Month: June 2022

South Carolina congressman who voted for impeachment will fall to Trump-backed challenger, while another incumbent who defied Trump will survive primary, CNN projects

Posted on by CNN.com - RSS Channel - Politics
South Carolina Republican voters on Tuesday split on two US House incumbents who defied former President Donald Trump, renominating Rep. Nancy Mace but souring on Rep. Tom Rice, the first of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump's impeachment last year to fall in a primary.
Posted in Uncategorized

MTG touts climate change ‘benefits’ while bizarrely claiming no one can see Jan. 6 video footage

Posted on by Aldous J Pennyfarthing

You may not have heard of Right Side Broadcasting Network, and if that’s the case—congratulations! You live a rich, full life unadulterated by brain weevils. Obviously, you’re not part of the network’s target demographic, which appears to consist almost entirely of Scott Baio getting shambolically drunk on Boone’s Farm.

But what the network lacks in gravitas it more than makes up for in goofy-ass displays of meretricious nonsense. Enter the ever-benighted Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia’s modest contribution to our slow-rolling apocalypse.

In a recent interview with RSBN’s Brian Glenn, Greene was so gobsmackingly weird, for a moment I thought my Jewish space LASIK surgery was making me hallucinate.

Watch: 

“I thought the Capitol was the most secure building in our country ... There are lots of cameras, but you can’t see the video footage. I don’t know why you can’t.” — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who apparently missed the January 6th committee’s first public hearing pic.twitter.com/OSzcEZhcow

— The Recount (@therecount) June 13, 2022

Transcript!

GREENE: “My third day on the job, the Capitol gets breached and then they blame me and President Trump and many other Republican members of Congress for doing it. I was so shocked, and I’ll tell you what was so shocking, I thought the Capitol was the most secure building in our country at least.”

GLENN: “Right, with thousands of cameras.”

GREENE: “Well, there are lots of cameras, but you can’t see the video footage. I don’t know why you can’t ....”

And in case you haven’t been waterboarded recently, here’s the full hour-plus interview. 

So how does one respond to this? 

For one thing, there is video footage of the attack—including lots of Capitol security footage—and it’s definitely viewable to anyone who cares to look at it. For instance, there’s this NBC News video from Trump’s second impeachment, helpfully titled “Impeachment Managers Show New Graphic Security Footage Of Capitol Riot”:

YouTube Video

Meanwhile, Greene is also convinced that humans aren’t actually hurting the planet by burning fossil fuels—we’re enhancing it! Think of it as our new, improved operating system, Earth 2.0—only without all the usual bugs. No, really. There will be no bugs. They can’t possibly survive what’s coming. Earth 2.0 will be a fungus-and-lungfish paradise, which gives MTG a fighting chance, come to think of it.

Marge Greene presents her scientific argument why global warming is a good thing: “This earth warming and carbon is actually healthy for us.” pic.twitter.com/fw5DMMeSJN

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) June 13, 2022

Transcript:

GREENE: “We’ve already warmed 1 degree Celsius, and do you know what’s happened since then? Here, let me tell you. We have had more food grown since then, which feeds people. We are able to, producing fossil fuels, keep people’s houses warm in the winter. That saves people’s lives. People die in the cold. This Earth warming and carbon is actually healthy for us. It helps us to feed people, it helps keep people alive. … The Earth is more green than it was years and years ago, and that’s because of the Earth warming, that’s because of carbon.”

Uh huh. People do die in the cold, and those deaths are strongly correlated with both climate change and Ted Cruz wearing flip-flops in airports. Meanwhile, plenty of people also die in the heat, but never mind those jabronis.

In January 2021—with a big assist from our worst-ever president—Georgia was kind enough to gift us two Democratic U.S. senators. They also gave us this moist, quavering mound of peach tree-dish detritus.

Do better, Georgia. You can start by making wiser choices this November.

Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE.

We talk to gun control advocate and executive director of Guns Down America, Igor Volsky on Daily Kos' The Brief podcast

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Live coverage: June 14 primaries in Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, and South Carolina

Posted on (Updated by Daily Kos Elections

Four states are conducting primaries Tuesday, while Texas' 34th Congressional District is also holding a special all-party primary for the remaining months of Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela's term. We’ll be liveblogging the results here and also covering the returns closely on Twitter.

Key races: Previews | Cheat-sheet ●●● Results: ME | ND | NV | SC | TX-34

We always caution on election nights not to read too much into the first trickle of returns, since they're often unrepresentative of the electorate as a whole and can therefore be misleading. That's why we wait until we have a substantial number of votes tallied before we start covering any results, whether in liveblogs like this one or on Twitter.

Our traditional rule of thumb has been to wait until we have about 10% of results in, an amount that allows us to start drawing some conclusions—though of course, in closer races, much often remains up for grabs. In the past, we would rely on the percentage of precincts reporting to determine whether we'd hit this threshold, since 10% of precincts was a pretty close approximation of 10% of the vote.

