The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
● IN-Sen: Maybe GOP donors are just tired of playing referee in the decades-long feud between Reps. Todd Rokita and Luke Messer. Both of them turned in underwhelming fundraising quarters ahead of the May primary, with Rokita outraising Messer $456,000 to $430,000 in the final three months of 2017. Each congressman had about $2.45 million in the bank.
Campaign Action
For a while, Republican insiders have chattered that wealthy businessman Mike Braun, who resigned from the state House to concentrate on his Senate bid, could pull off an upset, especially if Rokita and Messer wound each other enough. And Braun very much does have the resources to run a credible campaign. While he only raised $250,000 from donors in the final quarter of 2017, he gave himself another $1.75 million, and he had a $2.3 million on-hand. Braun began running ads months ago, while neither of his rivals has joined him yet.
The winner will face Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, who had $5.3 million in the bank at the end of December. However, the Republican candidates won’t be able to stockpile their resources during the primary. If the history of nasty personal animosity between Rokita and Messer is any indication, both congressmen could end up spending millions just to bludgeon each other rather than their Democratic foe.
4Q Fundraising
Click here for our chart rounding up all Senate fundraising numbers. We'll have a House chart in the near future.
● CA-Sen: Kevin De Leon (D): $500,000 raised, $359,000 cash-on-hand
● MI-Sen: John James (R): $692,000 raised, $647,000 cash-on-hand
● MN-Sen-A: Amy Klobuchar (D-inc): $1.3 million raised, $5.6 million cash-on-hand
● MS-Sen: Roger Wicker (R-inc): $953,000 raised, $4.1 million cash-on-hand
● MT-Sen: Jon Tester (D-inc): $1.5 million raised, $6.3 million cash-on-hand
● NJ-Sen: Bob Menendez (D-inc): $328,000 raised, $4.1 million cash-on-hand
● NV-Sen: Danny Tarkanian (R): $331,000 raised, $451,000 cash-on-hand
● TN-Sen: Phil Bredesen (D): $518,000 raised (in 24 days)
Senate
● FL-Sen: For all the talk of Rick Scott maybe getting cold feet about a Senate bid, he's been taking some steps toward a run. He's raised $1.1 million for a super PAC that would presumably support him, staffed it up and, reports Politico, he's privately "talked up his good polling numbers" with supporters, who variously "peg the likelihood of him running between 80 and 95 percent."
Of course, it all depends on whom you speak with. In December, the New York Times reported that Scott was "not yet sold" on a Senate campaign, while in mid-January, the Washington Post said that unnamed "associates" of the governor are "of mixed opinions on the likelihood that he will do it." We do know one new concrete detail, though: According to Politico, Scott himself confirmed that he'll announce a decision after the current session of the legislature ends on March 9. That was previously thought to be the case, but the source of that timeline had been … Marco Rubio.
● UT-Sen: Mitt Romney says he will be "making an announcement on February 15th about the Utah Senate race." Whatever could he say?
● VA-Sen: Former Gov. Jim Gilmore has announced he won't seek the GOP nod to challenge Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine. We'll give you all a moment to compose yourselves.
● WV-Sen: The third and fourth candidate filing deadline of the 2018 election cycle passed at the end of January in Kentucky and West Virginia, and both states have a list of candidates who filed. West Virginia's primary will be May 8, while Kentucky's will be May 22; there are no primary runoffs in either state. The next filing deadline will be Feb. 7 for Ohio; you can find a chronological list here.
While Senate Democrats reportedly had to scramble last week to stop Sen. Joe Manchin from retiring, Manchin agreed to run again and filed. Manchin, a former governor who remains popular at home even as Democrats have lost ground, faces only a longshot primary challenge from Paula Jean Swearengin, who is arguing Manchin is too conservative.
On the GOP side, the main candidates are Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Rep. Evan Jenkins. Notorious coal billionaire Don Blankenship, who is still on probation after spending time in prison for violating federal mine safety laws, is also in. We'll have more to say on this primary once all the candidates' financial reports are in and we have a better idea if Blankenship is putting his money where his mouth is.
Gubernatorial
● CO-Gov: Former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy just earned the endorsement of two major teachers unions, the Colorado Education Association and the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. Kennedy faces four other notable candidates in the June 26 Democratic primary: Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne, Rep. Jared Polis, former state Sen. Mike Johnston, and businessman Noel Ginsburg. Somewhat amazingly for a competitive swing state that's been trending blue for years, the education news site Chalkbeat notes that Colorado hasn't seen a contested Democratic primary for governor in two decades, with the last one coming in 1998.
