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

Leading Off

●MA-06: Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, who's best known for leading a failed revolt against Nancy Pelosi late last year, announced on Monday that he's joining the comically crowded Democratic primary for president. That's relevant to our interests here at the Digest only insofar as it might affect Moulton's re-election plans—and according to his campaign, it won't.

"He has no intention of giving up his seat in the House should he not become the Democratic nominee for president," said a spokesperson, so we should expect to see Moulton on the ballot next year. That by no means guarantees he'll wind up serving a fourth term in Congress, though. Progressive anger over Moulton's vain rebellion could net him a primary challenge: Women's health advocate Jamie Zahlaway Belsito recently filed paperwork to create a campaign committee, while former state Sen. Barbara L'Italien has said she's considering a bid—and has been very critical of Moulton.

As we've noted in regard to Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's longshot quest for the presidency, when a sitting member of Congress is jetting off to Iowa and New Hampshire on the regular, ambitious pols back home can devote all their time to raising money and campaigning with would-be constituents. That, for instance, is exactly what state Sen. Kai Kahele, who raised a strong $250,000 in the first quarter of the year, has been busy doing while Gabbard's attention has been focused elsewhere. For the right person in the Bay State, the opportunity is there for the taking.

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

Leading Off

●IA State House: On Tuesday, Iowa state Rep. Andy McKean announced that he was leaving the Republican Party to join the Democrats and would seek re-election under Team Blue's banner in 2020. McKean's move leaves the GOP with a small 53-47 majority in the state's closely divided lower chamber.

McKean previously served as a Republican in the state House and then the state Senate from 1979 until retiring in 2003, but he returned to the lower house in 2017. That made McKean the longest-serving Republican in the legislature until his switch. Throughout his career, he'd cut a relatively moderate profile, even siding with Democrats in recent years on bills involving labor rights and gun safety.

That left McKean increasingly out of step with the GOP, and in announcing his decision, he said he was leaving the party because of Donald Trump. At a Tuesday press conference, McKean said that he felt he had to be able to support his party's presidential nominee but couldn't say that about Trump—in his words, a "bully" whose "actions have coarsened political discourse, have resulted in unprecedented divisiveness, and have created an atmosphere that is a breeding ground for hateful rhetoric and actions." McKean concluded, "Some would excuse this behavior as telling it like it is and the new normal. If this is the new normal, I want no part of it."

However, McKean's decision to run for re-election as a Democrat is unlikely to make his life easier. McKean's seat, which is located near Dubuque in the eastern part of the state, swung from 56-43 Obama to 58-37 Trump, and according to analyst Drew Savicki, GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds carried the seat 56-41 during her re-election campaign last year, so it doesn't look like this area will rapidly shift back to the left next year.

McKean won re-election 69-31 during his final campaign as a Republican last year but he's likely in for a tougher contest come next year. Still, if he can find a way to hold on, he'll help Democrats put the Iowa House in play.

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

On Tuesday evening, North Carolina's 9th District held its primaries for the do-over special election that was called because officials invalidated the results of last year's race due to Republican election fraud. You can find the results here, which we'll be discussing in the next Morning Digest.

Leading Off

●TX-23: Air Force veteran and 2018 Democratic nominee Gina Ortiz Jones announced Tuesday that she would seek a rematch against GOP Rep. Will Hurd in Texas' very swingy 23rd Congressional District. Ortiz Jones would be the first gay person to represent Texas in Congress.

Last year, Ortiz Jones lost 49.2-48.7, a margin of just 926 votes. That turned out to be a surprisingly close showing since several polls found Hurd well ahead. National Democratic groups were initially reluctant to spend much money on what looked like a very uphill race, and the NRCC even canceled its final 3 1/2 weeks' worth of ad reservations in early October in a big sign of confidence in Hurd. However, the DCCC and House Majority PAC ended up spending a total of around $840,000, and the NRCC went back on the air in the final week of the race with a $554,000 buy, both of which indicated that this race was getting closer late in the game.

While Hurd did win in the end, neither party is likely to treat him like he's the strong favorite in 2020 after his narrow escape. If anything, Hurd will likely be one of Team Blue's top targets in the country. Texas' 23rd District, which stretches from San Antonio west to the outskirts of El Paso, backed Clinton 50-46, and Hurd is one of just three House Republicans left holding a Clinton seat. Hurd is also a strong fundraiser, but Ortiz Jones actually outraised him $6.2 million to $5.1 million, so we should expect another expensive bout.

While Ortiz Jones had to get through two primary rounds last year before she could get to Hurd, she's the clear favorite to claim her party's nod this time. The only other announced Democrat is Liz Wahl, a former TV anchor for the American branch of Russia Today who in 2014 announced on the air that she was quitting from the Kremlin-funded propaganda network. However, while Wahl set up a fundraising committee late last year, she raised just $2,000 through the end of March.

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

Leading Off

●KS-Sen: On Monday, former Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach announced he would run to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Pat Roberts in Kansas, but he'll have to overcome a record of failure that has left the national party deeply skeptical of his ability to win—and Democrats cautiously optimistic about the chance to put this race in play against an opponent with a long record of voter suppression and anti-immigrant activism.

Kobach was Team Red's gubernatorial nominee lost year, but he lost in an upset to Democrat Laura Kelly despite Kansas' heavy Republican tilt. Thanks to an endorsement from Trump, Kobach won his primary over Gov. Jeff Colyer by just a microscopic 40.6-40.5 margin. However, his lackadaisical approach to campaigning in the general election—which one prominent GOP operative called "the most dysfunctional thing I've ever seen in my life"—resulted in a taint of loserdom that prompted the NRSC's spokesperson to swiftly bash Kobach on Monday as someone who would risk handing Democrats victory in 2020.

Kobach's poor performance in his last campaign, which focused heavily on immigration even though school funding was the dominant issue Kansans were concerned about, isn't the only mark against him. Kobach has a long history of anti-immigrant xenophobia and reported ties to avowed white supremacists, the latter of which even the Trump administration identified as a "red flag" that could pose a problem if he were to be nominated for a government job.

Both prior to becoming secretary of state and during his tenure in office, Kobach pushed state and local governments across the country to adopt xenophobic policies. Those efforts included Arizona's notorious SB 1070, which required law enforcement to attempt to determine a person's immigration status when stopped or arrested.

That evangelism for anti-immigrant measures also earned Kobach serious scrutiny when it was reported that his activism also served as a scam. Kobach would sell cash-strapped local governments on passing restrictive laws, then rake in legal fees defending the measures in court, which often led to legal defeats that left taxpayers holding the bag for Kobach's profits.

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

Leading Off

●PA-10: GOP Rep. Scott Perry won re-election just 51-49 last year and faces a serious challenge in Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District from Democratic state Auditor Eugene DePasquale, but let's just say this burgeoning threat hasn't exactly motivated Perry to get his shit together.