But in more recent years, the increasing adoption of early voting and mail voting has rendered this metric useless, since "precincts reporting" often covers only ballots cast in person on Election Day. The Associated Press and other outlets have sought to adapt by coming up with an estimate of the total expected vote; the AP says their estimates are "informed by past turnout, advance votes cast and early returns," meaning they can shift somewhat over the course of a night.

We'll be relying on these estimates tonight, so if you see an update that says something like "… with 56% of the vote in," that's what we're referring to. We hope they turn out to be reliable, but we'll make adjustments on the fly if needed.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 12:03:10 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

TX-34: Polls have closed in the special election in Texas’s 34th district in the Rio Grande Valley, an open seat left vacant by the resignation of Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela, and where Republicans have made a big push for a half-year rental of this light-blue seat. 

We’re also still waiting, one hour post-closing, for enough votes to be counted in South Carolina for us to be able to say anything conclusive about the two races we’re watching there, the Republican primaries in SC-01 and SC-07.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 12:17:56 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

SC-Gov: One race that’s of mild interest to us (it’s unfortunately unlikely to be competitive in the general election) is the Democratic primary in the South Carolina gubernatorial race, where the winner faces Republican incumbent Henry McMaster. Very early votes made this race look competitive for state Rep. Mia McLeod, but now that we’ve hit 10% ‘estimated vote counted,’ an upset is looking less likely: ex-U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham leads McLeod 60-28.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 12:23:44 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

SC-07: We’ve also hit the threshold in the Republican primary in the 7th congressional district in the area around Myrtle Beach; this race features an incumbent, Tom Rice, but who voted in favor of impeachment of Donald Trump despite being in a dark red district. That’s going over about as well as you’d expect, as Rice’s leading opponent (and Trump endorsee) state Rep. Russell Fry leads Rice by a wide margin, 45-30. South Carolina, of course, is subject to a runoff requirement, so Fry and Rice may need to face off again without the clutter of multiple other candidates; what we’ll be watching tonight is more a question of Fry vs. the 50% mark.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 12:27:22 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

TX-34: We’re suddenly up to 34% ‘estimated vote counted’ in the special election in Texas’s 34th district, and it’s going somewhat better than expected for the Democratic candidate here, former Cameron Co. Commissioner Dan Sanchez. He leads Republican candidate Mayra Flores 48-45, with another Democrat, Rene Coronado, taking an additional 6. Keep in mind that this race is an all-party primary where the race only ends if one candidate finishes over 50%; if not, the top 2 finishers (who’d naturally be Sanchez and Flores) meet again at a later date (yet to be determined). 

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 12:29:55 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

TX-34: One hazard of liveblogging is the risk of a lead change seconds after you hit ‘post.’ Republican Maya Flores has nudged into the lead for now, with 36% ‘reporting,’ but it’s a slim 46.8-46.3 edge (and, again, short of the 50% mark either candidate needs to win outright).

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 12:36:43 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

SC-01: And we’ve hit the threshold in the Republican primary in South Carolina’s 1st congressional district in the Charleston area, with 13% ‘in.’ It’s not a blowout for incumbent Nancy Mace, but she’s still clocking in above the 50% mark she needs to avoid a runoff. She’s at 56, to 41 for ex-state Rep. Katie Arrington, the Trump endorsee in this race whom you might remember from 2018, when she beat incumbent Rep. Mark Sanford in the primary and then tanked in the general, losing to Democrat Joe Cunningham. (While Mace didn’t vote to impeach Trump, she didn’t show the proper level of fealty to him post-Jan. 6, hence the opposition.)

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 1:23:36 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

SC-01, SC-07: Start cuing up “For Whom the Bell Tolls” for Tom Rice. (Or maybe “Hell’s Bells” if you prefer. Just something foreboding that has something to do with bells.) Russell Fry is now leading Rice 49-25 in the 7th district GOP primary with an estimated 49% in; if Fry tops 50%, no runoff is necessary and Fry advances to the general election. Meanwhile, in the 1st district, incumbent Nancy Mace’s lead is looking less imposing; she currently leads Katie Arrington 53-45.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 1:48:21 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

TX-34: With 60% of the vote estimated to have been counted, in the Texas special election the Republican, Mayra Flores, is currently at 49% to 45% for Democrat Dan Sanchez, with 4% for another Democrat. Better news for Sanchez is that much of the remaining votes to be counted are in the two most populous counties in the district (Cameron and Hidalgo, in the Rio Grande Valley, as opposed to the redder counties further north). While it doesn’t seem likely that there’s enough there to pull Sanchez back into the lead, the real race here, as with SC-07, is Flores vs. the 50% mark; if she tops that, she wins without a second round.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 1:54:21 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

ME-SD-07: One minor piece of good news is that Democratic candidate Nicole Grohoski appears to have won a special election for the remainder of the term in Maine’s vacant 7th Senate district, in the rural area near Acadia National Park. This is a district that Joe Biden won 57-40, but for now Grohoski’s currently running ahead of that benchmark at 61-39.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 1:57:32 AM +00:00 · David Jarman

TX-34: Well, those late votes in Cameron County didn’t help much; Flores actually pulled into the lead in Cameron County (where Brownsville is) with the latest dump — only 47.0 to 46.9, but that’s enough to push her total CD-wide to 49.8% (compared to 44.5% for Sanchez). The AP is estimating 65% reporting but this may be off; there aren’t actually a lot of precincts remaining.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2022 · 2:05:17 AM +00:00 · Jeff Singer

The liveblog continues here. 

