Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Despite his troubled tenure as the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Rep. James Comer conceded this week that he plans to run for governor in Kentucky next year, though he won’t formally kick off his first statewide bid until after the midterm elections.
* To the relief of Democratic officials, Cindy Burbank won the party’s Senate primary in Nebraska, defeating a conservative pastor who appeared to be a Republican Party plant. She will now exit the race, clearing the way for independent Dan Osborn to run against Sen. Pete Ricketts, the Republican incumbent, in the general election.
* Also in Nebraska, Secretary of State Bob Evnen lost a Republican primary fight against businessman Scott Petersen despite the endorsements Evnen received from the state’s Republican governor and Republican senators. Petersen, who is running as an “America First conservative,” has vowed new voting restrictions.
* Though Donald Trump this week urged South Carolina Republicans to be “bold” and “courageous” while trying to erase the state’s only majority-Black district, the effort hit a stumbling block on Tuesday: Some GOP state senators balked at a proposal, though the issue is not yet dead in this legislative session.
* In Missouri, voting rights advocates hoped to derail a newly gerrymandered map designed to benefit Republicans, but the state Supreme Court this week ruled that Missouri’s redrawn congressional district map can go into effect.
* Tennessee Democrats did everything they could last week to block a proposed gerrymandering plan that would eliminate the state’s only Black-majority district. This week, the Republican speaker of Tennessee’s House punished Democratic lawmakers for their efforts by stripping them of all of their committee assignments.
* Barack Obama campaigned in Texas this week with James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate.
* And in California, there’s growing talk about scrapping the state’s controversial “jungle” primary system and returning to a traditional primary model. The goal for proponents would be to get the issue onto the 2028 ballot, to be used in all future elections.
The post Wednesday’s Campaign Round-Up, 5.13.26: Comer eyes gubernatorial race in Kentucky appeared first on MS NOW.