Perry just reported raising $150,000 from April 1 to June 30, which is terrifically bad for a vulnerable incumbent, and finished the second quarter of the year with just $300,000 in the bank. Bizarrely, though, Perry filed two fundraising reports: a "pre-special" election filing covering the period of April 1 to May 4, and a "post-special" report for the remainder of the quarter. You can be forgiven for forgetting about the special election Perry went through earlier this year because there wasn't one.

There was a special in the state's neighboring 12th District on May 21, which Republican Fred Keller and Democrat Marc Friedenberg had to file two FEC reports for. That contest, which Keller won, had no impact on candidates for Pennsylvania's 17 other congressional districts, though. For instance, Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle, who represents the 18th District, correctly filed precisely one quarterly fundraising report.

We have no idea why Perry's staffers decided to create unnecessary work for themselves by filing these two reports, nor why none of them caught the error in the nearly two months since they filed their first report. But given how little cash Perry's reported raising in the last three months, it's safe to assume he's not hiring the best campaign staff money can buy.

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

Leading Off

●LA-Gov: Two Louisiana Republicans, Rep. Ralph Abraham and wealthy businessman Eddie Rispone, are competing in this year's October all-party primary to face Democratic Gov. John Bel Edward, and Abraham began July with a massive financial disadvantage against both men. However, as we'll explain, while Rispone has far more money available than Abraham, the Republicans are about even in their competition to see who can emulate Donald Trump and be the most racist candidate.

Abraham hauled in $800,000 during the period of April 6 through July 4, and he had $1.3 million in the bank. That's actually a considerably better fundraising quarter than Rispone, who only raised $277,000 from donors and did no notable self-funding this quarter. The congressman's problem is that Rispone loaned his campaign a massive $10 million in previous months, and he still had $9.8 million on-hand. State law prohibited Edwards from raising money during the legislative session, which lasted for most of this quarter, so he brought in just $33,000. However, the governor had $9.6 million left to spend.

Republicans began fretting about Abraham's meh fundraising as early as February, though not everyone's in love with the deep-pocketed Rispone. LAPolitics summed up the knocks against both Republicans at the time, writing that "Abraham has the personality but not the money to win" while Rispone's detractors say he "has the money but not the personality to shake trees and move rooms." After months of this griping, Abraham's campaign now says that they just hired a well-connected fundraising team, though we'll need to wait until September to see if they've finally turned things around for the congressman.

Abraham's people will have to work fast, though, since the all-party primary is Oct. 12; if no one takes a majority, the general election would take place Nov. 16. While Edwards has run TV spots and the RGA has aired commercials slamming the governor, neither Abraham nor Rispone have taken to the airwaves yet. It's not clear when either Republican will go on TV, though Rispone cryptically predicted last week that, when the Aug. 8 candidate filing deadline arrives, "[E]veryone will know who I am."

While Rispone has considerably more resources than Abraham, there's one other metric that has them deadlocked: They're tied to see who can be the most racist. On Monday, Abraham endorsed Donald Trump's tweet that four congresswomen of color should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came" by offering to "pay for their tickets out of this country if they just tell me where they'd rather be." Rispone also tweeted out his support for Trump and declared that "if these America hating crazies in Washington don't like it, they should crawl back under the rock they came from."

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

Leading Off

●Fundraising: Daily Kos Elections is pleased to present our second quarterly fundraising charts of the 2020 election cycle for both the House and the Senate!

We've included every race we expect to be competitive in next year's general elections as well as open seats in otherwise safe districts that feature primaries. We also list contests where incumbents potentially face a credible primary challenge, members of Congress who might retire or run for higher office, and under-the-radar contests where a candidate raised or self-funded an unexpectedly large sum.

The big takeaway is that, despite some Democratic fears (and GOP hopes) that Team Blue's crowded presidential primary would divert donors from the congressional battlefield, the House class of 2018 is continuing to raise money at a pace that would have been unthinkable little more than two years ago.

Two of the most astonishing hauls, in fact, came from members who unseated GOP incumbents just last fall: California Rep. Katie Porter hauled in just shy of $1 million for the quarter, while New York Rep. Max Rose raised about $800,000. An additional 28 Democrats who flipped seats last year also raised over $500,000 during the quarter.

Last year, Democratic challengers managed to outraise many Republican incumbents―often quite dramatically. The reverse, however, has not been the case this cycle. It's still early, and the GOP does have some solid fundraisers, but so far, none of them are outpacing Democratic incumbents.

Case in point: Two Republican challengers, Wesley Hunt in Texas and Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey, did take in over $500,000 from donors during the quarter. Democratic incumbents, however, outraised both of them: Rep. Lizzie Fletcher outpaced Hunt $564,000 to $514,000, while Rep. Tom Malinowski led Kean $560,000 to $505,000.

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

Leading Off

●PR-Gov: Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced on Sunday that he would not seek a second term in 2020 and that he would also step down as head of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP), but he refused to resign from office despite massive protests calling for his departure. Rosselló has been in hot water over the last two weeks after a series of chats sent between the governor and his allies leaked where participants lobbed misogynist and homophobic attacks and joked about Puerto Ricans who died during Hurricane Maria.

However, Rosselló was already in a precarious position before this month. The U.S. commonwealth has been in the midst of a horrific debt crisis for years, and things got even worse when Maria devastated the island in 2017 and led to a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of residents. Rosselló's situation deteriorated in July when two former senior officials in the Rosselló administration were arrested by the FBI for allegedly directing federal funds to allied contractors.

Days later, Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism released hundreds of pages of chats sent between Rosselló and his top allies and cabinet members from 2018 into January of this year. These messages included an exchange where Chief Fiscal Officer Christian Sobrino Vega said he was "salivating to shoot" San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, to which the governor responded, "You'd be doing me a grand favor." Yulín Cruz, who is a member of the Popular Democratic Party (which supports Puerto Rico remaining a commonwealth rather than becoming a U.S. state) and has been a prominent critic of Rosselló and Donald Trump, is currently running for governor.

Those were far from the only awful messages. Rosselló attacked former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is from Puerto Rico, writing that people should "beat up that whore." Sobrino Vega also declared that singer Ricky Martin, who is gay, "is such a male chauvinist that he fucks men because women don't measure up. Pure patriarchy." Sobrino Vega also joked about the bodies filling the morgues after Maria, saying, "Now that we are on the subject, don't we have some cadavers to feed our crows?" (CNN writes that "crows" is a reference to the administration's critics.)

Massive protests quickly began calling for Rosselló to resign, and demonstrators were not deterred when he said Sunday that he just wouldn't seek re-election. There have also been plenty of calls for the governor to be removed from office, and on Friday, Puerto Rican House of Representatives President Carlos "Johnny" Méndez created a committee to advise him whether Rosselló had committed impeachable offenses. If a majority of the House voted to impeach, then it would take two-thirds of the Senate to vote to oust Rosselló.