Trump Pens Epic 12-Page Response To Jan. 6 Hearings, Hints At Announcing 2024 Campaign

Posted on by Kathleen J. Anderson

Former President Donald Trump issued a massive 12-page rebuttal to the ongoing January 6th Congressional hearings that have accused him of inciting an insurrection, and the product is pure Trump.

The bulk of Trump’s response focused on his continued allegations of election integrity issues, but includes revealing passages on what he believes are the Democrats’ real intentions behind the hearings.

President Trump asserts that the Democrats on the “Unselect Pseudo-Committee” are merely trying to distract the American people from the dining room table issues affecting voters leading up to the midterms. He also claims these hearings are primarily an attempt to subvert his ability to run for President again in 2024. 

Let’s look at what else the former President had to say in this unprecedented action from a former leader of the free world.

RELATED: Newly Released Jan. 6 Documents Reveal Officer Never Filed Report In Shooting Death of Ashli Babbitt

Smoke and Mirrors

It’s no secret that the expectation is the Democrats are poised to receive a severe whipping during the coming 2022 midterms. The chances they will lose the majority in at least one if not both houses of Congress are high.

Trump states in his dissertation:

“They (the Democrats) are desperate to change the narrative of a failing nation, without even making mention of the havoc and death caused by the radical left just months earlier.”

An homage to the state of the union today and the summer riots in 2020, he goes on to state:

“They (the Democrats) are hoping that these hearings will somehow alter their failing prospects.”

Trump and other GOP members claim that the hearings are meant to distract from economic issues such as inflation and skyrocketing gas prices. Additionally, the idea is to refocus the American voter on what happened on January 6th instead of what is happening now with rising crime and increased divisive rhetoric surrounding various social issues.

RELATED: One Of The January 6 Committee’s Conspiracy Theories About Riot Debunked By Capitol Police

An Eye Towards 2024

Since Biden’s inauguration, the former President has hinted that he is contemplating another run at the highest seat in all the land. With Trump endorsing candidates polling well and polling quite well himself, this has got to have the Democrats worried.

Trump states it plainly:

“This is merely an attempt to stop a man that is leading in every poll, against both Republicans and Democrats by wide margins, from running again for the Presidency.”

So how does the committee accomplish that alleged goal? That remains to be seen. The plan seems to be to link Trump and his allies to the claim that they deliberately lied to Americans about election fraud which then spurred the events that transpired at the Capitol on January 6th.

READ MORE: Trump’s full 12-page statement here.

Testimony from some of Trump’s former closest confidants, including his daughter, reveals that, for the most part, people were not supporting the President’s election fraud claims. Furthermore it appears they repeatedly said as much to the President. Therefore there doesn’t seem to be clear evidence that the President didn’t and, for that matter, still doesn’t believe his claims. 

The fact that he spends the bulk of his rebuttal attempting to convince Americans of his claims points to the probability that he still believes them regardless of the evidence. So then the next question is, did he purposely incite the violence?

Again, the hearing’s ability to prove intent to incite remains to be seen. Even if the committee believes they can prove anything, the decision to prosecute the former President lies with the Justice Department.

Will It Move The Needle?

According to Pew Research Poll from January, a minority believe Trump has “a lot” of responsibility for the Capitol riot. That’s down from a majority in January, 2021.

Those numbers make it hard to see how pursuing further than these hearings could help the Democrats. Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens of Michigan says the value of these hearings is to have “more honest conversations” regarding the events of January 6th.

There is an argument that some of us would like to have an honest conversation. I, for one, have been curious as to why there wasn’t more security on-site before the planned demonstration.

Will the hearings cover some of the security questions that have come up? I guess we will have to stay tuned.

Drama is what the Democrats are hoping for and why they hired James Goldston, the former President of ABC News, to produce the hearings as if it were a Hollywood production rather than a Congressional hearing. The hope is that it would grip the American people like a real-time documentary drama.

CNN’s Brian Stelter said about 20 million people tuned into last Thursday’s hearing. It seems like a lot but pales compared to the 38 million that tuned into the State of the Union.

RELATED: AOC Tears Up Having To Relive January 6 Footage: ‘I Am So Angry’

Following His Own Beat

The former President isn’t known for ‘falling in line.’ However, the GOP has tried very hard to have a united effort to focus on the economy and other areas where Democrats and the Biden administration are in the doghouse with the American public.

