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
● MT-02: Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale announced Friday that he was ending his nine-day-old reelection campaign because of what he described as "a death threat against me and false and defamatory rumors against me and my family." The far-right congressman made his declaration less than a month after he quit Montana's U.S. Senate race, a campaign that itself lasted less than a week.
Rosendale's latest, and probably final, about-face came just ahead of Monday's candidate filing deadline. Several other Republicans had launched bids to replace him in the 2nd Congressional District back when they expected him to run for Senate, and no major contenders appear to have dropped out during the brief time he was seeking reelection.
Given how volatile things have been, though, we're going to need to wait for the state to release its list of candidates to know exactly who is and isn't competing in the June 4 Republican primary. The one thing we can say with certainty, though, is that the winner of that contest should have no trouble in the general election for this 62-35 Trump seat in the eastern half of the state.
Plenty of Republicans in both Montana and in the nation's capital are hoping this is indeed the final chapter of Rosendale's political career, which saw the Maryland native lose a winnable 2018 Senate race to Democratic incumbent Jon Tester, refuse to support Kevin McCarthy during any of the 15 ballots for speaker, and join with seven other Republicans to oust McCarthy.
Yet despite Donald Trump's penchant for intransigent miscreants like Rosendale, the congressman even managed to find his way into the MAGA doghouse: During the January 2023 speakership fight, he was photographed waving off Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as she tried to get him to take a call from "DT."
Rosendale, who badly wanted to avenge his loss to Tester, reportedly began informing his network as early as last April that he intended to run for the upper chamber again. But rather than make those plans a reality, Rosendale instead spent the next 10 months publicly playing coy about his interest and raising little money for a new campaign. NRSC chair Steve Daines, who happens to be Montana's junior senator, used this long delay to successfully recruit wealthy businessman Tim Sheehy and boost his bid.
Rosendale finally announced he'd seek a rematch against Tester in February, but it was already too late. Trump endorsed Sheehy that very day, and Rosendale said the next week that he was dropping out because of Trump's decision. (Maybe he should have taken that phone call.)
What followed were days of uncertainty about whether the congressman would turn around and run for another term in the House, a brief period in which he announced he'd seek reelection only to end that campaign almost as quickly as the last one.
Rosendale did not elaborate on the rumors he says drove him from the race, but last month, former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp claimed on a podcast that the lawmaker had dropped his Senate bid because of a "rumor" that he had "impregnated a 20-year-old staff person." A Rosendale spokesperson threatened legal action in response, but it's not clear whether any has been taken.
Senate
● NJ-Sen: Former financier Tammy Murphy won the support of Democrats in Somerset County at their convention on Thursday night by a 63-32 margin, but unlike recent gatherings in other counties, participants were not able to cast a secret ballot. Instead, as the New Jersey Globe's Joey Fox explains, delegates had to stand up publicly and raise placards—meaning that party chair Peg Schaffer, who had previously endorsed Murphy, was able to see exactly who voted for Murphy and who backed her chief rival, Rep. Andy Kim.
Schaffer defended her approach by arguing it was meant to foster transparency. “Public bodies don't vote secretly!" she told Fox. “If they’re embarrassed about who they’re voting for, then they shouldn’t be voting." But Kim claimed that multiple delegates told him they felt compelled to back Murphy despite preferring Kim due to the public nature of the vote. He also pointed out that no roll call of the vote was recorded.
Several more counties will also award their endorsements in the next few days. Fox has a detailed explainer handicapping each battleground.
● OH-Sen: Former Sen. Rob Portman endorsed state Sen. Matt Dolan on Friday ahead of the expensive and negative March 19 Republican nomination contest to take on Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Portman, though, learned the hard way last cycle how limited his influence is over primary voters when he backed former state party chair Jane Timken to succeed him. Timken ultimately finished in fifth with just 6%, while the Trump-backed J.D. Vance took first with 32%. Trump this time is pulling for wealthy businessman Bernie Moreno over Dolan and Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
House
● MD-03: State Sen. Sarah Elfreth has publicized a late February TargetSmart internal that shows her leading retired Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn 16-11 in the May 14 Democratic primary, with state Sen. Clarence Lam in third with 9%. A 39% plurality are undecided, while the balance supports another candidate.
