The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.
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Leading Off
● UT-Gov: State Rep. Phil Lyman, a Republican who has a long history of spreading election conspiracy theories, declared Tuesday that he would challenge Utah Gov. Spencer Cox for renomination.
"Utah was never meant to be a vassal state. It was meant to be an ensign for the nations," said Lyman, who also released an announcement video that proudly showcased his mugshot from his 2015 arrest for misdemeanor trespassing. The state representative did not directly mention Cox, who has remained a Donald Trump critic, even as he declared, "If we find ourselves with a government that conjures emergencies to trample our rights, then in our republic, we have the right to choose new leaders."
Lyman was a San Juan County commissioner in 2015 when he was convicted after leading an all-terrain vehicle group through a canyon the federal government had closed to protect Native American cliff dwellings. Prosecutors alleged that he recruited people who had recently taken part in far-right militant Cliven Bundy's armed standoff with federal law enforcement officials. Lyman spent 10 days in prison, and Trump later pardoned him in late 2020.
That was hardly Lyman's only brush with far-right politics, though. He successfully ran for the legislature in 2018 after courts ruled that San Juan County's commission and school board maps discriminated against Native American voters in this majority-Navajo county. Navajo-backed candidates for local offices won historic majorities in that year's elections after the courts imposed new districts, and Lyman, whose old district was struck down as an illegal gerrymander, proposed that a heavily white part of the county secede and form its own county.
That idea went nowhere, but Lyman soon turned his focus to advancing lies about the 2020 and 2022 elections. The state representative tried to eliminate the state's universal mail-in voting system last year, arguing, "In Utah, we have a crisis of confidence in our elections." (Democrats haven't won a single statewide race since 1996, when Jan Graham won reelection as attorney general.)
The bill died in committee, but that didn't deter Lyman months later when he threw out another evidence-free allegation insinuating that a voting machine had changed votes for Sen. Mike Lee to one of his GOP primary opponents. But while the state representative declared that the machines were "programmed with functionality" to switch votes from one candidate to another, state and local election officials quickly affirmed that this wasn't true. Even Lee, who was involved in Trump's efforts to steal the 2020 election, responded, "[O]ur campaign has every confidence in Utah's elected county clerks and the Lieutenant Governor's office to oversee free and fair elections."
Unsurprisingly, elections aren't the only topic Lyman puts his tin foil hat on for. Indeed, he hosted what the Salt Lake Tribune calls a "short-lived, conspiracy-driven podcast" with fellow state Rep. Mike Petersen: One late 2021 episode of "The Common Cause" featured a guest who declared that Utah's digital driver's license program was part of a United Nations plot to take over the state.
Cox's reelection campaign may have the unpleasant task of having to listen to each episode of "The Common Cause" to find out what else their opponent said, but they wasted little time responding to his entry into the contest. "Gov. Cox was one of the very first people to contribute money to Phil's legal defense," said a spokesperson, "and he's grateful that President Trump pardoned him."
Senate
● CA-Sen: Rep. Robert Garcia, who represents the Long Beach area, on Monday became the first member of the state's Democratic delegation to endorse fellow Rep. Katie Porter for Senate.
● MD-Sen: Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has joined several other Democratic elected officials in endorsing Angela Alsobrooks, his counterpart in neighboring Prince George's County.
House
● AZ-08: State Sen. Anthony Kern, who was part of a slate of fake Trump electors, declared Monday evening that he was joining the primary to succeed his fellow Republican, retiring Rep. Debbie Lesko. But even some of Kern's allies may have missed his kickoff because, as Axios' Jeremy Duda notes, he launched during the middle of game three of the Diamondbacks-Rangers World Series.
State House Speaker Ben Toma, meanwhile, filed a statement of interest with the state this week, a document that Arizona election authorities require candidates to submit before they can start collecting signatures to make the ballot. Toma, who has Lesko's support, and Kern represent the same district in the legislature. (Each of the 30 districts elects two representatives and one senator.)
● MD-06: Former Del. Dan Cox declared Monday that he was joining the GOP primary to succeed Democratic Senate candidate David Trone, an announcement that came almost a year after the election conspiracy theorist suffered a massive statewide defeat in the race for governor. Democrat Wes Moore beat Cox 65-32 statewide, and, according to Bloomberg's Greg Giroux, the Republican also lost the 6th 53-44; Joe Biden took the district by a similar margin in 2020.
● MO-01: State Sen. Brian Williams responded to speculation that he could challenge Rep. Cori Bush in the Democratic primary by telling KCUR, "Others will make their decisions, but I've made mine." Williams made his comments shortly after St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell launched his own campaign to deny renomination to Bush.