Trump’s 12-page paper focusing mainly on claims he won the Presidency goes against the GOP narrative at large. A former Trump White House aide put it:

“I think it’s fine to correct the record…but I think the vast majority of the energy should be spent on the economic issues.”

I feel this won’t be the last we hear of the former President. With more hearings scheduled, it’s sure to make for must-see TV if you can afford your cable bill or streaming subscription by then.

Read Trump’s full 12-page statement about the January 6 Committee here.

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Lindsey Graham Cuts Deal With Bernie Sanders To Oppose ‘Election Deniers’ And ‘Defund The Police’ Candidates

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Lindsey Graham offered to rein in pro-Trump Republican candidates who question the integrity of the 2020 election if Bernie Sanders would do the same regarding anti-police Democrats going forward.

The proposed compromise came about as the two Senators engaged in a debate as part of The Senate Project on Fox Nation.

Socialist Sanders (I-VT), during one exchange, started hammering Graham for his association with and promotion of Republicans who side with former President Donald Trump in questioning the legitimacy of the last presidential election.

“We have a former President whose name is Donald Trump. Goes around the country telling people, ‘Hey, I won the election. In fact, I probably won it by a landslide but they – they stole it. They took it away from me,’” Sanders argued.

“Now, that happens to be what we call a big lie,” added the socialist curmudgeon. He later lamented that the so-called ‘big lie’ casts doubt on the “entire system” and suggested it represents a slide to “authoritarianism.”

RELATED: New White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Claimed the 2016 and 2018 Elections Were ‘Stolen’

Lindsey Graham Compromises With Bernie Sanders

Lindsey Graham took the bait from Bernie Sanders and offered to rein in pro-Trump Republicans who cast doubt on the 2020 election.

Graham (R-SC) insisted he “voted to certify the election” and, despite there being “some mail balloting chicanery” declared that Biden won the election.

“But what about all of the candidates out there who are trying to say that he didn’t?” Sanders chimed in. “Your Republican candidates you want people to vote for?”

“Well, I, you know … what about the people saying defund the police? You talk to them, I talk to that crowd,” Graham replied.

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene Demolishes Lindsey Graham For Helping Democrats On Gun Control

Bernie’s Own Big Lie

Bernie Sanders responded to Lindsey Graham by saying, “But your crowd is a lot larger than my crowd.”

This is a statement that underscores Graham’s fumble in going the false equivalency route. He didn’t have to compare ‘defund the police’ Democrats to Republicans who call into question election results. No, that’s a whole different segment of extremists on the left.

Graham simply had to challenge Sanders to denounce Democrats who … have questioned election results.

Like White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre who said the 2016 presidential election was “stolen.”

Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, spent years claiming the election was stolen from her by the Russians and anybody else she could point a finger at.

“I was the candidate that they basically stole an election from,” she said.

Jean-Pierre’s boss, President Biden, cast his own doubts, agreeing with a woman at a campaign rally who said Trump was an “illegitimate president in my mind.”

“I absolutely agree,” Biden replied.

Former President Jimmy Carter believed Trump lost saying, “I think a full investigation would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016.”

Democrats, in fact, objected to the election results in 2016 officially and during the proceedings certifying electoral votes 11 separate times.

So many ‘big lies’ right there.

And Lindsey Graham didn’t even need to bring up all those Democrat election deniers. He could have just challenged Bernie Sanders himself in the debate.

Sanders, you see, claimed the 2016 nomination was stolen from him by a system “rigged” to favor Clinton. Well, he used the ‘some people are saying’ play.

When asked if he would commit to supporting Hillary in 2016, Sanders replied: “Some people say that maybe if the system was not rigged against me, I would have won the nomination.”

Democrats, dating back to Al Gore’s refusal to accept defeat in 2000, have been the party of election skepticism. They haven’t suddenly turned a corner.

And they don’t get to play the ‘big lie’ card just because they think voters are too stupid to remember what they have done over the years.

Republicans like Graham need to stop playing defense on this and point to how Democrats were discrediting elections long before Donald Trump ever did.

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Our all-time favorite loser prays the fifth time will be the charm on his endless quest for Congress

Posted on by Jeff Singer

We have more primary action Tuesday as voters in Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, and South Carolina select their party’s nominees. Additionally, there will be an all-party primary in Texas’ 34th District to replace Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela, who resigned early to take a job at a lobbying firm. 

Below you'll find our guide to all of the top contests, arranged chronologically by each state’s poll closing times. When it’s available, we'll tell you about any reliable polling that exists for each race, but if we don't mention any numbers, it means no recent surveys have been made public.

And of course, because this is a redistricting year, every state on the docket has a brand-new congressional map. To help you follow along, you can find interactive maps from Dave's Redistricting App for Maine, Nevada, and South Carolina. (North Dakota retains its lone congressional district.) 

Listen and subscribe to Daily Kos Elections’ The Downballot podcast with David Nir and David Beard

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Note that the presidential results we include after each district reflect how the 2020 race would have gone under the new lines in place for this fall—except in Texas’ 34th, which is being conducted using the existing boundaries. (The state held its regularly-scheduled primary for the new district earlier this year.) And if you'd like to know how much of the population in each new district comes from each old district, please check out our redistribution tables.

