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.
Campaign ActionLast 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.