However, it's not clear who would become governor if Rosselló is convicted or finally quits. Normally Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin would take over if the governorship became vacant, but Marin himself will resign at the end of the month because of his own role in the chat scandal. The next person in the line of succession is Justice Minister Wanda Vazquez, who is a Rosselló appointee. One thing is certain, though: Now that Rosselló isn't running again, the last time any Puerto Rico governor won re-election will remain a quarter century ago in 1996.

Former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, a far-right social conservative who almost beat then-Gov. Bruce Rauner in last year’s GOP primary, announced that she would challenge Democratic freshman Rep. Sean Casten in Illinois’ 6th District. Surprisingly, Ives said that former Rep. Peter Roskam, an establishment ally whom Casten defeated in 2018, is supporting her. Ives will face former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti, who was Rauner’s running mate last year, in the primary for this suburban Chicago seat.

Ives decided to challenge Rauner in late 2017 after the governor signed a law allowing public funding for abortions. Ives’ bid quickly received $2.5 million from conservative mega donor Richard Uihlein (Illinois has no campaign finance limits), which is largely what kept her campaign afloat. However, Ives still spent the entire contest as the underdog against the wealthy governor, whom she tried to portray as a liberal.

Ives infamously used a racist and transphobic ad to make that case. Her spot included a deep-voiced actor in a dress telling the governor, “Thank you for signing legislation that lets me use the girls bathroom.” The commercial also included a man in a hoodie wearing a bandana around his face expressing his appreciation to Rauner for ostensibly making the state “a sanctuary state for illegal immigrant criminals,” as well as a woman sporting a pink protest hat meant to invoke the Women’s March saying that the governor now had Illinois families “pay[ing] for my abortions.”

This spot attracted plenty of attention, but every poll still showed Rauner beating Ives. However, the Democratic Governors Association decided to launch a late attempt to try and take down the governor in the primary. The DGA ran commercials in the final week of the contest pretending to call Ives out as "too conservative" in a barely disguised effort to boost her with, well, conservatives. It almost worked, but Rauner prevailed by a very weak 51.5-48.5. However, according to analysts and Daily Kos Elections contributor Drew Savicki, Ives carried the 6th District 50.2-49.8.

I’ve been raising money to help re-elect all 4044 of the most vulnerable freshmen Dems who flipped GOP House seats (this was based on Cook Report ratings at the time; a few may have shifted since then but these are the 40 I’m targeting).

SEE IMPORTANT UPDATE AT END OF DIARY!

Donate to all of them at once or pick the ones you want to support...the money goes to the individual candidate campaigns, NOT the DCCC or any other organization.

For months, progressives have been demanding that our House Democrats call for a formal Impeachment Inquiry.

Some argue that we’re already in the middle of one, but even so, people want the individual House members to personally voice their support of moving forward with the impeachment process.

It’s fairly easy for a Dem in a safe blue district to say “Impeach the motherfucker!” It’s not nearly as simple for a Dem who just barely managed to flip a GOP district less than a year ago. It’s not just that they’re worried about losing their jobs, it’s also that there’s the possibility losing control of the House again, and the potential impact on the Senate and Presidential races.

We’ve been arguing a lot about whether moving forward on impeachment will be helpful or harmful politically, bla bla bla. I happen to believe it’s the right thing to do both morally, legally and politically, but I’m not sneering at those who argue the other side either. Bottom line, it’s been a tough call for a lot of these folks.

Well, as of tonight, at least 1920 21 22 2426 31 33 of the 4044 have done exactly what we’ve been asking them to do: They’ve issued formal public statements in support of an impeachment inquiry. Now it’s up to us to make sure they know we have their backs.

This link will let you donate directly to 1, 2 or as many as all 44 candidates. If you only want to donate to the ones who are on the record in support of impeachment, fine. If you only want to donate to the ones who haven’t done so, that’s your call as well!

ARE PUBLICLY SUPPORTING A FORMAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY:

• AZ-02: Ann Kirkpatrick
• CA-10: Josh Harder
• CA-21: TJ Cox
• CA-25: Katie Hill
• CA-39: Gil Cisneros
• CA-45: Katie Porter
• CA-48: Harley Rouda
• CA-49: Mike Levin
• CO-06: Jason Crow
• FL-26: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
• FL-27: Donna Shalala
• IA-01: Abby Finkenauer
• IA-03: Cindy Axne
• IL-06: Sean Casten
• IL-14: Lauren Underwood
• MI-08: Elissa Slotkin
• MI-11: Haley Stevens
• MN-02: Angie Craig
• MN-03: Dean Phillips
• NH-01: Chris Pappas
• NV-03: Susie Lee
• NV-04: Steven Horsford
• NJ-03: Andy Kim
• NJ-07: Tom Malinowski
• NJ-11: Mikie Sherrill
• NY-19: Antonio Delgado
• PA-07: Susan Wild
• TX-07: Lizzie Fletcher
• TX-32: Colin Allred
• VA-02: Elaine Luria
• VA-07: Abigail Spanberger
• VA-10: Jennifer Wexton
• WA-08: Kim Schrier

NOT YET PUBLICLY SUPPORTING AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY:

• GA-06: Lucy McBath (???)
• KS-03: Sharice Davids
• ME-02: Jared Golden
• NJ-02: Jeff Van Drew
• NM-02: Xochitl Torres Small
• NY-11: Max Rose
• NY-22: Anthony Brindisi
• OK-05: Kendra Horn
• PA-17: Conor Lamb
• SC-01: Joe Cunningham
• UT-04: Ben McAdams

DONATE TODAY!

UPDATE 8:05am: BOOM! As I expected, MI-11 Representative Haley Stevens just became the 20th of the 40 to issue a public statement of support. This is a big deal to me, as Stevens is a personal friend. Also, with her, we’ve hit 50% of those on this list, as well as all 7 Michigan Democrats (+ newly-independent Justin Amash, of course).

UPDATE 8:39am:NY-19 Antonio Delgado just became #21.

UPDATE 9:26am: TX-32 Colin Allred is #22.

UPDATE 12:02pm: TX-07 Lizzie Fletcher is #23.

UPDATE 1:37pm: I owe CA-25 Katie Hill an apology! Apparently she publicly stated support for an impeachment inquiry a week ago...that technically made her #12 or so, although it means 24 total now…

UPDATE 3:30pm: A twofer! FL-27 Donna Shalala and NJ-03 Andy Kim issue statements of support.

UPDATE 3:40pm: CA-10 Josh Harder is in.

UPDATE 3:53pm:IA-03 Cindy Axne is in.