Our live coverage will begin at 7 PM ET at Daily Kos Elections when polls close in South Carolina. You can also follow us on Twitter for blow-by-blow updates, and you’ll want to bookmark our primary calendar, which includes the dates for primaries in all 50 states.

South Carolina

Polls close at 7 PM ET. A June 28 runoff will take place in any contest where no one takes a majority of the vote.

● SC-01 (R) (54-45 Trump): Freshman Rep. Nancy Mace infuriated Donald Trump last year when she blamed him for the Jan. 6 attacks, and he responded by endorsing former state Rep. Katie Arrington's primary campaign in February. The winner will go up against pediatrician Annie Andrews, a well-funded Democrat who has no primary foes in a seat along the state's southern coast that Republican map makers made more conservative.

Mace, who has the support of former Gov. Nikki Haley, has pushed back against Arrington’s attempts to portray her as disloyal to the GOP by touting her own conservative values. She’s also reminded voters that Arrington denied renomination in 2018 to then-Rep. Mark Sanford, only to lose the general election to Democrat Joe Cunningham, arguing the challenger would jeopardize the seat again. (Mace herself unseated Cunningham, who is now running for governor, two years later.)

The incumbent has enjoyed a huge financial advantage, and a pro-Mace group released a late May poll showing her ahead 44-24. That survey still put Mace below the majority she’d need to avoid a runoff, which is a real possibility since a third candidate named Lynz Piper-Loomis remains on the ballot even though she dropped out weeks ago and endorsed Arrington. Trump, though, seems pessimistic about beating Mace, as Politico recently reported he’s avoided returning to the state out of fear that Arrington is about to lose.

● SC-07 (R) (59-40 Trump): Rep. Tom Rice shocked political observers last year when he became one of the 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Donald Trump, and he now faces six primary opponents in a northeastern South Carolina seat that changed little after redistricting.

Trump's endorsed candidate is state Rep. Russell Fry, whom Rice’s side has argued isn’t actually the conservative he presents himself as. The field also includes former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, Horry County Schools Board of Education Chairman Ken Richardson, physician Garrett Barton, and pharmacist Spencer Morris, who have all attracted far less attention than Fry but could each take enough of the vote to force a runoff.

Maine

Polls close at 8 PM ET. While Maine will host competitive races for governor and the 2nd Congressional District this fall, there's little action in the primaries: Former Gov. Paul LePage has the GOP nod to take on Democratic incumbent Janet Mills sewn up, while former Rep. Bruce Poliquin is all but certain to face Democratic Rep. Jared Golden in a rematch of their 2018 race.

North Dakota

Polls close at 7 PM local time, which is 8 PM ET in the eastern part of the state and 9 PM ET in the western part of the state.

Texas

Polls close at 8 PM ET / 7 PM local time.

● TX-34 (special all-party primary) (52-48 Biden): Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela resigned from this Rio Grande Valley constituency earlier this year to take a job at a lobbying firm, and two Democrats and two Republicans are competing to replace him in an all-party primary taking place under the old district lines. A runoff would be necessary if no one takes a majority of the vote, though a second round won't be scheduled unless it's actually needed. 

The Republican frontrunner is Mayra Flores, who is already the GOP nominee for the new version of the 34th District. (The redrawn 34th is significantly more Democratic at 57-42 Biden.) The Democrats have consolidated behind former Cameron County Commissioner Dan Sanchez, who is not running for a full two-year term anywhere. The other two contenders, Republican Janie Cantu-Cabrera and Democrat Rene Coronado, have gained little notice.

While this battle won’t directly impact control of Congress, Republicans hope a victory will demonstrate that Trump’s 2020 gains in heavily Latino areas like this were no fluke. Flores could also benefit from a few months of incumbency going into her general election contest against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who represents the existing 15th District. Flores and her allies have spent over $1 million, while the first Democratic commercials came during the final week of the race when House Majority PAC began a $120,000 ad campaign tying Flores to the Jan. 6 rioters.

Nevada

Polls close at 10 PM ET /7 PM local time.

● NV-Sen (R) (50-48 Biden): While Trump’s endorsed candidate, former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, remains the undisputed frontrunner in the Republican primary to take on Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the 2018 gubernatorial nominee has had to deal with an unexpectedly expensive primary against Army veteran Sam Brown.

Brown, who's framed himself as a political outsider, has faulted Laxalt for waiting too long to file litigation trying to overturn Biden's win in 2020. Laxalt’s allies at the Club for Growth appear to be taking this contest seriously, since the group has spent over $1 million to boost him. A poll for the nonpartisan Nevada Independent found Laxalt ahead 48-34 just ahead of the primary. 