● FL-Gov: After Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Ron DeSantis in Florida's Republican gubernatorial primary, there was some speculation that state House Speaker Richard Corcoran might run for attorney general rather than for governor. However, Corcoran's allies are making it very plain that he's not going anywhere. Watchdog PAC, Corcoran's allied political committee, is up with their first TV spot, backed by a $500,000 buy, and let's just say that, as Ed Gillespie did in last year's race for governor in Virginia, they leave subtlety and decency at the door.
Watchdog's ad features a dramatization of a young woman distractedly walking down a street while a scary-looking bearded man in a hoodie passes by as the narrator proclaims, "A young woman, gunned down by an illegal immigrant who should have been deported but was protected by a sanctuary city." The man then pulls out a gun and executes the woman at point-blank range. Corcoran then appears and says that when he heard the story of Kate Steinle, he thought about his own daughter (also named Kate) "and how this could have happened to any family, anywhere." He then bemoans how "some Tallahassee politicians" want Florida to be a sanctuary state, but insists that will never happen under his watch.
This spot explicitly seizes upon the death of Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed in San Francisco by an undocumented immigrant named Jose Ines Garcia Zarate who had been repeatedly deported from the United States. Republicans, especially Trump, have spent years declaring that Steinle's death is exactly what happens when cities like San Francisco refuse to detain undocumented immigrants. Last year, Garcia Zarate was found not guilty of murder after the defense successfully argued that he had only accidentally shot the gun and the bullet that struck Steinle had ricocheted, though he was convicted of illegally possessing a firearm. Trump and his compatriots immediately cried foul and have continued to use Steinle's death as a rallying cry.
Corcoran's spot drew an immediate outcry for being … well, racist. Of course, Corcoran is more than fine with that, and sure enough, prominent Republicans haven't complained one bit. It's also pretty obvious why Corcoran is authorizing such an extremist message: A recent poll gave him just 2 percent of the vote in the late August primary, so he'd certainly love any chance to go viral, no matter how scurrilous his message. A bill that Corcoran has been pushing to outlaw sanctuary cities recently passed the state House, even though it's sponsor, state Rep. Larry Metz, couldn't name a single city in Florida that would qualify as such. That legislation is now stalled in the Senate.
Corcoran has not in fact announced if he's running for governor yet, though he's said in the past that he'll wait until the legislative session ends next month to do so. There doesn't seem to be much of a doubt he'll jump in, however, even though he'll face more prominent opponents in DeSantis and state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. As such, Corcoran will need a lot to go right to win, because no matter how much race-baiting Corcoran engages in, DeSantis will still have Trump's support. Corcoran also has a horrible relationship with outgoing Gov. Rick Scott, who has not otherwise taken sides in the primary but reportedly wants to thwart Corcoran.
Things are a whole lot quieter on the Democratic side. Wealthy Miami Beach Mayor Phillip Levine has been spending on TV ads for months, and his allied PAC All About Florida has begun what Ad Analytics calls a month-long $815,000 TV buy that features Levine pledging to protect Florida's coasts from oil spills.
● IL-Gov: Earlier this week, We Ask America released a poll of the March 20 Democratic primary giving venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker a 30-17 lead over state Sen. Daniel Biss, with businessman Chris Kennedy at 12. Pritzker has been airing ad after ad for months, so it didn't look particularly impressive for Pritzker to be stuck in the low 30s, especially since he had taken 39 percent in WAA's October survey. Pritzker has responded with a late January poll from Global Strategy Group that gives him a larger 41-22 lead over Biss, while Kennedy took 16. We haven't seen any other polls of this race since the summer.
However, Pritzker is starting to act like Biss is much more of a threat than his poll indicates he is. Until now, Pritzker had concentrated his fire on GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and left his Democratic primary rivals alone, but Pritzker has debuted a 15-second TV spot aimed at Biss, which Capitol Fax's Rich Miller reports was "running in heavy rotation this morning [Thursday] on Chicago broadcast." The commercial charges that Biss "wrote the law that slashed pensions benefits owed to teachers, nurses, and state workers," and that the courts struck it down.