MAJOR UPDATE 5:00pm: I’ve revisited the Cook Report House Rankings, and have made the following updates to the list below:

• REMOVED PA-06 Chrissy Houlahan (safe D...she’s onboard)
• ADDED NH-01 Chris Pappas (he’s onboard)
• ADDED NV-03 Susie Lee (she’s onboard)
• ADDED NV-04 Steven Horsford (he’s onboard)
• ADDED PA-07 Susan Wild (she’s onboard)
• ADDED PA-17 Conor Lamb (not onboard as of 5pm)

UPDATE 5:58pm: CA-21 T.J. Cox is onboard.

UPDATE 8?06pm:IA-01 Abby Finkenauer is in.

(this is an updated version of my diary from yesterday, which helped raise over $7,000!)

I’ve been raising money to help re-elect all 44 of the most vulnerable freshmen Dems who flipped GOP House seats.

Donate to all of them at once or pick the ones you want to support...the money goes to the individual candidate campaigns, NOT the DCCC or any other organization.

For months, progressives have been demanding that our House Democrats call for a formal Impeachment Inquiry.

Some argue that we’re already in the middle of one, but even so, people want the individual House members to personally voice their support of moving forward with the impeachment process.

It’s fairly easy for a Dem in a safe blue district to say “Impeach the motherfucker!” It’s not nearly as simple for a Dem who just barely managed to flip a GOP district less than a year ago.

It’s not just that they’re worried about losing their jobs, it’s also that there’s the possibility losing control of the House again, and the potential impact on the Senate and Presidential races.

We’ve been arguing a lot about whether moving forward on impeachment will be helpful or harmful politically, bla bla bla. I happen to believe it’s the right thing to do both morally, legally and politically, but I’m not sneering at those who argue the other side either. Bottom line, it’s been a tough call for a lot of these folks.

Well, as of tonight, at least 33 of these 44 have done exactly what we’ve been asking them to do: They’ve issued formal public statements in support of an impeachment inquiry. Now it’s up to us to make sure they know we have their backs.

This link will let you donate directly to 1, 2 or as many as all 44 candidates.

If you only want to donate to the ones who are on the record in support of impeachment, fine.

If you only want to donate to the ones who haven’t done so, that’s your call as well!

33 PUBLICLY SUPPORTING A FORMAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY:

• AZ-02: Ann Kirkpatrick
• CA-10: Josh Harder
• CA-21: TJ Cox
• CA-25: Katie Hill
• CA-39: Gil Cisneros
• CA-45: Katie Porter
• CA-48: Harley Rouda
• CA-49: Mike Levin
• CO-06: Jason Crow
• FL-26: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
• FL-27: Donna Shalala
• IA-01: Abby Finkenauer
• IA-03: Cindy Axne
• IL-06: Sean Casten
• IL-14: Lauren Underwood
• MI-08: Elissa Slotkin
• MI-11: Haley Stevens
• MN-02: Angie Craig
• MN-03: Dean Phillips
• NH-01: Chris Pappas
• NV-03: Susie Lee
• NV-04: Steven Horsford
• NJ-03: Andy Kim
• NJ-07: Tom Malinowski
• NJ-11: Mikie Sherrill
• NY-19: Antonio Delgado
• PA-07: Susan Wild
• TX-07: Lizzie Fletcher
• TX-32: Colin Allred
• VA-02: Elaine Luria
• VA-07: Abigail Spanberger
• VA-10: Jennifer Wexton
• WA-08: Kim Schrier

11 NOT YET PUBLICLY SUPPORTING AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY:

• GA-06: Lucy McBath
• KS-03: Sharice Davids
• ME-02: Jared Golden
• NJ-02: Jeff Van Drew
• NM-02: Xochitl Torres Small
• NY-11: Max Rose
• NY-22: Anthony Brindisi
• OK-05: Kendra Horn
• PA-17: Conor Lamb
• SC-01: Joe Cunningham
• UT-04: Ben McAdams

DONATE TODAY!

I’ve been raising money to help re-elect all 44 of the most vulnerable freshmen Dems who flipped GOP House seats.

Donate to all of them at once or pick the ones you want to support...the money goes to the individual candidate campaigns, NOT the DCCC or any other organization.

For months, progressives have been demanding that our House Democrats call for a formal Impeachment Inquiry.

Some argue that we’re already in the middle of one, but even so, people want the individual House members to personally voice their support of moving forward with the impeachment process.

It’s fairly easy for a Dem in a safe blue district to say “Impeach the motherfucker!” It’s not nearly as simple for a Dem who just barely managed to flip a GOP district less than a year ago.

It’s not just that they’re worried about losing their jobs, it’s also that there’s the possibility losing control of the House again, and the potential impact on the Senate and Presidential races.

We’ve been arguing a lot about whether moving forward on impeachment will be helpful or harmful politically, bla bla bla. I happen to believe it’s the right thing to do both morally, legally and politically, but I’m not sneering at those who argue the other side either. Bottom line, it’s been a tough call for a lot of these folks.

Well, as of tonight, at least 35 of these 44 have done exactly what we’ve been asking them to do: They’ve issued formal public statements in support of an impeachment inquiry*. Now it’s up to us to make sure they know we have their backs.

*(I hedged on Lucy McBath (GA-06) for awhile, but I’m now comfortable putting her in the “yes” column.)

This link will let you donate directly to 1, 2 or as many as all 44 candidates.

If you only want to donate to the ones who are on the record in support of impeachment, fine.

If you only want to donate to the ones who haven’t done so, that’s your call as well!

35 PUBLICLY SUPPORTING A FORMAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY:

• AZ-02: Ann Kirkpatrick
• CA-10: Josh Harder
• CA-21: TJ Cox
• CA-25: Katie Hill
• CA-39: Gil Cisneros
• CA-45: Katie Porter
• CA-48: Harley Rouda
• CA-49: Mike Levin
• CO-06: Jason Crow
• FL-26: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
• FL-27: Donna Shalala
• GA-06: Lucy McBath
• IA-01: Abby Finkenauer
• IA-03: Cindy Axne
• IL-06: Sean Casten
• IL-14: Lauren Underwood
• KS-03: Sharice Davids
• MI-08: Elissa Slotkin
• MI-11: Haley Stevens
• MN-02: Angie Craig
• MN-03: Dean Phillips
• NH-01: Chris Pappas
• NV-03: Susie Lee
• NV-04: Steven Horsford
• NJ-03: Andy Kim
• NJ-07: Tom Malinowski
• NJ-11: Mikie Sherrill
• NY-19: Antonio Delgado
• PA-07: Susan Wild
• TX-07: Lizzie Fletcher
• TX-32: Colin Allred
• VA-02: Elaine Luria
• VA-07: Abigail Spanberger
• VA-10: Jennifer Wexton
• WA-08: Kim Schrier

9 NOT YET PUBLICLY SUPPORTING AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY:

• ME-02: Jared Golden
• NJ-02: Jeff Van Drew
• NM-02: Xochitl Torres Small
• NY-11: Max Rose
• NY-22: Anthony Brindisi
• OK-05: Kendra Horn
• PA-17: Conor Lamb
• SC-01: Joe Cunningham
• UT-04: Ben McAdams

DONATE TODAY!

