing decisions in the May 16 primary mostly on which Republican would pose the toughest challenge to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who is facing nominal party opposition.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.