Biss himself has admitted he made a mistake in 2013 when he pushed the law aimed at reducing pension debt. Biss recently told the Daily Herald that "there was kind of an obsessive hysteria about it a few years ago that led a lot of people in the legislature, myself included, to act irresponsibly." The paper says the state Supreme Court struck it down because it ruled that "raising the retirement age for younger employees, capping the salary eligible for a pension and limiting cost-of-living increases violated the state Constitution," and Biss now agrees that it was unconstitutional. However, Biss also argued that Illinois has too many pension systems, which benefits no one but consulting firms and hurts the state.
● KS-Gov: This week, former state Rep. Ed O'Malley dropped out of the GOP primary. O'Malley didn't have much money compared to the rest of the primary field, and his moderate reputation was unlikely to be an asset.
● MN-Gov: When former Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced last month that he wouldn't seek the GOP nomination for the special election for the Senate, he conspicuously didn't mention if he was still interested in coming back to the governor's office. On Thursday, Minnesota Public Radio's Brian Bakst reported that Pawlenty had invited donors and other political players to a Feb. 12 meeting to discuss a possible bid. Brian McClung, a longtime Pawlenty advisor, also confirmed that T-Paw would be considering his options "over the coming weeks."
Bakst's report came the same day that campaign finance reports were released for 2017, and so far, none of the Republicans have been raising much. The candidate with the most resources was Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson, who lost the 2014 general election 50-45 to Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton. Still, Johnson's $260,000 haul for the year and $180,000 war chest wasn't incredible. Former state party chair Keith Downey had only $53,000 to spend, while Woodbury Mayor Mary Giuliani Stephens had just $40,000 in the bank. One senior state representative, Pat Garofalo, summed things up on Twitter when he declared, "Fundraising for GOP governor looks horrible," and while he gave Stephens a pass since she entered the race in the last few months of the year, he concluded that, unless Stephens quickly raises more money or someone else gets in, "We lose. It's that simple."
Given the circumstances, Pawlenty looks like a pretty appealing candidate for a race the GOP badly wants to win. While Pawlenty left office in 2011 to unsuccessfully run for president, he remains well-known and well-connected. Pawlenty also currently works in D.C. as a lobbyist for banks, which gives him access to plenty of money. Of course, that also means that Democrats wouldn't need to work hard to portray Pawlenty as a tool of greedy Washington interests if he were to attempt a comeback, but It may be a risk the GOP has to take in order to win this seat. The only other major Republican who looks interested in running in Speaker Kurt Daudt, but he still seems to be in no hurry to make up his mind.
Several Democrats are competing to succeed Dayton, who is retiring, and almost all of them had more money than Johnson:
Former St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman: $600,000 raised, $300,000 cash-on-hand
State Rep. Tina Liebling: $100,000 raised, $20,000 cash-on-hand
State Rep. Erin Murphy: $377,000 raised, $147,000 cash-on-hand
State Auditor Rebecca Otto: $320,000 raised, $181,000 cash-on-hand
State Rep. Paul Thissen: $250,000 raised, additional $50,000 self-funded, $108,000 cash-on-hand
Rep. Tim Walz: $1.1 million raised, $488,000 cash-on-hand
All the Democrats are competing in the early June state party convention. However, Coleman, Liebling, and Walz did not rule out continuing on to the August Democratic primary if someone else gets the state party endorsement.
● OH-Gov: Campaign finance reports are in for the period of Aug. 1 to Jan. 31, and unsurprisingly, former Attorney General Richard Cordray has more cash-on-hand than any of his Democratic primary rivals. But the Democrat with the second-largest war chest is not someone we'd heard of before now, and it seems we aren't alone. Jon Heavey, a physician at the Cleveland Clinic, put $1.5 million of his own money into a campaign account. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer's Seth Richardson describes Heavey as a mystery candidate, and the doctor doesn't seem to be in any hurry to change that.
The only comment Heavey would provide Richardson is confirmation that he had indeed self-funded $1.5 million, as well as the language of his ballot petitions. State Party Chair David Pepper says he's seen Heavey "in passing," but he doesn't "know much else other than that he's self-funding." If Heavey is serious about running, he'll need to gather petitions and pick a running mate by the Feb. 7 filing deadline.
No matter what happens, Cordray is likely to remain the frontrunner going into the May primary. Cordray launched his bid in December and took in $2 million in two months, and he had about that much in the bank at the end of January. Former state Rep. Connie Pillich, who was Team Blue's 2014 nominee for treasurer, raised a smaller $483,000 over the last six months, but she had $911,000 on-hand. That's considerably better than state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, who has only $277,000 on-hand. Two other Democrats, former Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neill and former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, began fundraising in 2018, but they look unlikely to be major players in the primary.