While I’m only raising funds for vulnerable freshmen at this time (I have to cut it off somewhere), I should note for the record that of the 8 non-freshmen rated as vulnerable by the Cook Report, five of them are publicly supporting an impeachment inquiry as well:

• CA-07 Ami Bera
• IL-17 Cheri Bustos
• NJ-05 Josh Gottheimer
• NY-18 Sean Patrick Maloney
• PA-08 Matt Cartwright

There’s three more non-freshmen rated as vulnerable who haven’t issued a statement of support yet: WI-03 Ron Kind, AZ-01 Tom O’Halleran & MN-07 Collin Peterson.

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

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●LA-Gov: Louisiana held its all-party primary on Saturday, and Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards was forced into a Nov. 16 runoff with wealthy Republican Eddie Rispone.

Edwards took 47% of the vote, a few points short of the majority he needed to win outright, while Rispone edged GOP Rep. Ralph Abraham 27-24 for the second runoff spot. Altogether Rispone, Abraham, and Some Dude Republican Patrick "Live Wire" Landry racked up a combined 51.8% of the vote while Edwards and underfunded Democrat Omar Dantzler took 47.4%. (The balance went to independent Gary Landrieu.)

While Rispone began the race with little name recognition, he got his name out over the summer after he started bombarding the airwaves with TV ads. Polls initially showed Abraham with a big edge over Rispone, but Rispone decisively outspent the congressman during the lead-up to the primary.

Edwards will be in for a difficult five-week campaign against Rispone, who self-funded $11 million to his campaign during the first round of the race. The good news for the governor is that the few polls we’ve seen testing him in a no-longer hypothetical runoff with Rispone have given him a big lead. A Mason-Dixon poll from early October found Edwards leading 51-42, while a survey completed last week for the GOP firm JMC Analytics for the media company Nexstar had the Democrat up 48-39.

However, there are a few reasons to be pessimistic that Edwards will start out the second round with anything like a 9-point edge over Rispone. Both of those polls were taken during the last weeks of the primary while Rispone and Abraham were attacking one another, which could have led some of Abraham’s voters to say they wouldn’t support Rispone. Abraham endorsed Rispone on election night, though, so the GOP will be able to present a united front over the next month.

Candidate filing for Illinois' March 17 primaries closed on Monday, and you can find a complete list of candidates here. At least one Democrat and one Republican filed in every district except IL-08, where Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi is running unopposed. However, challenges to nominating petitions are frequent in Illinois, and candidates are often knocked off the ballot, so expect some changes.

IL-03: Running down the key races by district has us starting with Illinois' 3rd District, a solidly blue seat in southwestern Chicago where conservative Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski once again faces a challenge from businesswoman Marie Newman. Newman held Lipinski to a narrow 51-49 win in last year's primary, but complicating matters for her this time is the presence of two other candidates: activist Rush Darwish and mechanic Charles Hughes. Hughes has been thrown off the ballot twice in prior bids for local office and hasn't even filed with the FEC, but Darwish has raised $345,000. It only takes a simple plurality to win, so Lipinski could benefit if there's a split in the anti-incumbent vote.

IL-06: The NRCC was dealt a heavy blow when its touted recruit, former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti, dropped out of the race to challenge freshman Democratic Rep. Sean Casten in October, leaving the GOP with former state Rep. Jeanne Ives as its only notable candidate in Illinois' 6th District. Ives is a conservative extremist who's a poor fit for this affluent and highly educated district in the western Chicago suburbs (check out this racist and transphobic ad she ran during her unsuccessful campaign for governor last year).

Hillary Clinton won this district 50-43 in 2016, though according to one analysis, former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner carried it 50-45 last year despite getting blown out statewide.

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

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●Illinois: Candidate filing for Illinois' March 17 primaries closed on Monday, and you can find a complete list of candidates here. At least one Democrat and one Republican filed in every district except IL-08, where Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi is running unopposed. However, challenges to nominating petitions are frequent in Illinois, and candidates are often knocked off the ballot, so expect some changes.

IL-03: Running down the key races by district has us starting with Illinois' 3rd District, a solidly blue seat in southwestern Chicago where conservative Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski once again faces a challenge from businesswoman Marie Newman. Newman held Lipinski to a narrow 51-49 win in last year's primary, but complicating matters for her this time is the presence of two other candidates: activist Rush Darwish and mechanic Charles Hughes. Hughes has been thrown off the ballot twice in prior bids for local office and hasn't even filed with the FEC, but Darwish has raised $345,000. It only takes a simple plurality to win, so Lipinski could benefit if there's a split in the anti-incumbent vote.

You can find our roundup of candidate filings in all of Illinois' other key races in our House section below.

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

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●NC-10, NC-13, NC-Sen, NC-LG: GOP Rep. Mark Walker announced Monday that he would not run for anything in 2020, a decision he made weeks after North Carolina's new court-ordered congressional map utterly scrambled his old 6th Congressional District. GOP Rep. George Holding also announced his retirement earlier this month after his own seat was un-gerrymandered. 

Walker didn't want to leave Congress, though, and he quickly started looking for ways to stick around. The congressman knew he couldn't win in the new 6th District, a seat that backed Clinton 59-38, but he talked about launching a primary bid against Sen. Thom Tillis or taking on fellow GOP Reps. Patrick McHenry or Ted Budd in the new 10th or 13th Districts. There were even reports that Republicans wanted Walker to run for the open seat race for lieutenant governor, and Donald Trump reportedly said he'd back Walker if he did this.

However, with days to go before the Dec. 20 filing deadline, Walker announced Monday that he'd be sitting out the 2020 cycle altogether. We may have him to kick around again soon, though, since the congressman said he's considering running for the Senate in 2022 to succeed GOP incumbent Richard Burr, who says he'll retire.

Walker's spokesperson said last week that Trump had offered him "an open endorsement" for this contest, and Walker himself may think that he already has Trump's backing. In his Monday statement Walker also said that after this election cycle is over "we will take a look at the 2022 Senate race, and we are thankful to have President Trump's support."

However, plenty of other Republicans are likely to take a look at the Senate seat assuming Burr keeps his word and retires, so Walker probably shouldn't count on automatically having Trump's support this far ahead of time no matter what he was told at the White House. And of course, no one should ever count on Donald Trump to keep a promise, much less "an open endorsement."

