Campaign Report
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Campaign Report
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The GOP’s unsettled 2024 field
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While polls show former President Trump far outrunning announced and prospective Republican rivals, the field is still taking shape.
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© AP Photo/Evan Vucci/Mark Pynes/The Patriot-News via AP/Charles Krupa
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Over the weekend, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott teased a “major announcement,” while Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin told The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker on Monday that he would not be heading out on the campaign trail this year and would be focused on campaigning for Republicans running in Virginia state legislature races this year.
And Trump is still considered the clear frontrunner in the field. A CBS-YouGov poll released on Monday showed Trump leading a hypothetical GOP primary field with 58 percent support, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis trails at 22 percent support.
Last week DeSantis embarked on a multi-nation international trip, making stops in Japan, South Korea, Israel and the United Kingdom.
The Florida governor has also been in the headlines for his administration’s ongoing feud with Disney. On Monday, the board picked by DeSantis to oversee Disney in the state said it will sue the company after Disney announced last week it was suing the state of Florida.
NBC News reported last week that DeSantis could jump into the race as soon as mid-May. Still, DeSantis not jumping into the fray has not stopped Trump from escalating his feud with the Florida governor.
However, The Hill’s Max Greenwood reports that the state’s senators are making an effort to stay out of the presidential primary fray between Trump and DeSantis for now, which underscores the tightrope the two will have to walk in the primary.
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Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, I’m Julia Manchester. Each week we track the key stories you need to know to stay ahead of the 2024 election and who will set the agenda in Washington.
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Key election stories and other recent campaign coverage:
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Andrew Yang, former Democratic presidential candidate and now the co-chair of the Forward Party, said in a new interview that the United States is in a “faux democracy.” “Our lives can just sink in the mud, it doesn’t matter in this political system and so you have this essentially faux democracy at this point,” Yang told The Hill’s Jessica Burbank and Robby Soave on “The Rising.” …
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California Rep. Adam Schiff (D) spoke out on Tuesday to support the thousands of Hollywood writers striking for better pay as he campaigns for a U.S. Senate seat. “The [Writers Guild of America’s] fight for better pay and wage protections in the era of streaming content is vital to ensuring the livelihood of those who make the entertainment industry such a creative powerhouse,” Schiff said on Twitter. “I stand with those …
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Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando announced on Tuesday that he’s running for Sen. Ben Cardin’s (D-Md.) seat, becoming the first Democrat to officially wade in Maryland’s U.S. Senate race. “There’s a big lie in America, but it’s not about Donald Trump or his delusions that he won the election,” Jawando said in a one-minute campaign ad. “The real big lie — the one you …
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Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:
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- 165 days until Louisiana’s gubernatorial primary
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191 days until Kentucky’s and Mississippi’s gubernatorial generals
- 555 days until the 2024 general election
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Biden flips the script on Republicans
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The Hill’s Brett Samuels has a new piece out detailing Biden’s strategy of portraying himself as a “protector of freedom,” which would effectively flip the script on Republicans by using a word and concept that is normally touted by conservatives.
The term “freedom” or “freedoms” was invoked six times in the president’s reelection launch video. And his campaign’s first official ad used those words seven times.
“It’s pretty clear the strategy here is going to be, ‘Republicans are coming after our freedoms and our ability to do X, Y and Z,” one Democratic strategist told The Hill. “Those are typically talking points Republicans use, so we are playing on their turf and winning.”
Read full story here.
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GOP uses age as a weapon against Democrats
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Meanwhile, The Hill’s Julia Manchester and Alex Gangitano report that Republicans are seeking to hit Democrats over age going into 2024.
The main target is President Biden, who at 80 years old is the oldest president in history running for reelection. But Republicans, most recently presidential candidate Nikki Haley, are also calling on Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 89, to step down.
“The attacks illustrate how the GOP sees age as a way to defeat Biden in 2024, even as its party is led by a 76-year-old in former President Trump and an 81-year-old in Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell,” Julia and Alex report.
Haley has also called on politicians older than 75 years old to have to take a mandatory competency test, which was seen as a clear jab at Trump and Biden. The former South Carolina governor has specifically called on politicians to take the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which is defined as “a brief, 30-question test that helps health care professionals detect cognitive impairments very early on.”
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Cardin, Inslee out ahead of 2024
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© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
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Two Democrats on opposite ends of the country announced on Monday that they would not be seeking reelection in 2024.
In Washington State, Gov. Jay Inslee revealed he would not seek a fourth term, effectively clearing the way for younger Democratic voices in the state. Attorney General Bob Ferguson and state Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz have both expressed interest in the position.
Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin announced he would would not seek reelection, opening up that state’s Senate seat.
The Hill’s Al Weaver and Mychael Schnell report that Democrats are already prepping for an upcoming “rare” Senate race to replace Cardin. In fact, only five people have represented Maryland in the upper chamber over the past 35 years.
Democratic sources on Monday indicated that three possible candidates lead the pack of contenders to replace Cardin: Reps. David Trone (D-Md.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D).
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Branch out with a different read from The Hill:
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Former President Trump, who’s running to return to the White House in 2024, now leads Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a possible contender who hasn’t yet declared a 2024 bid, by 36 points in a new poll of Republican primary voters. A CBS News-YouGov poll, released Monday, found Trump at the head of a hypothetical GOP primary field with 58 percent of the vote, followed by DeSantis with 22 percent. Former South Carolina …
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Local and state headlines regarding campaigns and elections:
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Election news we’ve flagged from other outlets:
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‘How looming ‘proxy war’ in 2024 Republican primaries could define key races nationwide(ABC News)
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Hispanic voters have soured on Biden. Now he needs to win them back. (Politico)
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Key stories on The Hill right now:
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House Democrats on Tuesday announced a secret plan to break through the partisan logjam that’s dogging talks over the debt ceiling and threatening a government default. The strategy, hatched in January and kept under wraps since then, is designed to force a vote on a debt limit hike even over the objections of Republican leaders, … Read more
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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is stepping up his criticism of President Biden’s leadership, stirring speculation that the maverick Democrat may challenge Biden as a third-party candidate in 2024. Manchin notes he has had a 12-year relationship with No Labels, the centrist political group that is trying to gain access to the ballot in all … Read more
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Opinions related to campaigns and elections submitted to The Hill:
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You’re all caught up. See you next time!
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