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.
Leading Off
●CA-50: Late on Tuesday, federal prosecutors indicted Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, on charges that they filed false FEC reports to disguise the fact that they spent $250,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses. Hunter had been under FBI investigation since at least last year for, among other things, allegedly spending $1,300 of donor money on video games and $600 to transport his kid's pet rabbit on an airplane flight.
Hunter inherited his seat in Congress from his father, Duncan Hunter Sr., in 2008, and his San Diego-area district has always been reliably red. (In 2016, it voted for Donald Trump by a 55-40 margin.) But Hunter has drawn a credible opponent in Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, and now that he's under indictment, he could fall amidst a blue wave. And unlike fellow indicted GOP Rep. (now there's a phrase!) Chris Collins of New York, there's no way for Hunter to get his name off the November ballot, unless he dies.
Hunter shares one other thing in common with Collins, incidentally: Collins was the first sitting member of Congress to endorse Trump's presidential campaign. Hunter was the second.