Received this e-mail from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D. IL):

I’m hoping you’ll make a donation to support these three Democrats running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois:

Representatives Lauren Underwood (IL-14) and Sean Casten (IL-6), and Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, who’s running to flip IL-13.

Lauren and Sean are already doing an excellent job representing our state in Washington, DC — so we need to make sure they win reelection so they can continue advocating for Illinoisans. And Betsy is running to unseat an anti-choice Republican who votes with Trump 96% of the time.

I am proud to endorse Lauren, Sean and Betsy for Congress. Join me in supporting them and split a donation between our campaigns today.

Thanks for your support.

All my best,

Tammy

Click here to donate to Underwood, Casten and Dirksen Londrigan’s campaigns.

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

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●WI Supreme Court: Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jill Karofsky unseated Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly on Monday night in a key race that will narrow the court’s conservative majority and also sets progressives up to take control of the court when its next member is up for election. With nearly all votes tallied, Karofsky held a 55-45 lead.

Last Tuesday’s contests went ahead amidst the coronavirus pandemic despite a last-minute order from the state’s governor, Democrat Tony Evers, seeking to postpone them. Evers’ order, however, was quashed by the conservatives on the state Supreme Court, forcing Wisconsinites to choose between exercising their right to vote and protecting their health. An extreme shortage of poll workers led to excessively long lines in the few precincts that were able to open.

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

Primary season, which began more than six months ago on March 3, finally came to an end on Tuesday when Delaware held its last-in-the-nation primaries. You can find the results here.

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●AK-Sen, AK-AL: On Monday, just days before ballots were to go out, Alaska Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai announced that candidates would no longer have their actual political affiliation listed on the general election ballot and would only be identified as the nominee of the party whose nomination they've won.

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

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●State Legislatures: With the nation's primary elections finally concluding last week, we're pleased to announce that the 2020 edition of the Daily Kos Elections State Legislative Open Seat Tracker is now complete. Overall, Democrats are contesting more Republican-held seats at the legislative level than the reverse, and fewer of the party's incumbents have opted to retire, suggesting continued optimism about Team Blue's chances across the country.

This year, 5,876 seats are on the ballot across 86 legislative chambers in 44 states nationwide. We've counted 361 Republican and 298 Democratic incumbents who are calling it quits this fall, while an additional 113 Republicans and 82 Democrats are term-limited and will not be on their states' respective ballots this November.

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

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●NJ-07: Freshman Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski said last week that he'd received death threats from followers of the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory in large part because of an NRCC spot ad falsely accusing him of lobbying against a national sex offender registry, and the NRCC has responded by running a new spot that repeats the very same lie.

Daily Kos Elections is pleased to bring you our calculations of the 2020 election results for Illinois’ 18 congressional districts, where yet another surge in ancestrally Republican territory helped Democrats hang on to a seat in the Chicago exurbs that they flipped in 2018. You can find our detailed calculations here, a large-size map of the results here, and our permanent, bookmarkable link for all 435 districts here.

Two years ago, in one of the most colossal upsets of the midterm blue wave, Democrat Lauren Underwood, then a 32-year-old nurse who’d never sought office before, defeated Republican Rep. Randy Hultgren in Illinois’ 14th District, making her the youngest Black woman ever elected to Congress. Last year she drew a far weaker opponent in perennial candidate Jim Oberweis, a state senator who was so despised by his own party that a major Republican super PAC tried to defeat him in the primary, but Underwood wound up winning by a closer-than-expected 51-49 margin.

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

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●NC-Sen: Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory announced Wednesday that he would enter the primary to succeed his fellow Republican, retiring Sen. Richard Burr. The only other notable Republican currently in the race is former Rep. Mark Walker, but a number of others have expressed interest. We also got a new name this week when an unnamed spokesperson for far-right Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson confirmed that he was thinking about getting in.

We'll start with McCrory, a longtime politician who tried to rebrand himself as an "outsider" in his kickoff video. McCrory was elected mayor of Charlotte back in 1995, and he cultivated a moderate reputation during his 14 years in office, which made him the longest-serving mayor in city history. McCrory lost a close race for governor in 2008 to Democrat Bev Perdue, and he decided to retire as mayor the following year ahead of their widely anticipated 2012 rematch. Perdue, though, ended up retiring in the face of poor approval ratings, and McCrory decisively won the contest to succeed her.

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

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●Washington, D.C. Mayor: Two members of the Council of the District of Columbia, Robert White and Trayon White, each said Wednesday that they would run for mayor next year against Mayor Muriel Bowser, a fellow Democrat who the Washington Post says is expected to run for a third term.

Of the two challengers (who do not appear to be related), Robert White appears to start out with considerably broader appeal than Trayon White, who made national news in 2018 when he launched an antisemitic rant accusing the Rothschild family of controlling the weather. It only takes a plurality to win the June Democratic primary in D.C., which is tantamount to election in what has long been one of the bluest jurisdictions in the entire country.

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

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●IL Redistricting:On Friday, the day after both chambers of the Democratic-led state legislature passed Illinois’ new congressional map in a late-night session, Democratic Reps. Sean Casten and Marie Newman each said that they’d run for the new 6th District in Chicago’s western suburbs, while Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger announced his retirement from the House (see our IL-16 item below for more on that latter development).

Republicans may also be in for their own incumbent vs. incumbent primary between Reps. Mike Bost and Mary Miller in the 12th District in downstate Illinois, but only Bost has confirmed he’s running again; as we’ll discuss, Miller could instead decide to take on fellow Rep. Rodney Davis.

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

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●VA State House: While Virginia Republicans currently lead in 52 races for the state House and Democrats in just 48, the final outcome hasn't been decided yet because two contests where Democrats trail are poised for recounts.

One of those two Democrats, Del. Martha Mugler, in fact conceded on Friday, prompting House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn to issue a statement congratulating Republicans on their victory. But Mugler, who represents the 91st District in the Hampton Roads area, rescinded her concession over the weekend after a tabulation error cut Republican A.C. Cordoza's lead almost in half, from 185 votes to just 94.

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

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●PA-Sen: Army veteran Sean Parnell has continued his run for the Republican Senate nomination in the weeks since his estranged wife testified under oath that he'd choked her and hit their children, but an unnamed source close to the campaign tells Politico that an adverse court ruling could end his bid. "His entire campaign comes down to whether he keeps custody of his kids or not," says this source, who added that the Trump-backed candidate would stay in if he prevailed in the custody battle.

Plenty of Republicans, though, want alternatives regardless of whether Parnell, who has denied the allegations, remains in the race, but there isn't an obvious savior candidate in sight at the moment. Several others are currently competing in the May primary in this closely-watched Senate race, but Politico says that each of them has drawbacks. Jeff Bartos, the 2018 nominee for lieutenant governor, has argued that the allegations against Parnell make him "unelectable," a line that could turn off both Donald Trump and Parnell's backers.

