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Leading Off
• MI-Sen: Michigan State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh kicked off her campaign to succeed retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow with a Tuesday announcement highlighting the fact that Congress' upper chamber currently doesn’t have a single Black woman as a member—a state of affairs she says she’s eager to change by becoming the state’s first African American senator.
Pugh acknowledged to the Detroit News that she was in for a “tough race” as she prepares to do battle with the apparent frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, but insisted she was “up for it.” Her entry upends a narrative advanced by Stabenow and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that Slotkin would enjoy a clear path to the general election thanks to their backstage maneuvering, which in March prompted Politico to conclude—prematurely, it seems—that the primary was “nearly over already.”
While it remains to be seen whether Pugh can in fact prevail, she brings a high profile to the contest. Pugh first earned an eight-year term on the eight-person education board by finishing first on the ballot in 2014. (The board's members are elected statewide every two years in a contest where voters cast two votes and the top-two finishers are elected.) However, her most prominent role came when Flint Mayor Karen Warren appointed Pugh, who is a former official at the Saginaw County Department of Public Health, to serve as her chief public health adviser in 2016 as the city dealt with its water crisis.
Pugh stepped down from her position in Flint
in 2019, and three years later, she once again placed first when she
sought reelection to the Board of Education. Soon afterward, she was chosen by her colleagues
to serve as the body's president, but her name surfaced earlier this
year for a much higher office following Stabenow's retirement.
Pugh's consideration of a Senate bid came at a
time when, following Rep. Brenda Lawrence's retirement early this year,
there were no Black Democrats in Michigan's congressional delegation
for the first time since 1955.
(Republican Rep. John James represents part of the Detroit suburbs.) "I
think it would be a shame if we have not at least put some backing
behind … a Black woman who would be in the U.S. Senate," she told Politico, noting, "And there are none at this time."
However, that changed earlier this month when former state Rep. Leslie Love launched her own campaign. Neither Pugh nor Love appears to have said anything publicly about the other's campaign, though the Detroit-based Love also emphasized her desire to elect a candidate from southeastern Michigan. (Slotkin represents the Lansing area, while Pugh's Saginaw home is located even further to the north.)
Actor Hill Harper, who is also Black, is
eyeing the race as well, though Love alleged that "The Good Doctor" cast
member "has never lived in Michigan and has no experience at all in
politics or government" in comments to the Toledo Blade last month. (Harper, who met Barack Obama in law school and says he remains friends with the former president, bought a home in Detroit in 2018 and has said he's raising his son there.)
Slotkin, who is white, has argued
that she can appeal to Black voters. "All I can do is introduce myself
to leaders in places like Detroit and Flint," she said at her campaign
kickoff in March, "and demonstrate that I care and I'm willing to fight
on issues that are really important to people." The field also includes Nasser Beydoun, a former head of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce who characterizes himself as a "moderate."
One big question looming over the primary is
whether any of Slotkin's opponents can bring in enough money not just to
compete with her in this expensive state but to establish themselves as
her main rival. The congresswoman finished March with $2.3 million in the bank,
and she proved during three competitive House campaigns that she can
raise much more. New quarterly fundraising reports are due July 15.
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Senate
• NV-Sen: Attorney April Becker, who was the 2022 GOP nominee against Rep. Susie Lee, this week announced she'd campaign for a seat on the Clark County Commission rather than take on Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen.
Becker this time is looking to unseat
Commissioner Ross Miller, a former secretary of state and the son of
former Gov. Bob Miller. The younger Miller's promising political ascent
was halted after the 2014 red wave helped Republican Adam Laxalt pull off an upset in the race for attorney general, but he returned to office six years later by beating Republican Stavros Anthony by 15 votes. (Anthony, who spread conspiracy theories about his defeat, won the lieutenant governor's office in 2022.)
• UT-Sen: Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs on Tuesday became the first notable Utah Republican to announce an intra-party bid against Sen. Mitt Romney with a video pitching himself far to the right
of the 2012 presidential nominee-turned-party heretic. Romney, for his
part, is still keeping everyone guessing if he'll actually seek a second
term, and his team reiterated this week he will reach a "final decision
in the coming months."
Staggs argues that, while Romney promised to
fight for a conservative agenda, "[T]he only thing I've seen him fight
for are the establishment, wokeness, open borders, impeaching President
Trump, and putting us even deeper into debt." (Those statements are
accompanied by several newspaper headlines about Romney, including one
from The Salt Lake Tribune that reads, "MITT ROMNEY MARCHES IN BLACK
LIVES MATTER PROTESTS IN WASHINGTON." The mayor, after touting himself
as a loyal conservative, unsubtly adds, "I'm not a career politician, or
a Massachusetts millionaire."
Staggs was elected in 2017 to lead Riverton, a Salt Lake City suburb of 45,000, and he made news early in the pandemic by telling police officers not to enforce
Salt Lake County's orders to limit public gatherings. He then sought to
lead the county later in 2020 when he challenged appointed incumbent
Jenny Wilson, who herself was Romney's most recent Democratic opponent,
but he lost 52-45. (Salt Lake County, which is a rare source of Democratic strength in this dark red state, favored Joe Biden 53-42.)
