Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 190
Trump Is Everywhere
The Republican Party of Virginia mailed out several thousand explicit political fliers to voters featuring screenshots from state House candidate Susanna Gibson’s (D) public porn livestream, WWBT reports.
The envelopes read: “Do not open if you are under the age of 18,″ and “Warning: Explicit material enclosed.”
“Last fall, voters in deep red Kentucky delivered a win for Democrats when they rejected an amendment that would have written opposition to abortion into the state constitution,” NBC News reports.
“This year, state Democrats are again banking that voters will side with protecting abortion rights. They’re putting the issue front and center in the closely watched governor’s race on Nov. 7, hoping it will help boost Gov. Andy Beshear to another term.”
Cook Political Report: “Among the trio of this year’s off-year gubernatorial contests, Mississippi has emerged as the most surprising race.”
“Republican Gov. Tate Reeves still has the edge, according to Republicans and Democrats nationally and locally we’ve talked to, but it’s morphed into a competitive fight with added intrigue heading into Election Day thanks to an unusually strong challenger in Brandon Presley. There is also an increasing scenario that neither candidate will top 50% on Nov. 7, which means the contest could head to a runoff three weeks later.”
A new Democratic Governor’s Association poll in Mississippi finds Gov. Tate Reeves (R) leading challenger Brandon Presley (D) 46% to 45%, with nearly 10% still undecided 15 days from the election.
The poll also shows that among those undecided voters, 68% have an unfavorable opinion of Reeves, while just 2% view him favorably.
Daily Beast: “The GOP’s gubernatorial candidate in Kentucky — state Attorney General Daniel Cameron — ran public service announcements at a conspicuous time. Google said they were political ads, not PSAs.”
Celeste Maloy (R), who is running in the special election to replace Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), is first cousins with Ammon Bundy, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Her uncle is anti-government extremist Cliven Bundy.
“Democrats are about to find out how worried they need to be about Black voter support,” Politico reports.
“After a lot of hand-wringing in recent years, elections next month in Mississippi and Virginia — two Southern states with large Black populations — will offer one final, robust read going into 2024 on the extent of the slippage among Democrats’ most reliable bloc of voters.”
“The warning signs have been flashing.”
“Abortion has surged as a key issue for women and Democrats for the Nov. 7 legislative elections in Virginia, the last state in the South to hold out against restrictions on the procedure in the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade,” according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll.
“Virginia’s off-year contests are the country’s only major races this year and could signal the national political mood heading into the 2024 presidential election.”
A Baldwin Wallace University poll in Ohio finds the proposed abortion rights amendment would pass if the election was held today, 58% to 34% with 8% undecided.
“The proposed amendment would add a section into the state constitution that says everyone has the right to make and carry out their own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to contraception, fertility treatment, pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion. The state could generally regulate abortion at viability, around 22 to 24 weeks, but could not prohibit it if deemed necessary to protect a woman’s life or health in the professional judgment of her treating physician”
The election is just 20 days away.
“The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is spending six figures in ads for Virginia House races amplifying the GOP rifts in the speaker fight,” Politico reports.
“This spending from the DLCC is the latest example of Democrats starting to broaden messaging against Republicans with the speaker’s race as a key cudgel.”
Jeff Landry (R) will win the race for Louisiana governor outright, without a runoff, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports.
Landry competed alongside more than a dozen other people in the jungle primary.
Geoffrey Skelley: “Louisiana is undoubtedly a red state. But in 2015 and 2019, it went against the grain by electing and reelecting Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards. As a result, Louisiana — which former President Donald Trump carried by 19 percentage points in 2020 — is the second-most Republican-leaning state with a Democratic governor, behind only Kentucky.”
“On Saturday, though, Louisianans will head to the polls to potentially decide their next governor, and it looks like a red wave could wash over the blue bayou.”
Gabrielle Hanson, who is running for mayor in Franklin, Tennessee, refused to denounce a white supremacist group that has supported her during the campaign, WTVF reports.
Sadi Hanson to the board of Alderman: “This is the old adage of you reap what you sow.”
She added: “You’ve planted seeds for years and years against our citizens, and they are coming to harvest… It’s easy to shift all the blame. I just happened to arrive at a time when everything was starting to crumble.”
“Democratic donors are going big on stopping Gov. Glenn Youngkin from taking control of the Virginia legislature,” Politico reports.
“The States Project is investing more than $4.5 million in next month’s Virginia legislative races, building on its successful investment to flip several statehouses in 2022.”
A new Emerson College poll in Kentucky finds Gov. Andy Beshear (D) leading challenger Daniel Cameron (R) in the race for governor, 49% to 33%.
Five percent plan to vote for someone else, while 13% are undecided.
A Republican candidate for State Assembly in New Jersey plead guilty to smearing fecal matter on the doors of a children’s daycare center in a 2009 neighborhood dispute with the owner, the New Jersey Globe reports.
Said Joseph Viso: “It was done before anyone got hurt. I’m not going to defend it. It was wrong. I was a young man. It was a horrible time, and I made a mistake. Obama came into office the year before.”
“The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is pumping another $1 million into Virginia’s high-stakes legislative elections this fall, doubling its commitment for the year,” Axios reports.
“For Democrats, abortion is on the ballot in Virginia’s off-year election, when all 140 seats are up in the state House and Senate.”
A new University of Mary Washington Poll in Virginia finds Democrats with a narrow lead in the upcoming legislative elections, 40% to 37%.
The most important finding: By a 57% to 35% margin, Virginians want abortion to remain legal “all” or “most” cases.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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