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

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●GA-07, GA-06: Following passage of the GOP's new congressional map on Monday, Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath announced that she'd seek re-election in the new 7th District in the Atlanta suburbs, setting up an incumbent-vs.-incumbent battle in next year's Democratic primary.

Undermining McBath's old 6th District was a chief of aim Georgia Republicans, who made it much redder by gerrymandering it to take in far-flung rural areas. Under the old lines, the 6th went 55-44 for Joe Biden; the new version, by contrast, would have backed Donald Trump 57-42, according to Dave's Redistricting App.

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

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●NY-Gov, NY-03: Rep. Tom Suozzi announced Monday that he would challenge New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for the Democratic nomination in June rather than seek a fourth term in his Long Island-based 3rd Congressional District, which backed Joe Biden 55-44 in its current form. The congressman, as we'll discuss, previously sought the Empire State's top job in 2006 but lost the primary in a landslide.  

Suozzi, who had briefly considered becoming a New York City deputy mayor rather than run for office, joins state Attorney General Tish James and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams in taking on Hochul, who became governor this summer after Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace. The only recent primary poll we've seen that's tested Suozzi was a mid-November Data for Progress survey for consultant Neal Kwatra on behalf of an unnamed donor, and it presented the new candidate with some very dispiriting news: Hochul beat James 39-24, with Williams and Suozzi at just 9% and 7%, respectively.

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

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●WI Supreme Court: The conservative majority on Wisconsin's Supreme Court handed Republicans a major victory on Tuesday when it issued a ruling saying it would use a "least-change" approach to redrawing the state's election districts. Under such an approach, the court—which took over redistricting after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed new Republican plans—will adjust the current maps in order to achieve population equality between districts, purportedly making any necessary adjustments as minimal as possible.

Of course, those old maps are extreme Republican gerrymanders that were passed on party-line votes without any Democratic input a decade ago, ensuring that any resultant new maps will reinforce those gerrymanders if only modest tweaks are made to the existing lines. That means they’d lock in the GOP's 6-2 advantage in the state's congressional delegation, despite the fact that Joe Biden carried Wisconsin last year, as well as its wide legislative majorities.

_{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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●CA-09, CA-13: Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney, who got to Congress in 2006 by unseating a longtime Republican incumbent, announced Tuesday that he would not seek another term in California's redrawn 9th District, a new seat that shares the same number as his current constituency. Minutes later, fellow Democratic Rep. Josh Harder declared that he'd run to succeed McNerney rather than continue with his previously announced campaign for the revamped 13th District just to the south, a move that will set off an open seat race for the latter district.

Harder's move is a bit surprising. His old district, numbered the 10th, was chopped up during redistricting, leaving him representing just 31% of the new 13th, located in the mid-Central Valley. But an even smaller share of his current constituents—just 27%—wound up in the new 9th, which is based around the city of Stockton. (A 43% plurality of Harder's existing 10th District wound up in the new 5th, a safely red seat where GOP Rep. Tom McClintock is reportedly seeking another term.)

_{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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●AZ Redistricting: Arizona's Independent Redistricting Commission completed its work redrawing the districts the state will use for congressional and legislative elections for the coming decade, with the U.S. House map in particular a considerable departure in many respects from the one it replaces. Of note, most of the districts have been renumbered, but that's only where the changes begin.

Like the old map, the new one features five districts that Joe Biden would have won and four that would have gone for Donald Trump. These basic toplines, however, don't capture the extent of the differences, especially since two of the Biden districts would have gone blue only by the slimmest of margins. What's more, among potentially competitive districts, three Democratic-held seats became decidedly redder while only one Republican seat went in the other direction.

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

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●Fundraising: Daily Kos Elections is pleased to present our comprehensive roundups of fundraising data for the final three months of 2021 for both the House and the Senate.

With redistricting underway—and complete in many states—many sitting representatives have now found themselves paired with colleagues in redrawn House districts. These new reports are the first to give us insight into these incumbent-vs.-incumbent matchups, which at the moment number seven in total.

At Daily Kos, our goal is to elect and support more and better Democrats. For a long time, it appeared that Rep. Marie Newman met that standard and then some. It’s why many of us supported her when she challenged Chicago machine scion Rep. Dan Lipinski in the Democratic primary for Illinois’s Third Congressional District in 2018. It’s also why many of us supported her when she sought a rematch against Lipinski in this southwest Chicago district—and won it, ending a 38-year hold on this district by the Lipinski family. Dan’s dad, Bill, won the seat in 1983 and handed it to his son in 2005.

Since then, Newman’s been best known for standing up to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s blatant transphobia. Newman has a trans daughter; indeed, she says she entered politics specifically to make life better for her daughter. She even went as far as to hang a trans pride flag in front of her office—directly across from that of Greene.

Well, as of Thursday, Newman has been exposed as a fraud. That’s about the only takeaway you can have from a devastating report in The Daily Beast that reveals Newman not only offered to give a potential primary challenger a job on her staff, but briefly offered to put her policy positions up for sale as well.

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

Check out our new podcast, The Downballot!

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●OH-Sen: Retiring Sen. Rob Portman has endorsed former state party chair Jane Timken in the crowded and very expensive May Republican primary to succeed him. Portman is the most prominent name to take sides in the nomination fight, but everyone is still waiting to see if Donald Trump will end up issuing an endorsement in the next two and a half months in a contest where he's reportedly far from happy with any of his choices.

Trump, multiple media outlets said, actually decided to back Timken last year, and the Washington Post adds that he even called her about a year ago to deliver the good news. But that not-tweet never went out, and Politico's Alex Isenstadt writes that it’s because Trump abruptly changed his mind when Timken initially defended Rep. Anthony Gonzalez after he voted for impeachment, with the then-party chair saying that the congressman had a "rational reason why he voted that way. I think he's an effective legislator, and he's a very good person." She quickly reversed herself and called for Gonzalez's resignation, but she didn't move fast enough to keep Trump in her corner or stop the Club for Growth from turning the story into an anti-Timken ad.

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

Check out our new podcast, The Downballot!

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●Primary Night: A Paxton Both Your Houses: The 2022 primary season kicks off in a big way tonight in Texas, and we have plenty to watch!

We've put together our preview of the night's key races in the Lone Star State ahead of our first liveblog of the year. Our live coverage will begin at Daily Kos Elections at 8 PM ET / 7 PM CT when polls close in most of Texas (the small portion in the Mountain Time Zone closes an hour later). 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. (Our next stop will be Indiana and Ohio on May 3.)

Perhaps the most closely watched race will be the Democratic primary rematch in the Laredo-based 28th Congressional District between conservative Rep. Henry Cuellar and progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros, a race that took a sudden turn in January after the FBI raided the congressman's home and campaign office. This time, though, the primary includes a third candidate, educator Tannya Benavides, and her presence could prevent either Cuellar or Cisneros from winning the majority of the vote they'd need to avoid a May 24 runoff.

