Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In Texas’ closely watched U.S. Senate race, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico realizes that he’ll likely need some Republican support to prevail, and with this in mind, he and his campaign team unveiled endorsements from 21 current and former GOP officials and party leaders, some of whom specifically cited Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s many scandals as their reason for breaking party ranks.
On a related note, the latest AARP poll, commissioned by the bipartisan polling team of Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research, found Talarico leading Paxton, 48% to 44%.
* While Texas’ gubernatorial race was widely expected to be less competitive, Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa is clearly giving Republican Gov. Greg Abbott a run for his money: The aforementioned AARP poll showed the incumbent governor ahead by 3 points, 49% to 46%.
* With Election Day just 53 days away, Quinnipiac University’s latest national poll found Democrats leading Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, 49% to 38%. That 11-point advantage is up from the Democrats’ 7-point lead in a Quinnipiac poll from late July.
* In Kansas’ U.S. Senate race, which I continue to think might surprise some people, the Rev. Adam Hamilton’s Democratic candidacy picked up an endorsement this week from Bill Graves, Kansas’ former Republican governor. In a Kansas City Star op-ed, Graves wrote, among other things, that incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall “has turned his back on Kansas.”
* While Mississippi is considered a deeply red state, suggesting that Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has little to worry about during her re-election bid, the incumbent Republican’s operation created a fake website to help smear her Democratic rival, Scott Colom, a local district attorney.
* North Carolina continues to look like the best Senate pick-up opportunity for Democrats: A new statewide poll from East Carolina University shows former Gov. Roy Cooper leading former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, 52% to 44%.
* It took a while to determine the winner, but Indiana state Sen. Spencer Deery prevailed in his Republican primary, thanks to this week’s state Supreme Court ruling. Deery was among the GOP state senators targeted by Donald Trump for rejecting the White House’s gerrymandering scheme.
* And in Ohio’s gubernatorial race, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy this week posted a video of him at a batting cage. After many mocked his awful form, the video was quietly taken down.
The post Friday’s Campaign Round-Up, 9.11.26: Texas’ Talarico leads in poll, picks up GOP backing appeared first on MS NOW.
