We appreciate you spending your weekend with Ballotpedia! This week in federal news we cover congressional retirements, NC-09 spending, and the Democratic presidential campaign. Let's get to it!

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Marchant becomes fourth Texas House Republican to announce he’s not seeking re-election in 2020

• U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) announced he would not seek re-election in 2020. He has represented Texas' 24th Congressional District since 2009 and won re-election in 2018 by 3 percentage points. His Dallas-area seat was already rated as competitive by all three major race rating outlets.
  
  
• Marchant is the fourth congressional Republican from Texas to announce his retirement in the last two weeks. Rep. Pete Olsen (22nd), Rep. Mike Conaway (11th), and Rep. Will Hurd (23rd) have all announced they would not be seeking re-election in 2020.
  
  
• So far, 14 members of the U.S. House—three Democrats and 11 Republicans—have announced that they will not be seeking re-election in 2020. Eleven of those members are retiring from political office, while two are seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate and another is running for governor.

Three satellite groups release ads ahead of NC-09 special election

• VoteVets joined the list of satellite spending groups in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District special election, which will take place September 10. The group spent $200,000 on a TV ad supporting Dan McCready (D) and criticizing Dan Bishop (R) on healthcare policy. 
   
• Also this week, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) and the National Republican Congressional Committee's (NRCC) independent expenditure arm released new ads opposing McCready. Both ads criticize McCready's business activities in the solar energy field. The NRCC also released an ad this week in conjunction with the Bishop campaign.
   
• As of July 31, CLF had spent $1.2 million on ad reservations and NRCC's independent expenditure group had spent $2.6 million.
   
• While the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has not released ads in the special election, a memo from the group released Thursday stated that it was spending more than $2 million on other efforts, such as increasing voter turnout among blacks and members of the Lumbee tribe.

Yang becomes ninth candidate to qualify for next Democratic presidential debates

• Andrew Yang qualified for the third and fourth Democratic presidential primary debates, reaching the threshold of 2% or more in a fourth eligible poll. Yang previously announced he had reached the grassroots fundraising and polling thresholds last week before the Democratic National Committee clarified its polling rules, leaving Yang one poll short at the time.
   
• The following candidates have also qualified: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.

Voter registration deadline approaches for North Carolina special congressional elections

• August 16 is the last day voters in North Carolina's 3rd and 9th Congressional Districts can register to vote in the congressional special elections September 10. Those seeking to register must fill out a voter application form, which needs to be received by their county board of elections or postmarked on or before that date. 
  
  
• Those applying may print out and mail an application to their county board of elections. They may also obtain forms from the county board, state board of elections, public libraries, public high schools, or college admissions offices. Certain state agencies, including the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, also provide voter registration services. For more details on how to register to vote, click here.
  
  
• North Carolina's 3rd District is holding a special election following the death of Rep. Walter Jones (R) February 10. Gregory Murphy (R), Allen Thomas (D), Tim Harris (L), and Greg Holt (Constitution Party) are running. 
  
  
• North Carolina's 9th District special election was called following allegations of absentee ballot fraud in the 2018 race. Dan Bishop (R), Dan McCready (D), Jeff Scott (L), and Allen Smith (G) are running.
  
  
• As of August 8, 2019, four special elections have been called during the 116th Congress. Three of those are for seats in the U.S. House, and one is for a seat in the U.S. Senate. 

Williamson leads Democratic candidates in pageviews following second debate

• Marianne Williamson's (D) campaign received 7,588 pageviews on Ballotpedia the week of July 28-August 3 when the second round of Democratic presidential debates took place. 
   
• Williamson's pageviews represented 8.1% of the pageviews for all Democratic presidential campaigns. Tulsi Gabbard received 7.0% of Democratic candidate pageviews for the week, while Joe Biden received 6.8%. 
   
• This is Williamson's second time leading Democratic candidates in pageviews. The first time was the week of the first round of Democratic debates. 
   
• Gabbard's campaign page had the largest increase in pageviews over the previous week, jumping 375.27%. Every Democratic candidate except Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Kamala Harris registered a pageview increase of 100% or more.
   
• Each week, we report the number of pageviews received by 2020 presidential campaigns on Ballotpedia. These numbers show which candidates are getting our readers' attention.
   
• Pete Buttigieg's campaign still leads Democrats in lifetime pageviews with 97,150. Andrew Yang again has the second-most lifetime pageviews after surpassing Kamala Harris last week. Harris' lifetime pageviews had surpassed Yang's the week before. Yang currently has 84,124 pageviews to Harris' 83,846. 
   
• On the GOP side, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld had 26,651 pageviews to President Trump's 2,354.

Gravel suspends presidential campaign, endorses Sanders and Gabbard

• Former Sen. Mike Gravel (D) suspended his 2020 presidential campaign and endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). While Gravel achieved the thresholds to qualify for the second Democratic presidential primary debate last month, he did not participate because of the tiebreaker criteria.
  
  
• He is the third notable Democrat to leave the race, following Rep. Eric Swalwell (Calif.) and former West Virginia state legislator Richard Ojeda. Twenty-four Democrats and two Republicans, including incumbent President Donald Trump, are still running.

Is Congress in session?

Neither the Senate nor the House will be in session next week. Click here to see the full calendar for the first session of the 116th Congress.

Where was the president last week?

• On Monday, Trump received an intelligence briefing and had lunch with the vice president.
• On Tuesday, Trump had no public events scheduled.
• On Wednesday, Trump traveled to Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas to meet first responders, hospital staff, and victims of the shootings in the respective cities.
• On Thursday, Trump had lunch with the secretary of state.
• On Friday, Trump participated in a roundtable with supporters and spoke at a fundraising committee luncheon in Southampton, New York.

Federal judiciary update

• 112 federal judicial vacancies
• 39 pending nominations
• 11 future federal judicial vacancies

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