● NV-Gov (R) (50-48 Biden): Republicans have a crowded contest to take on Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, but Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo had long looked like the frontrunner even before Trump backed him in April. North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, a former conservative Democrat who defected to the GOP last year, has outspent Lombardo on the airwaves, but the sheriff’s allies have made up the gap by spending $3 million to promote him. The Democratic Governors Association, meanwhile, has invested about $2.5 million on ads aimed at stopping Lombardo from advancing, or at least hoping to weaken him for the general election.  

However, the Nevada Independent’s poll finds Lombardo well-positioned to win the nomination by defeating attorney Joey Gilbert, a former professional boxer who has bragged that he was "definitely on the Capitol steps" on Jan. 6, 34-21. Both Lee and former Sen. Dean Heller, who lost a very competitive re-election bid in 2018, were in third with 10% each, while venture capitalist Guy Nohra trailed further behind.

● NV-01 (D & R) (53-45 Biden): Democrats in the legislature made this seat in the eastern Las Vegas area considerably more competitive in order to make the 3rd and 4th Districts bluer—enraging Democratic Rep. Dina Titus in the process. The congresswoman, who represents just over half of the redrawn seat, now faces notable primary and general election opposition after a decade of easy wins.

Titus’ lone intra-party foe is progressive activist Amy Vilela, who ran in the 4th in 2018 and took third place in the primary with 9%. Vilela, who is arguing that the incumbent has done little to advance priorities like Medicare for All, has brought in a credible sum of campaign cash, while a group called Opportunity for All Action Fund has spent $240,000 to promote the incumbent. 

Eight Republicans are competing to take on the winner. The one with the most national name recognition is former 4th District Rep. Crescent Hardy, who won that seat in a 2014 upset before losing competitive races there in 2016 and 2018. Only about 4% of the new 1st’s denizens live in Hardy’s old constituency, though, and the former congressman has barely raised any money for his latest comeback attempt. The other notable contenders are conservative activist David Brog, Army veteran Mark Robertson, and former Trump campaign staffer Carolina Serrano.

● NV-02 (R) (54-43 Trump): Republican Rep. Mark Amodei is seeking renomination in a reliably red northern Nevada seat that changed little under the new map against a field of four challengers led by the one and only Danny Tarkanian. Tarkanian has lost bids for the Senate (2010) and the House (2012, 2016, and 2018), not to mention two campaigns for state office in the aughts plus an abortive run for the Senate and the state board of regents.

But Tarkanian, who was a longtime resident of the Las Vegas area well to the south, finally ended his legendary losing streak in 2020 by winning the job of county commissioner in his new rural home of Douglas County. Amodei, of course, is still portraying his opponent as an interloper. The incumbent’s allies at the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is the main super PAC of the House GOP leadership, have spent $240,000 on ads slagging Tarkanian as a perennial loser, while a group called the Police Officers Defense Alliance has invested $860,000 on pro-Amodei spots; the With Honor Fund has also come to the congressman’s aid with $260,000 in support.

Tarkanian, who has received little outside help of his own, is using his personal funds to largely finance his latest campaign. The challenger has gone after Amodei for showing some openness to impeaching Trump in 2019 and for blaming the GOP's master for the Jan. 6 attack, though the congressman never voted for impeachment in either situation.

● NV-03 (R) (52-46 Biden): Democratic legislators sought to protect Rep. Susie Lee in this southern Las Vegas area seat by extending Biden’s margin of victory up from just 49.1-48.9, but her five Republican foes are betting she’s still vulnerable. The frontrunner is attorney April Becker, who narrowly failed to unseat state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro last cycle and has the support of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Becker has also far outspent her intra-party rivals, though Army veteran Noah Malgeri and self-funder John Kovacs each also deployed a notable amount.

● NV-04 (R) (53-45 Biden): Three Republicans are campaigning to take on Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, whose constituency in the northern Las Vegas area became bluer under the new map. The only elected official of the trio is Assemblywoman Annie Black, who attended the Jan. 6 Trump rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol.

Sam Peters, an Air Force veteran and businessman who took second place in the 2020 primary to face Horsford, is also trying again, and he’s touted support from two of the far-right's loudest members of Congress, Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. The third contender is Chance Bonaventura, who works as an aide to another far-right politician, Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore (Fiore herself is campaigning for state treasurer), but has raised very little money.

● NV-AG (R) (50-48 Biden): Democrat Aaron Ford made history in 2018 when he became the first Black person elected to statewide office in Nevada, and two Republicans are now campaigning to unseat the attorney general. For months, the only candidate was Sigal Chattah, an attorney who has sued to undermine the state's pandemic response measures and who has complained that the attorney general has done a poor job investigating (baseless, of course) voter fraud allegations.

February, though, saw the entrance of Tisha Black, who lost a 2018 race for Clark County Commission and who founded a cannabis industry trade group. Chattah has attacked Black for a donation she made to now-Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in 2015, a contribution Black has denied making despite the unambiguous evidence that she had. A Democratic group has run radio ads slamming Black over her donation while calling Chattah a "MAGA conservative." (Unlike similar efforts by Democrats elsewhere seeking to choose their opponents, these ads don't merely "attack" Chattah in a backhanded way but openly call for her election.)