● NC-06: Lobbyist Addison McDowell picked up an endorsement Thursday evening for the May 14 runoff from businessman Christian Castelli, who finished a close third in Tuesday's Republican primary. McDowell, who has Donald Trump's endorsement, finished first with 26%, while former Rep. Mark Walker edged out Castelli 24-21 for second. The eventual GOP nominee will be heavily favored to succeed Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning, who did not seek reelection after Republicans gerrymandered her seat.
● NC-13: Republican Sen. Ted Budd endorsed former federal prosecutor Brad Knott on Thursday ahead of the May primary runoff to replace outgoing Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel in this newly gerrymandered seat. Journalist Bryan Anderson notes that Knott's brother, Tucker Knott, happens to be both Budd's chief of staff and one of the Knott family members who funded a super PAC to help the candidate. Knott will face a tough intra-party battle against wealthy attorney Kelly Daughtry, who led him 27-19 in the first round of voting.
● NJ-09: Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah announced Thursday that he was challenging longtime Rep. Bill Pascrell in the June Democratic primary for New Jersey's reliably blue 9th District.
Khairullah was first elected to lead his community of 6,300 people in 2005, and NorthJersey.com identifies him as the state's "longest-serving Muslim mayor." He attracted national attention last year after the Secret Service refused to clear him to attend the White House's Eid al-Fitr celebration to mark the end of Ramadan.
Khairullah, who says he learned about the Secret Service's decision when he was just miles away from the executive mansion, speculated that he was mistakenly added to a law enforcement watch list. Pascrell responded by sending a letter along with Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker imploring the Secret Service and White House to tell the mayor why he was barred and review his situation.
Khairullah's campaign launch comes after months of speculation that a member of the 9th District's large Muslim American community could challenge Pascrell over his support for Israel. Pascrell, for his part, enjoys the backing of the leaders of all three of the county's Democratic parties.
● NY-01: George Santos' announcement during the State of the Union that he plans to run for Congress again was greeted with widespread mockery and derision, but in the off chance he actually intends to go through with it, there's still a big question (if he hasn't already changed his mind by the time you read this): Can he even make the ballot?
New York is a notoriously difficult state for securing ballot access. For starters, Santos is already running behind: The period to collect signatures from voters began a week before he shared his big news. But even if Santos can make up for that lost time, he'd still need to submit 1,250 signatures from registered Republicans in New York's 1st District by April 4. And in practice, he'd need to gather far more, since many won't pass muster for one reason or another.
Yet how will he pay signature collectors? As of Dec. 31, Santos had just $27,000 in his campaign account—and almost 30 times as much debt, not to mention his considerable and mounting legal bills. And what sort of firm would even want to work with him? Any company that would do business with an expelled, indicted former member of Congress who cost his party a House seat and is now running against a fellow GOP incumbent would likely never get hired by Republicans again.
Oh yeah, that's another thing: Santos isn't running in his old district, the 3rd. The paperwork he filed with the FEC says he plans to head east to the 1st District to take on Rep. Nick LaLota, who reacted with laughter on the House floor during President Joe Biden's address to the nation.
"At first I thought it was a joke," the congressman told the New York Times on Thursday night. "I mean, I still think it's half a joke. You never know with Santos what's real and what's not." But if Santos does actually submit signatures, you can bet LaLota—and his lawyers—will treat them with deadly seriousness.
Challenges to signatures are commonplace in New York, and candidates are regularly thrown off the ballot when their petitions fail to hold up under scrutiny. Well, if there's one thing Santos is familiar with, it's failing to hold up under scrutiny.
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