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
●KS-02: The Aug. 7 Republican primary in Kansas' open 2nd District has been slow to take shape, but one Republican has gained attention for all the wrong reasons. State Sen. Steve Fitzgerald has repeatedly compared abortion to the Holocaust, including when he likened Planned Parenthood to a Nazi concentration camp last year. After he did so again at a debate last month, a group of Kansas rabbis sent him a letter to demand he stop making such an offensive comparison, but Fitzgerald recently said he wouldn't make any promises.
Campaign ActionDespite voting for Trump by a wide 57-36, Republicans appear to have a very vulnerable hold on this eastern Kansas seat, and none of them raised much money in the first quarter, including Fitzgerald. He brought in just $25,000 and had $200,000 in the bank. Fellow state Sen. Caryn Tyson didn't do much better by raising a mere $41,000, but she also loaned her campaign $90,000 to end up with $333,000 on-hand. Meanwhile, state Rep. Kevin Jones looks like he'll struggle to get his message out after only having $48,000 in the bank.
One Republican whom we previously had not written much about is Army veteran Steve Watkins, who joined the race back in November. Watkins raised just $40,000 in the first quarter, but he finished the period with $218,000 on-hand thanks to a $175,000 loan to himself in late 2017. It's unclear if he's wealthy enough to write himself any more big checks, but it could have a major impact if his rivals continue to raise little money.
On the Democratic side, former state House Minority Leader Paul Davis certainly did not have trouble raising funds: He brought in $338,000, more than the Republican field combined, and finished March with a solid $669,000 war chest. David has no noteworthy primary rivals, so he'll be able to continue stockpiling his resources while Republicans will have to keep spending theirs on the late summer primary.