1. Reeves, Waller face off in Mississippi gubernatorial runoff Aug. 27
2. Hickenlooper (D) announces Senate bid in Colorado after ending presidential campaign
3. What’s the Tea?

Reeves, Waller face off in Mississippi gubernatorial runoff Aug. 27

Mississippi voters will choose a Republican gubernatorial nominee in the Aug. 27 primary runoff election.  Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. were the top two finishers in the Aug. 6 primary, but neither won the majority of the vote necessary to win the nomination outright.  

Mississippi has open primaries, which means that the runoff is open to anyone—Republicans, Democrats, and independents—who did not vote in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary. 

Reeves—who won 49% of the vote in the primary—is in his second term as lieutenant governor after serving two terms as state treasurer. He says his experience in state government would make him an effective chief executive. Reeves also says he is the more conservative candidate and has criticized Waller for supporting Medicaid expansion and an increase in the state gas tax.

Waller—who received 33% of the primary vote—was first elected to the state Supreme Court in 1996 and served until January 2019. He says that he would win more support from Democratic and independent voters than Reeves in the general election. Waller also says Reeves is more focused on attacking him than on proposing policies to address the state’s problems.

Both candidates secured new endorsements since the primary. Reeves, who already had the endorsement of term-limited incumbent Gov. Phil Bryant (R), received the backing of former Gov. Haley Barbour (R) and state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R). Waller was endorsed by the third-place finisher in the primary, state Rep. Robert Foster (R), who received 18% of the vote.  

Campaign finance reports filed Aug. 20 show Reeves spent $1.9 million and Waller spent $315,000 between July 28 and Aug. 17. Those reports also show Reeves with $5 million cash on hand to Waller's $118,000.

The winner of the runoff will face the Democratic nominee, Attorney General Jim Hood, in the Nov. 5 general election. Ronnie Musgrove was the last Democrat elected governor of Mississippi in 1999.

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Hickenlooper (D) announces Senate bid in Colorado after ending presidential campaign 

Sir Issac Newton’s laws of motion established that each action breeds an equal and opposite reaction. Politics often works like gravity and science. 

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) ended his presidential campaign on Aug. 15. He announced Aug. 21 he would run for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Cory Gardner (R). Gardner is one of two Republican senators running for re-election next year in a state Hillary Clinton (D) won in 2016.

Fourteen other candidates have either announced they’re running for the Democratic nomination or filed as a candidate with the Federal Election Commission. This includes four current or former state legislators -- Sen. Angela Williams, former House Majority Leader Alice Madden, former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, and former Sen. Mike Johnston. 

The Denver Post reported August 22 that at least seven previously announced candidates have said Hickenlooper’s candidacy will not impact their campaigns.

A similar situation is playing out in Washington, where Gov. Jay Inslee (D) announced on Aug. 21 he would end his presidential campaign and instead run for a third term as governor. In 2016, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ended his run for the Republican presidential nomination in March and declared he would seek re-election to the Senate in June. Rubio won the August primary with 72% of the vote and defeated Democrat Patrick Murphy in the general election, 52-44%. 

The race for Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat is one of 15 elections Ballotpedia has designated as a battleground race—that is, an election we expect to have a meaningful effect on the balance of power in government or to be particularly competitive or compelling. Cook Political Report, Inside Elections and Sabato’s Crystal Ball all rate the general election as "Toss-up."

Voters in 38 states decided 167 statewide ballot measures in 2018. Ballotpedia also covered 726 local ballot measures in California and 301 local ballot measures in the largest U.S. cities by population outside of California. In short, that’s a lot of ballot measures.

For this week’s “What’s the Tea?” question, we want to know what you think about voting on ballot initiatives. How do you feel when voting on ballot measures?

• A. I think I’m prepared - I know what I’m voting on

• B. I don't generally feel prepared - I wish I had more information

• C. What’s a ballot measure?

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