Axios: “Almost every dealmaker and executive Axios spoke with bemoaned White House trade policy, at least in execution, arguing that it threatens the very golden age that Trump has promised.”
“But they also believe that the midterm elections, which don’t take place for another 18 months, will act as a bulwark.”
“Three of President Trump’s top political lieutenants are abandoning the campaign of Arizona gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson (R) amid a flap that led Trump to simultaneously endorse a second Republican in the 2026 primary,” Axios reports.
“The exodus from Robson’s campaign came after Trump’s advisers spent months urging her to air TV ads promoting his endorsement — which she’d promised to do.”
“Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) has announced his bid to run for Senate in 2026, confirming speculations that he would join the quickly expanding field of primary competitors looking to win the safe Democratic seat left open by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who is retiring at the end of his term,” ABC News reports.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said she could win either the Georgia governor’s race or Senate primary if she chooses to run, NewsNation reports.
Said Greene: “The polling shows I can win the governor’s primary or I can win the Senate primary. That’s a choice that I can make, and I’ll give it some thought.”
“When Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s poll numbers started plummeting in the Ohio governor’s race earlier this year, he started looking for an offramp,” NOTUS reports.
“Yost didn’t just want to drop out; he wanted an appointment in the Trump administration that would allow him to save face as he ended his gubernatorial bid.”
“After months of angling for an appointment, he got one. In April, the Trump administration offered Yost the position of ambassador to Cyprus.”
“But Yost didn’t want it… He rejected the appointment, apparently seeking a more prominent position than an ambassadorship to a small island nation in the Mediterranean.”
Charlie Cook: “While Democrats’ odds of taking back the Senate are long, an announcement Monday afternoon should remind us why we can’t dismiss the possibility entirely.”
“Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s declaration that he would not challenge freshman Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff next year means more than the GOP not having its strongest horse. It means greater chances that Georgia Republican primary voters will nominate the kind of candidate that I describe as ‘exotic and potentially problematic…'”
“Don’t forget that Republicans managed to punt away as many as four Senate seats over the last two election cycles by nominating candidates in swing and near-swing states who might have been able to win in deeply red states but not purple states.”
“President Donald Trump endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy on the night Ramaswamy kicked off his campaign to be Ohio’s next governor,” NBC News reports.
“More than two months later, term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine is scrambling behind the scenes to keep the Ohio Republican Party from following Trump’s lead.”
“DeWine and his advisers are working to deny Ramaswamy an endorsement when the state party meets Friday.”
“Senator Chuck Schumer and his allies are working aggressively to stretch a Senate map that offers precious few opportunities for Democrats to reclaim a majority in 2026, recruiting deep into the country’s most conservative corners to find viable candidates in red states,” the New York Times reports.
“Democrats have grown more bullish about their midterm prospects as President Trump’s approval rating has sagged.”
“But Democrats also confront the brutal reality of a map where all but two of the 22 Republican seats up for election are in states that Mr. Trump carried by at least 10 percentage points in 2024.”
Angus King III, the son of Sen. Angus King (I-ME), told Semafor that he’s running to succeed term-limited Gov. Janet Mills (D) in 2026.
“Unlike his independent father, King is running for the Democratic nomination — joining what should be a competitive primary in a state where Republicans (except Susan Collins) have struggled to win key races over the past eight years.”
CNN: “Even though Democratic leaders are wary of a third impeachment vote, the topic has become a prominent discussion in GOP ranks, with Trump eager to avoid another all-consuming showdown with an emboldened Democratic majority and Republican leaders banking the talk could help drive up turnout in an election where Trump won’t be at the top of the ticket.”
Said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA): “It is a key priority of his, obviously, to keep the House majority, because he knows what would happen if we didn’t. Democrats have already said they’re gonna try another baseless impeachment. They’ll do their best to grind the agenda to a halt.”
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) has filed to run for Congress against Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), the Bangor Daily News reports.
Golden is weighing a gubernatorial run.
“Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is boasting a 99% voting record with President Trump in a new memo,” Axios reports.
“The four-term senator and his firebrand primary challenger, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, are battling to win Trump’s coveted endorsement in what is quickly shaping up to be the most dramatic and expensive GOP primary of the cycle.”
“Democrats acknowledge Roy Cooper as their strongest potential candidate to run for Senate in North Carolina in 2026,” NOTUS reports.
“Yet with the former governor undecided and the odds of him launching a bid still being around fifty-fifty, some Democrats are at least starting to reckon with the question: If not Cooper, then who?”
“Serving as governor used to be a stepping stone to the Senate. These days, not so much,” NOTUS reports.
“Governors are refusing to run for open Senate seats — despite heavy lobbying from the national parties — and sitting senators are opting to run for governor rather than for re-election. The Senate’s current slate of governors-turned-senators say there’s a good reason why.”
Said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD): “They see the same thing that we see in terms of a dysfunctional operation in the Senate and the House. We don’t even do appropriations. We do continuing resolutions. We’re not able to build consensus. Those are not good things.”
A new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll in Georgia finds Brian Kemp (R) just ahead of Sen. Jon Ossoff (R) in a possible U.S. Senate match up, 49% to 46%.
However, Ossoff would crush Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) is she were the nominee, 54% to 37%.
A growing wave of young Democrats have launched congressional bids to shake up the party’s ranks by ousting incumbent House members in deep blue seats, CNN reports.
They see voter frustrations with what they’ve described as Democrats’ ineffective response to President Donald Trump’s actions as a mandate to remake the party.
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball says Arizona and Michigan start as the only two Toss-ups in their initial 2025/2026 gubernatorial ratings.
However: “The high number of open seats makes us think that we could see an upset or two in a state we might not expect.”
CNN commentator Scott Jennings is apparently mulling a bid for U.S. Senate from Kentucky, the Daily Beast reports.
But he’s taking his cues from President Trump: “If the president wants me, I’ll run. If he wants somebody else, I’ll support that candidate.”
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.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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