● NV-SoS (R) (50-48 Biden): Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who was the only Nevada Republican to prevail statewide during the 2018 Democratic wave, is termed out, and Republicans are likely to nominate an extremist in the race to succeed her. The GOP nominee will go up against former state Athletic Commission member Cisco Aguilar, who has no Democratic opposition. A recent GOP primary poll for the Nevada Independent showed a 21-21 deadlock between former Assemblyman Jim Marchant and developer Jesse Haw, with former Judge Richard Scotti far back at 8%.

Marchant, who was the 2020 nominee against Rep. Steven Horsford, is a QAnon ally who has said he would not have certified Joe Biden's 2020 victory; he's also attracted notoriety allying with conspiracist candidates in other states running to become chief election officials. Haw, who briefly served in the state Senate for a few months in 2016, hasn’t focused nearly as much on the Big Lie, but he’s very much alluded to it by saying that last election “had a lot of shenanigans and potential fraud.”

Morning Digest: Two South Carolina Republicans who crossed Trump will learn their futures tonight

Posted on by Daily Kos Elections

The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Daniel Donner, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.

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Leading Off

● Primary Night: The Tark Knight Rises: We have more primary action Tuesday as voters in Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, and South Carolina select their party's nominees. Additionally, there will be an all-party primary in Texas' 34th District to replace Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela, who resigned early to take a job at a lobbying firm. As always, we've put together our preview of what to watch.

Several House incumbents face serious primary challenges, but only northern Nevada Republican Mark Amodei is going up against an opponent as … determined as the one and only Danny Tarkanian. Tarkanian, who is the son of the late UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, unsuccessfully ran for office six times while still living in the Las Vegas area (not including abortive runs for the Senate and state board of regents), but he finally broke his legendary losing streak in 2020 by winning the job of county commissioner in his new rural home of Douglas County.

Tarkanian is hoping to avenge his many defeats by running to Amodei's right in the 2nd District, but the congressman is using every chance he has to portray his opponent as an interloper. Notability in one ad, Amodei unsubtly donned a jersey from his local alma mater―and UNLV's rival―the University of Nevada, Reno to make his case that primary voters should "stick with the home team." Back in Vegas, Democratic Rep. Dina Titus faces a primary challenge on the left from activist Amy Vilela in the 1st District, a seat that legislative Democrats made considerably more competitive in order to shore up incumbents elsewhere, while the GOP has a crowded race to take on the winner.

And over in South Carolina, Trump and his allies are targeting GOP Reps. Nancy Mace and Tom Rice in their respective primaries, with the pro-impeachment Rice looking to be the more vulnerable of the pair. If no one wins a majority of the vote in the Palmetto State, runoffs would take place two weeks later on June 28. You can find more on all these races, as well as the other big elections on Tuesday's ballot, in our preview.

Our live coverage will begin at 7 PM ET at Daily Kos Elections when polls close in South Carolina. You can also follow us on Twitter for blow-by-blow updates, and you'll want to bookmark our primary calendar, which includes the dates for primaries in all 50 states.

Senate

● AL-Sen: Donald Trump on Saturday backed Katie Britt, the former Business Council of Alabama head he'd derided less than a year ago as "not in any way qualified" to serve in the Senate, ahead of next week's Republican runoff against Rep. Mo Brooks. Trump, though, characteristically used much of his statement to trash the congressman, whom he'd unceremoniously unendorsed in March, saying, "Mo has been wanting it back ever since-but I cannot give it to him!"

Trump made his new endorsement the day after the GOP firm JMC Analytics and Polling, surveying on behalf of unnamed "private subscribers," showed Britt ahead 51-39. Britt outpaced Brooks 45-29 last month in the first round of voting.

● AZ-Sen: While former Thiel Capital chief operating officer Blake Masters' allies have largely focused on targeting Attorney General Mark Brnovich ahead of their crowded August Republican primary, the Club for Growth has launched a new $665,000 buy attacking a different Masters rival, wealthy businessman Jim Lamon. "His company sued for stiffing contractors out of $1 million pay," the narrator says of Lamon, "Penalized six times for delinquent taxes." He continues, "But not everyone got stiffed: A group linked to Lamon gave Pelosi and the Democrats over $75,000."

● CO-Sen: Democratic Colorado's spending ahead of the June 28 Democratic primary has increased to $1.3 million, which is considerably more than the $780,000 the Colorado Sun initially reported that the super PAC was spending in an unsubtle attempt to help underfunded far-right state Rep. Ron Hanks pass wealthy businessman Joe O'Dea.

● FL-Sen: Democratic Rep. Val Demings’ campaign says it's spending eight-figures on an opening TV buy designed to insulate the former Orlando police chief from GOP attempts to caricature the congresswoman as soft on crime. After several voices extol her record reducing violent crime Demings tells the audience, "In the Senate I'll protect Florida from bad ideas, like defunding the police. That's just crazy."