● NC-13, NC-01: Businessman Fred Von Canon has announced that, following the passage of the new GOP gerrymander, he'll seek the Republican nod for the 13th District rather than continue to challenge Democratic Rep. Don Davis in the 1st. Von Canon, who has self-funded most of his effort, finished September with $340,000 in the bank. Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel has not said if he'll try to defend the 13th now that Republican legislators have turned it into a 58-41 Trump seat, though he's said he'll "sue the bastards" in court.
● NY-16: Pastor Michael Gerald said Tuesday that he'd "pause" his Democratic primary campaign against Rep. Jamaal Bowman until Westchester County Executive George Latimer decides whether to run himself. Gerald argued that the executive would be "an outstanding candidate," and that the pause was necessary "to allow Latimer to make an informed choice for the betterment of the district." Latimer this week reaffirmed to the New York Times he'd make up his mind in mid-November.
● NY-17: Former Rep. Mondaire Jones on Tuesday publicized an endorsement from Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi for next year's Democratic primary to take on GOP Rep. Mike Lawler.
Jones' only serious intraparty foe is local school board trustee Liz Whitmer Gereghty, but the fundraising battle between them has been lopsided: Jones outpaced Gereghty $1.1 million to $170,000 during his opening quarter, and he finished September with a $850,000 to $310,000 cash on hand advantage. Lawler took in $810,000 during this time and ended the third quarter with $2.1 million banked.
● OR-03: Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal, reports The Oregonian's Sami Edge, is "expected to" run for the safely blue seat held by retiring Rep. Earl Blumenauer, and she has strong connections to another West Coast Democrat. Jayapal is the sister of Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a prominent progressive who represents most of Seattle; Susheela Jayapal's 2018 win made her the first Indian American to hold an elected county post in Oregon, and she'd again make history if she won the contest to replace Blumenauer.
Inside Elections' Erin Covey also reports that state Rep. Travis Nelson is "making moves to run," while former Multnomah County Board of Commissioners chair Deborah Kafoury didn't rule out getting in herself. "I'm still weighing my options, but I'm not making any announcements anytime soon," Kafoury told Edge. Willamette Week's Nigel Jaquiss also names Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales as one of the people who is "either being recruited or actively seeking support."
Blumenauer, who told Edge, "There are literally a dozen people salivating at the prospect of getting in this race," himself is concluding an electoral career that began in 1972 when he won a seat in the state House at the age of 23. Blumenauer, who would go on to serve on both the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners and Portland City Commission, ran for mayor in 1992, but that race didn't end well: State Rep. Vera Katz instead triumphed 57-43 after what Oregon Public Broadcasting would remember as a "bare-knuckles campaign" between two former allies.
However, Blumenauer had an easier time winning a promotion when he campaigned in the 1996 special election to replace Ron Wyden, who had just won his own special election to the Senate, in a previous version of the 3rd District. Blumenauer outpaced state Sen. Shirley Gold 72-24 in the primary, and he had no trouble in the general for what was already a safely Democratic seat.
Blumenauer, who never struggled to win reelection, considered a few campaigns for higher office in the 2000s. The congressman mulled a 2004 run for mayor to succeed the retiring Katz, and there was talk he could challenge GOP Sen. Gordon Smith in 2008 after former Gov. John Kitzhaber and fellow Rep. Peter DeFazio passed. Blumenauer, however, opted to remain in the lower chamber, where the Congressional Bike Caucus founder stood out as an outspoken liberal.
Blumenauer, who introduced a bill this year to enlarge the House to 585 members after the next census in 2030, acknowledged to Jaquiss that he'd promoted legislation that had little chance to become law anytime in the foreseeable future. "I'd rather be right than effective," he argued before adding, "I think I've been right and I've not been as effective as I'd like to have been."
Still, the congressman highlighted his accomplishments in office, declaring, "I was author of the last major flood insurance reform." He added "These are not sexy things. None of your Willamette Week readers or advertisers care about that. But it's really important, and we're reaching a point now where the flood insurance program is bankrupt."
● TX-12: Veteran GOP Rep. Kay Granger will not seek a 15th term in Congress next year, according to an article published late on Tuesday night by the Fort Worth Report that cited “five well-placed sources.” We’ll have more on this development in the next Digest.
Ballot Measures
● MO Ballot: A state appeals court ruled Tuesday that Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft crafted summaries that were "replete with politically partisan language" for six proposed abortion rights amendments. Ashcroft, who is running for governor, quickly said he'd appeal to the state Supreme Court.
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