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

Check out our podcast, The Downballot!

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●MI-04: State Rep. Steve Carra on Tuesday ended his campaign for the Republican nod against Reps. Bill Huizenga and Fred Upton days after he learned the hard way that Donald Trump's "Complete and Total Endorsement"isn’t actually complete and total when redistricting is involved. Carra on his way out joined Trump in supporting Huizenga's intra-party bid against Upton, who voted to impeach Trump and still hasn't confirmed if he'll even be running for a 14th term.

Carra last year had picked up Trump's backing when he was taking on Upton in the old 6th District, but that was before the new map ensured that Huizenga and Upton would be running for the same new 4th District if they each wanted to remain in the House. Carra himself eventually decided to run for the 4th even though it didn't include a shred of his legislative seat, and for more than a month he was able to take advantage of the GOP leader’s silence about where things stood post-redistricting and continue to run as the only Trump-backed candidate.

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

Subscribe to our podcast, The Downballot!

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●OH-07: Republican Rep. Bob Gibbs said Wednesday that he was ending his re-election bid for Ohio's 7th Congressional District, a surprising announcement that came well after candidate filing closed and days following the start of early voting for the state's May 3 primary. The six-term congressman's abrupt retirement leaves former Trump aide Max Miller as the frontrunner to claim a seat in the Canton area and Akron suburbs that Trump would have carried 54-45. Gibbs' name will remain on the ballot, but the secretary of state's office says that any votes cast for him will not be counted.

_{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.}

Subscribe to our podcast, The Downballot!

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● Primary Night: Tuesday was a huge primary night, and below is a summary of where things stood as of 8 AM ET in the big contests. You can also find our cheat sheet here.

_{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.}

Subscribe to our podcast, The Downballot!

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●Primary Night: You Kemp Lose If You Don't Play: We have another big primary night in store on Tuesday as voters in Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia head to the polls. That's not all, though, as Texas is holding runoffs for races where no one earned a majority of the vote in the March 1 primary. On top of that, both Democrats and Republicans in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District will pick nominees for an Aug. 9 special election to succeed Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died in February. And as always, we've put together our preview of what to watch.  

_{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.}

Subscribe to our podcast, The Downballot!

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●MT Redistricting: For the first time in 40 years, Montana enjoyed the right to draw a congressional map following the 2020 census, thanks to population growth that bumped up its representation in the House from one seat to two. But while that task was completed all the way back in November, the state still lacks new maps for its legislature—and won't have any until next year. In fact, Montana is the only state in the nation that hasn't finished legislative redistricting. So what gives?

_{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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●WA-03: Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who faces a MAGA-fueled insurgency on her right flank, is taking a decidedly centrist tack with her first TV ad of the race. The spot stars a woman named Darsi Ross, who says two of her kids have diabetes and praises the congresswoman for "fighting to cap the cost of insulin and other prescriptions." Herrera Beutler was one of just 12 House Republicans who voted in favor of a key Democratic bill in March that would limit the cost of insulin to $35 a month. However, her fellow Republicans in the Senate have so far blocked the legislation.

_{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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●SC-01, SC-07: Two members of South Carolina’s U.S. House delegation went up against Trump-backed Republican primary opponents on Tuesday, but while 1st District Rep. Nancy Mace secured renomination, voters in the neighboring 7th District ejected pro-impeachment Rep. Tom Rice in favor of state Rep. Russell Fry. Mace turned back former state Rep. Katie Arrington, who was Team Red’s unsuccessful 2018 nominee, 53-45, which was just above the majority she needed to avoid a June 28 runoff. Fry also averted a second round in his six-way race by lapping Rice 51-25.

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

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Tuesday was one of the biggest primary nights of the cycle, and not just because a trio of House incumbents lost renomination. We’ll start with a look at those three contests below as we begin our summary of where things stood as of 8 AM ET in the big contests. You can also find our cheat-sheet here.

● IL-06 (D & R): Two-term Rep. Sean Casten defeated freshman colleague Marie Newman by a wide 68-29 margin in their Democratic primary for a seat in Chicago's inner western suburbs. Newman’s existing 3rd District makes up 41% of this new seat while Casten's current 6th District forms just 23%, but she was hurt by an ethics investigation into charges she sought to keep a potential primary opponent out of the race when she ran in 2020 by offering him a job as a top aide if she won. The race largely paused about two weeks before Election Day after the congressman's teenage daughter died suddenly and Newman announced that she was halting negative ads.

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

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●State Supreme Courts: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has brought new attention to the fight for abortion rights at the state level, and elections for state supreme courts will be one of the most consequential battlegrounds. In the wake of recent Supreme Court rulings that have severely weakened the Voting Rights Act and barred federal courts from policing gerrymandering, some of these state courts have already stepped in to play a crucial role in protecting the right to vote in free and fair elections. Now they'll be called on to do the same to preserve and even restore the right to an abortion.

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

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●AZ-Gov: In what may be a first in American elections, a new ad from a conservative super PAC stars a drag queen attacking a Republican candidate for statewide office—in this case, former TV anchor Kari Lake, Donald Trump's choice for governor.

This second-term representative first came to Congress by beating a GOP incumbent during the 2018 blue wave. He had an unexpectedly close race in 2020, and he is projected to potentially have another close one in 2022. He also had to fend off another member of Congress in a primary election. Majority Savers head to Illinois’ 6th district to profile Rep. Sean Casten!

If you want to find my previous entries in this series, I recommend following me or searching for #MajoritySavers as a tag! Majority Savers is also a group now, thanks to 2thanks!

Sean Casten for Illinois-6

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

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●Orange County, CA Board of Supervisors: Orange County Democrats have been locked out of power for generations in this longtime conservative bastion, but they'd take their first majority in living memory on the five-member Board of Supervisors if incumbent Katrina Foley wins a difficult race against Republican state Sen. Pat Bates. That's not the only big race for this officially nonpartisan body, though, as prominent local Democrats are backing Buena Park Mayor Sunny Park's intra-party challenge against Supervisor Doug Chaffee, who has often sided with his GOP colleagues.

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

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●State Supreme Courts: With the U.S. Supreme Court's ever-increasing lurch to the right in recent decades, which culminated with its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, state supreme court elections like the ones taking place this fall have become more important than ever for a wide range of issues in American law and politics. Relying on state constitutions that can guarantee more protections for civil rights than their federal counterpart, state courts offer progressives one of their best and also last hopes for safeguarding abortion rights, free and fair elections, and a whole host of other legal protections.

Consequently, five states are home to heavily contested state supreme court elections this cycle, and Daily Kos Elections has previewed in greater detail each individual race on the ballot across these states. You can also find a complete list of all races in every state at Ballotpedia.