● OK-Sen-B, OK-Gov: The GOP pollster Amber Integrated's newest look at the June 28 special Republican Senate primary shows Rep. Markwayne Mullin in the lead with 39%, which is below the majority he'd need to avoid an August runoff, with former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon enjoying a 19-6 edge over former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt for second. The survey also shows Gov. Kevin Stitt winning renomination with 61% despite the expensive efforts of dark money groups to bring him crashing down, while an unheralded challenger Mark Sherwood lags in second with 8%.

● WA-Sen: Democratic Sen. Patty Murray has launched an early ad campaign hoping to define her only serious Republican opponent, motivational speaker Tiffany Smiley, as an ardent Trumpist before the challenger can adequately respond.

The audience sees a photo of Smiley eagerly posing with Trump in the Oval Office as audio plays of her saying, "I met with President Trump, and I was so impressed." The narrator, following footage of the Jan. 6 rioters, jumps in and highlights how Smiley "still has serious questions about the 2020 elections." Smiley is later heard saying, "I am 100% pro-life."

Governors

● MI-Gov: Wealthy businessman Perry Johnson got some more bad news Monday when a federal judge refused to halt the printing of the August Republican primary ballots that lack Johnson's name.

House

● AZ-01: After airing some positive commercials ahead of the August Republican primary, self-funder Elijah Norton is now going up with a spot highlighting the ethics problems that dogged GOP incumbent David Schweikert during his ultimately successful 2020 re-election campaign. "How could anyone vote for David Schweikert?" asks one woman, before another castmate tells the audience that the congressman "was reprimanded unanimously by Congress."

More people incredulously ask, "$250,000 in illegal contributions? A fake loan of $100,000?," before the first woman informs the audience, "Schweikert even voted against building the border wall." The second half of the commercial extols Norton as "a true conservative outsider who will secure our border."

● GA-06: School Freedom Fund, a Club for Growth ally bankrolled by conservative megadonor Jeff Yass, is spending at least $470,000 on an ad buy for next week's GOP runoff arguing that former state ethics commission chair Jake Evans is "woke." The narrator explains, "In the Race & Social Justice Law Review, Evans claimed our justice system is, quote, 'laden with racial disparities.' And Evans called for, quote, 'reallocating public funding away from criminal justice.'" The spot concludes, "Don't want to defund the police? Defeat Jake Evans."

The Club's man, physician Rich McCormick, also picked up an endorsement this week from former state Rep. Meagan Hanson, who took fourth place with 8% in the first round of voting on May 24. McCormick back then outpaced Evans, who is Trump's endorsed candidate, 43-23 in a newly gerrymandered suburban Atlanta seat.

● IL-15: The United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, which often airs ads for Democratic candidates in general elections, is getting involved in the June 28 Republican primary with a spot that portrays far-right Rep. Mary Miller as a perennial tax delinquent. The narrator declares, "It was so bad that Miller had her business license revoked," before the commercial concludes with an animation of a prison door slamming in front of her. The union, which has spent $520,000 so far in this race, does not mention Miller's intra-party foe, fellow Rep. Rodney Davis.

● MN-05: Rep. Ilhan Omar has publicized an internal from Change Research that shows her turning back former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels 60-21 in the August Democratic primary.

● MS-03: Republican Rep. Michael Guest is finally going negative against Navy veteran Michael Cassidy a week after the challenger outpaced him in a 47.5-46.9 shocker in the first round of the primary. Guest's narrator declares that Cassidy "just came to Mississippi from Maryland and only registered to vote here last year" and that he was "grounded and put under an investigation" when he was a Navy Reserve pilot. She concludes, "Mississippi doesn't need a carpetbagger. We need a conservative. A conservative like Michael Guest." Guest and Cassidy will compete again in their June 28 runoff.

● NY-12: EMILY's List has endorsed Rep. Carolyn Maloney in her August Democratic primary battle against fellow veteran incumbent Jerry Nadler.

● NY-17: The Working Families Party announced Monday both that it was withdrawing its support for Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney and backing state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi's primary bid against him in the new 17th District. The WFP supported Biaggi during her successful 2018 effort to deny renomination to turncoat Democratic state Sen. Jeff Klein, a move she says "gave my campaign legitimacy."

Attorneys General

● SD-AG: Republican Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for striking and killing a man with his car in September of 2020 but avoided jail time, on Friday finally confirmed reports that he would not seek re-election this year. Ravnsborg made his announcement two months after the Republican-run state House voted to impeach him, and the Senate will hold its trial later in June.

In South Dakota nominees for attorney general and several other statewide offices are chosen at party conventions rather than in primaries, and the GOP's gathering is set for June 23-25. Ravnsborg was already facing serious intra-party opposition from predecessor Marty Jackley, who left office due to term limits in 2018 and unsuccessfully ran for governor that year. In addition, Dave Natvig, a top Ravnsborg deputy described by Goss as a "long-time political ally" of the incumbent, also kicked off a campaign last month, a move that foreshadowed Ravnsborg's departure.

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