The GOP primary is considerably smaller and more lopsided. Attorney General Mike DeWine, a former U.S. senator who narrowly unseated Cordray in 2010, had $10.5 million in the bank to Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor's $3.5 million. DeWine also outraised Taylor $2 million to $364,000 over the last six months. Secretary of State Jon Husted dropped out of the primary and became DeWine's candidate for lieutenant governor in late November, and Husted's old gubernatorial committee transferred an additional $4.64 million to DeWine. (Cordray received $111,000 in this manner after former Rep. Betty Sutton pulled the plug on her bid and became his running mate.)
Taylor loaned her own campaign an additional $3 million, while her running mate, businessman Nathan Estruth, chipped in another $250,000. As we've written before, we just have a very tough time envisioning a scenario where Taylor beats DeWine, but whatever, it's her dough.
House
● IA-03: While Democratic state Sen. Matt McCoy talked about challenging GOP Rep. David Young in this Des Moines-area seat last year, he hadn't shown interest in months, so it wasn't a surprise when he announced on Wednesday that he would seek a difference office. However, McCoy's decision to run for the Polk County Board of Supervisors (most of Des Moines is in Polk) could end up impacting the primary anyway. McCoy is challenging Supervisor Johnny Mauro, the uncle of insurance company owner and congressional candidate Eddie Mauro, in June. The Mauro family is well-known in south Des Moines Democratic circles, and Iowa Starting Line writes that a strong campaign from Johnny Mauro will likely turn out voters who would also back the other Mauro on the ballot.
Thanks in large part to some self-funding, Mauro had more cash-on-hand than each of his primary foes at the end of December. Mauro had $333,000 in the bank to real-estate company president Theresa Greenfield's $211,000. The only other candidate sitting on six figures was business consultant Cindy Axne, who had $166,000. But while longtime political operative Pete D'Alessandro had only $28,000 to spend, he just received an endorsement from Bernie Sanders, who could help him raise money as well as get his name out to Sanders' supporters. Former U.S. Treasury Department economist Austin Frerick brought up the rear with less than $4,000 in the bank. If no one takes at least 35 percent of the vote in the primary, the nomination will be decided by a party convention a few weeks later.
This seat swung from 51-47 Obama to 49-45 Trump, but Team Blue hopes it will shift back and throw Young overboard. Young ended 2017 with $833,000 in the bank, not massive for a vulnerable incumbent, but considerably more than any of his rivals.
● IN-08: Well, this sucks. While leading Democrats recently said they expected former Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel to challenge GOP Rep. Larry Bucshon, he announced on Wednesday that he wouldn't do it. This seat went from a rough 58-40 Romney to a brutal 65-31 Trump, and while Weinzapfel would have faced an uphill climb even in a good Democratic year, there aren't many other candidates who could put it into play. The filing deadline is Feb. 9, and unless there's a huge surprise, we don't expect to hear much about the district once known as "The Bloody Eighth" again this cycle.
P.S.: As regular readers know, we tend to be huge sticklers when it comes to candidate announcements. We don't consider someone a candidate until they actually unequivocally say they are running, even if they're already raising money and political insiders say they're in. This kind of story is exactly why.
● KY-06: Kentucky is one of only a handful of states that doesn't have a Senate or gubernatorial race in 2018. All six of its House members are seeking re-election, and GOP Rep. Andy Barr is likely to be the only one who faces a tough primary or general election. (As we recently wrote, Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth did attract a last-minute GOP challenge from former state Secretary of Health and Family Services Vickie Yates Brown Glisson, but it's tough to see him losing this cycle in a 55-40 Clinton seat.) Barr represents a central Kentucky seat that backed Trump by a convincing 55-39 margin, but still sometimes votes for Democrats down the ballot.
Barr had no trouble winning re-election in the last two cycles, but this time, two well-funded Democrats are competing to face him. Retired Marine Lt. Col. Amy McGrath, who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, entered the race over the summer with a hard-hitting introductory video that quickly went viral, and she brought in more than $700,000 over the next three months. But national Democrats still wanted Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, who carried this seat 52-48 even as he was losing the 2016 Senate race to GOP incumbent Rand Paul 57-43, to run. Gray obliged them in December, and he raked in $344,000 in his first month in the race. If Gray won, he'd be the state's first openly gay member of Congress.
