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.
Leading Off
●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.)