Let's start with Nebraska, where conservative Republican Ben Sasse began his reelection bid yesterday. He was first elected in 2014 against Democrat David Domina, 64.4% to 31.5%. 347,636 Nebraskans voted for him. Sasse was the first sitting senator to announce he wouldn't support Trump if Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016.
There seem to be so many Republican members of Congress announcing that they're not running next year-- and some in districts that Democrats can win. Yesterday Kenny Marchant, a conservative Republican who represents a district north of Dallas, said he's had enough. He's the 4th Republican from Texas to tell the NRCC that he's not running again.
Don't Be So Sure by Chip ProserIn the August IBD/TIPP poll of registered voters, which closed before the Trump supporter massacred 22 people in an El Paso Walmart and before China signaled they had stopped buying America agricultural products-- a signal that there is likely to be a depression in the farm belt
Yesterday our old pal, former baseball player JD Scholten launched the second part of his campaign to replace Iowa neo-fascist and white nationalist Steve King with a stunning video narrated by Kevin Costner (Field of Dreams). Last cycle-- with zero help from the DCCC, of course-- JD shocked the political punditry by nearly beating King in the gigantic rural Iowa district that sits in the northwest and central part of the state, stretching from Sioux City to Ames and New Hampton in Chickasaw County in the eastern part of Iowa-- 38 counties.
Kansas' immense first congressional district, which takes up all of western Kansas and most of the northern part of the state, consists of 61 counties and parts of 2 others. Once a bastion of populism, today it's one of the most rural districts in the country (88%) and one of the most Republican. KS-01 hasn't been friendly territory for Democrats.
Hurd and JonesThursday night one of the most vulnerable Republicans, Will Hurd (TX-23), announced he is retiring. His gigantic district has the longest border with Mexico of any district in the U.S. and stretches from a sliver of east San Antonio down to the Rio Grande and then follows the border through Eagle Pass, Del Rio, Big Bend National Park, and Socorro just south of where El Paso and Ciudad Juarez meet.
HR-1 was supposed to be Pelosi's big reform legislation to start off her new speakership. No one imagined #MoscowMitch would ever allow a vote in the Senate, so HR-1 will never be enacted until the Democrats take back the Senate-- and the White House. It takes some necessary steps towards reform, but not nearly enough.
Although there are rumors that South Jersey machine boss George Norcross is toying wit the idea of replacing Jeff Van Drew with Patrick Kennedy as the Democratic nominee for the second district seat, so far Van Drew has no primary opponent, just a 3 Republicans trying to get to the right of him, no easy task.
After a month of rumors, this morning Glen Rock, New Jersey Councilwoman Arati Kreibich, announced she is running for the north Jersey congressional seat occupied by Josh Gottheimer, arguably the most destructive Democrat in the House, a 2020 version of Joe Lieberman, one of his heroes. If you're a regular DWT reader, you already know all there is to know about Gottheimer. Let me just make one thing clear about Gottheimer, Blue Dog, New Dem and co-chair of the mis-named Problem Solvers Caucus.
