Today an episode with campaign-related news items from all over the country.
* In North Carolina, a Democratic member of the Supreme Court narrowly won reelection, prompting Republicans to throw out more than 60,000 votes. The State Board of Elections rejected the GOP efforts.
* Fearing potential trouble for some of Donald Trump’s most scandalous personnel choices, Heritage Action – the advocacy group of the Heritage Foundation – is launching an ad campaign targeting Senate Republicans in nine states, urging them to of the president-elect’s future nominees. Target states include Alaska and Maine, home to Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, respectively.
* In New York, the latest Siena College poll showed Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul with a 46% approval rating, although the same survey found a 57% majority of New Yorkers want to elect someone else in the 2026 race (Click the link for additional information about the survey’s methodology and margin of error.)
* Sen. Bernie Sanders won a landslide re-election victory in Vermont last month, but the independent incumbent suggested he is unlikely to run again in 2030. When Politico asked if he is now in his last term, the senator replied: “I’m 83 now. I’ll be 89 when I get out of here. You can figure it out. I don’t know, but I assume it probably is.”
* Related to this, there is significant uncertainty as to whether Senator Dick Durbin will seek re-election in 2026. The longtime Democratic leader, who recently turned 80, told CNN that he “will make an announcement after the first of the year. ‘ about his electoral future.
* And during his latest “Meet the Press” appearance, Donald Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker that before the pandemic hit in 2020, he had “poll numbers that were the highest.” These kinds of boasts may make the Republican president-elect feel better, but they’re not even close to true: As The New York Times noted after the interview aired, “He had a 48 percent approval rating at the end of February 2020 , according to a Gallup poll, lower than all but three of his predecessors who dated Harry S. Truman at the same time during their presidency.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
