Campaign Report
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Campaign Report
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With his 2024 decision nearing, DeSantis makes his Iowa debut
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis opened his state’s annual legislative session this week by calling on lawmakers to take up a bevy of his ultra-conservative policy priorities, kicking off a countdown to a likely 2024 presidential bid. Now, he’s heading to Iowa in the latest sign that his mind is all but made up.
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DeSantis is set to attend events in Davenport and Des Moines on Friday to promote his new book, “The Courage to be Free,” and discuss his so-called “Florida Blueprint.” He’ll be joined at both stops by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a fellow Republican who will participate in two interview-style conversations with DeSantis.
It’s not DeSantis’s first trip outside of Florida this month. He made stops in Texas and California over the weekend. But the Iowa swing carries particular weight given the state’s premier status hosting the first-in-the-nation nominating contest.
The timing of the visit is also significant. DeSantis delivered his annual State of the State address on Tuesday, marking the beginning of the Florida legislature’s 60-day regular session. DeSantis has hinted that he’ll make a decision on a 2024 presidential after that session wraps up in May.
Also weighing on DeSantis’s Iowa visit: former President Donald Trump, who’s set to deliver remarks on education – a topic near and dear to DeSantis – in Davenport on Monday. Trump is hoping to reclaim the White House next year, but his path has been complicated by DeSantis, who’s seen as the former president’s most competitive Republican rival.
Early polling shows Trump as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nod, with DeSantis trailing in second place.
But there’s a catch: in polls testing a hypothetical head-to-head matchup between the two men, DeSantis routinely comes out on top, suggesting that Trump could be in trouble if Republican voters coalesce around an alternative.
A highly anticipated measure of the Republican primary field is set to come out on Friday with the release of a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll that will gauge Iowans opinions of Trump, DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. Of those four, only Trump and Haley have announced campaigns.
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Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, I’m Max Greenwood. Each week we track the key stories you need to know to stay ahead of the 2024 election and who will set the agenda in Washington.
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Key election stories and other recent campaign coverage:
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Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who represented former President Trump, admitted in court that she made various misrepresentations on social media and major television appearances about the 2020 presidential election, leading a judge to issue a public censure on Wednesday. Ellis, who was part of the former president’s efforts to challenge the legitimacy of his election loss, admitted to 10 misrepresentations about the election results, …
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Two conservative activists who robocalled Black voters as part of a voter suppression scheme during the 2020 election violated multiple federal and state civil rights laws, a judge ruled on Wednesday. In a 111-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman used thousands of robocalls in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois to spread false and misleading information about …
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Ken Cuccinelli, a former senior Trump administration official and Virginia attorney general, has launched a super PAC urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to announce a White House bid, adding to pressure from a number of Republican officials for DeSantis to run. Cuccinelli, who served as acting deputy Homeland Security secretary under former President Trump during his final year in office, launched the campaign to draft DeSantis …
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Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:
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- 26 days until Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election and Chicago’s runoffs
- 219 days until Louisiana’s gubernatorial primary
- 243 days until Kentucky’s and Mississippi’s gubernatorial generals
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607 days until the 2024 general election
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Louisiana’s gubernatorial race taking shape
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© AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, File
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Recent state Secretary of Transportation and Development Shawn Wilson has entered Louisiana’s gubernatorial race, becoming the first major Democratic candidate vying to succeed term-limited Gov. John Bel Edwards (D).
Wilson launched his campaign Monday and received Edwards’s endorsement Tuesday. Also this week, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) announced he won’t enter the race after long weighing a bid. Graves suggested a campaign announcement from someone else is on the horizon: “In the coming days, the field for Governor will brighten,” his statement read.
The Louisiana Illuminator reported that Louisiana Association of Business and Industry president Stephen Waguespack, a Republican, is expected to enter the race. State House Speaker Clay Schexnayder (R) is also considering a bid. Several Republicans are already running, including Attorney General Jeff Landry, whom the state GOP endorsed early on. Additional candidates have until Aug. 10 to join.
Candidates of all affiliations will be on the same ballot on Oct. 14. If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, there’ll be a general election on Nov. 18 between the top two candidates.
Former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election in Louisiana with 59 percent to President Biden’s 40 percent. The year before, Edwards won a second term defeating Eddie Rispone (R) in a runoff by around 3 percentage points. According to Morning Consult polling toward the end of 2022, 51 percent approved of Edwards’s job performance, while 40 percent disapproved.
This is one of three gubernatorial races in 2023, and one of two, alongside Kentucky’s, where Democrats hope to hold onto the office.
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Biden narrows his list of 2024 campaign managers
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President Biden is zeroing in on his choices to run his 2024 reelection campaign and is hoping to make a final decision by April, The Hill’s Amie Parnes reports today.
He hasn’t formally announced whether he’ll seek another term in the White House, but he’s widely expected to and could do so next month.
In the meantime, his team has been scrambling to find the best person to run that operation, homing in on a list of seasoned campaign veterans.
The leading contender for now appears to be Jenn Ridder, who served as the national states director for Biden’s 2020 campaign, sources tell The Hill. Another top candidate for the job is Sam Cornale, the Democratic National Committee’s executive director.
But the list of potential campaign managers is far longer.
Biden is also said to be considering Emma Brown, who managed Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) successful reelection bid last year; Addisu Demissie, who ran Sen. Cory Booker’s 2020 presidential campaign; Quentin Fulks who was Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign manager; and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a White House senior adviser who was deputy campaign manager for Biden’s 2020 campaign.
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Branch out with a different read from The Hill:
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Editor’s note: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the stock trading of Citadel’s hedge fund arm and Citadel Securities. Chicago mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson (D) lobbed attacks at fellow contender Paul Vallas (D) in the first televised debate of the Chicago mayoral runoff Wednesday night, setting the stage for a contentious race ahead of the April election. Both Johnson, a Cook County commissioner, …
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Former President Trump easily outpaces Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in a hypothetical GOP New Hampshire primary matchup, according to a new survey. An Emerson College poll released Tuesday showed Trump leading among a group of possible Republican candidates with a whopping 58 percent of the vote in the early primary state. DeSantis came in second with 17 percent, followed by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu with 7 percent …
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Local and state headlines regarding campaigns and elections:
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Runoffs survive in Georgia as lawmakers fixate on other election bills (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
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Oklahoma votes no on recreational marijuana plan, joins other conservative states that have rejected full legalization (Tulsa World)
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Malcolm Kenyatta is running for auditor general: “We need an underdog as the watchdog” (Philadelphia Inquirer)
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Election news we’ve flagged from other outlets:
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Seeking Evangelicals’ support again, Trump confronts a changed religious landscape (The New York Times)
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As 2023 started, 18 House and Senate campaigns were in debt (Rollcall)
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Ex-Trump attorney admits statements about 2020 election were false and is censured by judge (CNN)
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Key stories on The Hill right now:
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President Biden on Thursday unveiled a sweeping budget plan for the coming fiscal year. The request details a set of ambitious proposals from the White House, ranging from plans to extend the lifetime of programs like Medicare, tax proposals targeting the wealthy to help reduce the deficit by trillions of dollars over the next decade, … Read more
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is being treated for a concussion and will remain in the hospital for a few days of observation and treatment, his office announced Thursday afternoon. “Leader McConnell tripped at a dinner event Wednesday evening and has been admitted to the hospital and is being treated for a concussion. … Read more
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Opinions related to campaigns and elections submitted to The Hill:
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You’re all caught up. See you next time!
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