The only other serious Republican who has
started raising money for a bid for Romney's seat is state House Speaker
Brad Wilson, who formed an exploratory committee last month and says he'll make up his mind sometime in the fall.
But several other Beehive State politicians haven't closed the door on
running including Attorney General Sean Reyes, Rep. Chris Stewart, and
former Rep. Jason Chaffetz.
A crowded primary could make it difficult for
anyone to win the plurality they'd need to beat Romney in the event he
sought reelection, though Utah's unusual ballot access laws
may limit the number of people who actually appear on the ballot. The
state allows candidates for Congress or governor to qualify either by
turning in the requisite number of signatures or by competing at their
party convention, though they're free to try both.
Both methods carry risk. If one convention
contender ends up taking more than 60% of the delegate vote, they would
be the only candidate to reach the primary ballot. If, however, no one
hits this threshold, then the two competitors left standing will advance
to the primary. Convention participants have long tended to be much
further to the right than overall primary voters, and Staggs says he's a "big believer" in this system and will pursue this route.
Signature gathering, however, is also an onerous and unpredictable task even for well-funded candidates. Romney needed 28,000 petitions in 2018
and turned in 80,000, but even his team reportedly wasn't sure that
would be enough. "When we turned those 80,000 signatures in, I thought
there was a chance we didn't make it," an unnamed source told Utah
Policy two years later, "We were praying we would get 30% validated."
Those prayers were more than answered, though, as Romney ultimately got
about 60% of his petitions accepted.
• WI-Sen: GOP Rep. Bryan
Steil this week once again didn't quite rule out the idea of taking on
Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, though he doesn't sound especially
interested in going for it. "I'm not planning to run for the United
States Senate," he told Channel 3000, adding, "I think we have a lot of great candidates who will ultimately maybe make a decision to step up."
Governors
• MO-Gov: State Sen. Bill Eigel, who earlier this month derailed several of his party's major priorities during the final hours of the legislative session, told 97.1 FM on Monday he'd decide if he'd run for governor
"before Labor Day." Eigel, who formed an exploratory committee last
year, added, "We're going to come to a final decision ... probably in
the next 60 to 90 days." (Labor Day is Sept. 4.)
• MS-Gov: Republican incumbent Tate Reeves' team tells Politico they're launching a $1.3 million opening ad campaign that will start next month and continue into July. The first ad
is narrated by First Lady Elee Reeves, who tells the audience that the
state "reopened fast" during the pandemic thanks to the governor.
Reeves' Democratic opponent, Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, quickly pointed out that the commercial featured footage from a now-closed private school founded by Nancy New, who pleaded guilty to her role in the state's $77 million welfare funds scandal.
House
• DE-AL: An unnamed advisor for Sarah McBride, a Democrat who became the first trans person to win a seat in any state Senate chamber in America in 2020, tells Bloomberg she would be “quite likely” to
run for the U.S. House in the event that Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt
Rochester seeks the open Senate seat. National Journal also name-drops two other legislators who
could seek the party’s nomination to replace Blunt Rochester: state
Rep. Kerri Evelyn Harris, who challenged Sen. Tom Carper from the left
in the 2018 primary, and state Sen. Elizabeth Lockman.
• NY-03: Unnamed Democratic
sources tell Jewish Insider's Matthew Kassel that former Rep. Tom Suozzi
would probably only try to regain his old seat if there's a special election
to replace his scandal-ridden successor, Republican incumbent George
Santos. It would be up to party leaders to pick the nominees in a
special, and Kassel writes that Suozzi "is leaning toward accepting" the
nod if it's presented to him this way. If that special never happens,
though, the story says the former congressman is "unlikely" to compete
in the regular primary.
• NY-18: Alison Esposito, who was the GOP's 2022 nominee for lieutenant governor, tells the New York Post she is indeed considering taking on Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan next year.
Mayors and County Leaders
• Denver, CO Mayor: The super PAC supporting former Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce CEO Kelly Brough has launched what appears to be the first negative TV ad of the entire race, a piece that argues
former state Sen. Mike Johnston has "lied about his leadership." But
not only was Johnston quick to cry foul, local CBS political specialist
Shaun Boyd went so far as to say that she wasn't sure she'd seen a political spot "as botched as this."
A Better Denver insists that Johnston, who is
Brough's foe in the June 6 general election, improperly claimed credit
for the creation of a COVID testing program called COVIDCheck and a gun
safety bill. Denverite, though, writes that Johnston actually did help start COVIDCheck
when he was in charge of a nonprofit. While the super PAC declared that
it altered the ad to change "the words 'COVIDCheck' to 'built
Colorado's testing program," Boyd responded
that Johnston didn't make this new claim. Several of Johnston's former
legislative colleagues, meanwhile, were quick to praise his work on the
2013 gun safety legislation.
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