McGrath admitted that she was so angry about Gray being recruited to run that she even considered campaigning as an independent, but she decided to stay in the Democratic primary. And McGrath's fundraising was still solid, with her bringing in $326,000 for the quarter and holding a $656,000 to $324,000 lead over Gray. However, Gray is wealthy, and he can probably afford to put down some of his own money if he feels like it. State Sen. Reggie Thomas is also in, but he had only $22,000 in the bank. Barr seems to be taking his race seriously: The incumbent took in $415,000 for the quarter, and he had $1.6 million on-hand.
● PA-01: Longtime Rep. Bob Brady is retiring, and his replacement will be a Democrat. Right now, that's about all we know about this race. The state Supreme Court recently struck down the GOP-drawn congressional map, and unless Team Red succeeds in convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the order, this Philadelphia-based seat will be redrawn in time for the May primary.
Philadelphia-area politicos are furiously speculating whether this seat will lose part of the city and extend into neighboring Delaware County, if it will be Rep. Brendan Boyle in the nearby 13th who sees his district become more suburban, what will happen to freshman Rep. Dwight Evans' 2nd District, and any number of other scenarios. For now, we have another Schrödinger's seat, where candidates are considering running for a district that may not—in this case, probably will not—exist by Election Day.
That isn't stopping local Democrats from preparing to run for Brady's seat, though. Pastor Kevin Johnson, who heads a workforce development group, announced he would run a day before Brady decided to retire. City & State's Ryan Briggs describes Johnson's organization, Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center, as "a storied job-training nonprofit based in North Philadelphia," and adds that Bright Hope, the church he once led is "well known as one of the most politically influential houses of worship in a city where the black clergy wields considerable power."
However, Johnson resigned in 2014 from Bright Hope under not-so-great circumstances. Congregants said they were angry that Johnson wouldn't give them answers about his salary and other church financial affairs. Johnson also planned to run for mayor in 2015, and when congregants reminded him of his 2007 pledge to avoid city politics, he reportedly gave them an unsatisfactory, "I changed my mind." Johnson ended up staying out of that race, and he founded his own church.
Other Democrats are eyeing this race. State Rep. Joanna McClinton said she was considering, and unnamed sources told the Briggs that she'd enter the race in days. McClinton's state House seat covers parts of the city and Delaware County, and having a foot in both areas could be an asset. Rich Lazer, a Philadelphia deputy mayor of labor, said he was considering running last month, though it wasn't clear if he was willing to run against Brady or not. The Philadelphia Inquirer writes that Lazer, who is close to both local labor groups and Mayor Jim Kenney, is "expected" to jump in soon. State Sen. Larry Farnese also declined to comment about speculation that he could run.
A trio of noteworthy Democrats were already challenging Brady, who was under investigation, before Wednesday. Former Deputy Mayor Nina Ahmad had $564,000 in the bank at the end of December thanks in large part to self-funding, while minister and former bank executive Michele Lawrence and financial planner Lindy Li are also in. But as we said at the top, it's possible some of these people won't be running for the 1st District when the redistricting dust clears.
● PA-18: Republican Rep. Rick Saccone is finally on the air with his first TV ad ahead of the March 13 special election, and his message is a bit shocking. Even though Donald Trump carried Pennsylvania's very conservative 18th District by a wide 58-39 margin, Saccone isn't trying to motivate his base but rather is preaching the virtues of bipartisanship.
In his spot, which he narrates himself, Saccone declares that "there's too much partisan bickering" in Washington and explains that he "worked with Democrats and Republicans" in the state legislature to strengthen laws against child predators. (The bill passed unanimously and simply made a temporary law—also passed unanimously—permanent, so it couldn't have taken much work.) Honestly, this is the kind of ad you'd expect to see from a Democrat running in a district like this.
Don't expect to see it too much, though. As earlier news reports had indicated it would be, Saccone's fundraising report for the fourth quarter was awful. In the final three months of 2017, Saccone raised just $162,000 and had $200,000 in the bank. Even more amazingly, he spent less than $15,000 despite the fact that Republicans were raising "alarm bells" about this race as early as December.
Meanwhile, Democrat Conor Lamb simply crushed it. He pulled in a hefty $558,000, even though he only became his party's nominee in mid-November, and spent $145,000, leaving him with $412,000 on hand. Lamb has undoubtedly been raking in plenty more over the last month, while Saccone's had to rely on deep-pocketed dark money groups to prop him up.
● SC-04: GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy announced on Wednesday that he would retire from the House. This seat, which includes Greenville and Spartanburg in the northern part of the state, backed Trump 60-34, and there's little doubt the GOP will easily hold it. The filing deadline is March 30; if no one takes a majority of the vote in the June 12 primary, there will be a runoff two weeks later.
It took very little time for Republicans to start making noises about running. State Rep. Dan Hamilton said he plans to run "at this point," though that's not a definitive yes. State Sen. William Timmons has expressed interest as well, and he says he plans to spend $500,000 of his own money on the race. Timmons doesn't appear to have outright declared he's in, but Gowdy strategist Luke Byars says he'll run.
Spartanburg County GOP Chair Josh Kimbrell and former state Sen. Lee Bright (who narrowly lost re-nomination in 2016, two years after he badly lost a primary bid against Sen. Lindsey Graham) also expressed interest, while Spartanburg County Clerk of Court Hope Blackley said she would announce her plans next week. Roll Call also name-dropped former state GOP Chair Karen Floyd.
There is one familiar name we can cross off the list, though. Former Rep. Bob Inglis was ousted by Gowdy 70-30 in the 2010 primary after Inglis angered too many conservatives, but he still showed some interest in a comeback bid. Inglis tweeted on Wednesday that he might run as a Republican or an independent, but he said the next day he'd stay out.
● WV-01: GOP Rep. David McKinley narrowly won this northern West Virginia seat during the 2010 GOP wave, but he's been safe ever since. This 68-26 Trump seat isn't very high on any target lists, but Democrat Ralph Baxter, the former head of the law firm Orrick, may at least have the connections to make things interesting. Baxter raised $154,000 from donors in the last quarter and self-funded another $75,000, leaving him with $199,000 in the bank. However, that's still far less than McKinley's $771,000 war chest. Two other Democrats are also running in the May primary.
● WV-02: While this seat, which includes Charleston and the eastern Panhandle, backed Trump by a solid 66-29, GOP Rep. Alex Mooney is a longshot Democratic target. Mooney, a former member of the Maryland legislature, moved to West Virginia in 2013 just before he began running here, and he only won the 2014 general election 47-44. Mooney beat an underfunded former state delegate 58-42 in 2016, not close, but still well behind Trump's showing.
Two Democrats are competing in the May primary to take on Mooney. Army veteran Aaron Scheinberg outraised former U.S. State Department official Talley Sergent $84,000 to $52,000 for the quarter, and he had a $163,000 to $134,000 edge. However, Scheinberg only moved to West Virginia from New York in 2017, and while he touts his family's roots in the state, he could negate Team Blue's best line of attack against Mooney. The incumbent had $1.1 million in the bank.
● WV-03: Rep. Evan Jenkins' 2014 win over Democratic incumbent Nick Rahall made him the first Republican to represent southern West Virginia in generations, and this 73-23 Trump seat is unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon. Jenkins is leaving to run for the Senate, and seven Republicans have filed to run here.
The frontrunners look like state Del. Carol Miller, who is also a bison farmer, and former state party chair Conrad Lucas. Miller has been running for several months longer than Lucas, and she had a $258,000 to $136,000 cash-on-hand edge. State Del. Marty Gearheart only entered the race in January, so he has no fundraising to report. The anti-tax group Club for Growth reportedly is interested in Gearheart, and if they endorse him and air ads for him, they could make a big difference in a race where none of the candidates have too many resources.
Democrats do sometimes still win down-ballot races here, and a few candidates are competing in the primary. State Sen. Richard Ojeda, a veteran who represents the Trumpiest state Senate seat in the state, has attracted a ton of attention from the national media, including from us. Ojeda had less than $10,000 in the bank at the end of December, which is sadly more than any of his rivals. State Del. Shirley Love entered the race in January; Love is 84, and if he did win, he'd be older than almost any current member of Congress. (Only 88-year-old New York Rep. Louise Slaughter would be older.)
Grab Bag
● Statehouse Action: This Week in Statehouse Action: Where No One Has Voted Before (Or Since) edition features Republican governors figuring out how to keep their party from losing special elections (don't hold them!), lots and lots of Democrats running for office, sexual misconduct fallout in Arizona and Virginia, and more!
Afraid you'll miss hot state politics news while you're on your continuing mission? Sign up here to get This Week in Statehouse Action delivered via subspace to your inbox each Thursday!
● Editor's note: Due to a formatting error in yesterday's Digest, the end of our PA-18 item (about Republican ads) and the beginning of our SC-04 item (about Rep. Trey Gowdy's retirement) ran together. Please click here to read these items as they were intended to be published.
