The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
● GA-Sen-A, GA-Sen-B: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Tuesday that Donald Trump "and his top allies pressured" Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to call for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign, which they did Monday afternoon. Perdue and Loeffler issued a joint statement accusing Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, of "many failures" in administering last week's election but failed to provide any specifics or evidence. Raffensperger called the attacks "laughable" and said his departure "is not going to happen."
Campaign Action
The Trump campaign and the Georgia Republican Party also sent a letter to Raffensperger piling on with vague aspersions, as did the Republican members of the state's House delegation. That letter misspelled the state's name, addressing itself to "George Secretary of State," and was also signed by two candidates who described themselves as "members-elect," despite questioning the validity of the very same election they believe has sent them to Congress.
It's all an obsequious effort to stay on Trump's good side, of course, democracy be damned: Perdue and Loeffler acted, said the AJC, because they were afraid Trump would "tweet a negative word about them and risk divorcing them from his base." They're also apparently hoping for some in-person love from Trump, too. Politico reports that Mike Pence is headed down to Georgia (or perhaps George) on Nov. 20 and says "some Republicans believe Trump will eventually follow."
Meanwhile, Democrat Raphael Warnock has released his second ad of the runoff, a minute-long spot focused on his humble upbringing. "People like me aren't supposed to run for office," says Warnock, explaining that he grew up in housing projects, raised by a mother who picked cotton and tobacco and a father who was a veteran and a preacher.
He then describes his rise "to Martin Luther King Jr.'s pulpit as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church" after being the first in his family to graduate from a four-year college. He concludes by telling voters, "If you're looking for a billionaire, I'm not your guy"—a jab at the ultra-wealthy Loeffler. "But if you want someone who's been through some of the same challenges as you, I'm Raphael Warnock and it would be my honor to serve you."
Senate
● AL-Sen: Republican Sen. Richard Shelby turned 86 this year, and plenty of politicos are speculating that he won't seek a seventh term in 2022 in this very red state. Shelby himself told Roll Call last year, "We'll see what happens."
● IA-Sen: Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley turned 87 this year, and he doesn't seem to be in any hurry to announce if he'll seek an eighth term or not. Grassley told the Iowa Capitol Dispatch back in February that he'd decide eight to 12 months from Election Day 2022.
● MO-Sen: Republican Sen. Roy Blunt is up for a third term in 2022, though the 70-year-old incumbent hasn't announced if he'll run again yet.
The St. Louis Business Journal's Dave Drebes wrote last week that there are plenty of rumors that former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in disgrace in 2018, could challenge Blunt in the primary, and that Greitens "has done nothing to tamp that suspicion." Greitens himself showed some interest earlier this year in trying to regain his old job from GOP Gov. Mike Parson, though Greitens didn't end up launching a comeback campaign.
Drebes also mentions 2016 Democratic nominee Jason Kander as a possible contender, though there's no indication yet that the former Missouri secretary of state is considering. Four years ago, Kander held Blunt to a 49-46 win even as Donald Trump was carrying the state 56-38.
● NH-Sen, NH-Gov: Retired Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc announced Monday that he'd challenge Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in 2022, a move that comes three months after he lost the primary for the Granite State's other Senate seat by a 50-42 margin. Bolduc, who struggled with fundraising during his last campaign, is hardly the politician at the top of the party's wish list, though.
Paul Collins, who serves as the top political adviser to Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, drew plenty of attention when he tweeted last week, "[H]ey @SenatorHassan @Maggie_Hassan, what is it like serving in the united states senate these days? asking for a friend …." Sununu, who was just re-elected 65-33, himself has been coy about his plans, but he notably didn't say no when the National Journal's Zach Cohen asked him about it in late October.
When Cohen followed up last week about Collins' tweet, Sununu joked, "As a three-term governor I'm a little overqualified for the US Senate." When Cohen asked, "So you're not going to run for Senate?" Sununu responded with a SpongeBob SquarePants GIF. Yes, that's the world we live in now. Bolduc, for his part, said of Sununu, "At this point it makes no difference in my plans," adding, "If the governor is going to run, we'll cross that bridge when we get there."
If Sununu does challenge Hassan, it would open up the governorship for the first time since 2016, when Hassan left to successfully challenge Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte. WMUR John DiStaso wrote last week that there's been speculation that Ayotte, who has done a number of local GOP events recently, could run for governor if there's an open seat. So far, though, there's no word if Ayotte may be interested in a rematch with Hassan, especially if Sununu opts out.
● NY-Sen: Last week, the New York Times' Astead Herndon asked Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, "Is there a universe in which they're [party leaders] hostile enough that we're talking about a Senate run in a couple years," to which she responded, "I genuinely don't know. I don't even know if I want to be in politics." AOC continued, "You know, for real, in the first six months of my term, I didn't even know if I was going to run for re-election this year." Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is up for re-election in 2022.
● UT-Sen: While Republican incumbent Mike Lee has sponsored unsuccessful legislation to limit senators to two terms, he hasn't said if he'll seek a third term yet in this very red state.
One person who expressed interest in taking him on if he does is Steve Schmidt, a longtime nation GOP strategist who left the party to become an independent in 2018 and co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. Schmidt responded on Thursday to a tweet calling for him to challenge Lee by saying, "Thinking about it. Would be a fun race." Schmidt, though, continued by acknowledging, "Hard to win. I wouldn't go into it to win so much as I would be to strip his sanctimony, BS and hypocricy bear [sic]."
● VT-Sen: Democratic incumbent Patrick Leahy said in September that he'd decide at the end of 2021 whether or not to seek a ninth term, a milestone that only two other senators, West Virginia's Robert Byrd and Hawaii's Daniel Inouye, have ever achieved. If Leahy, who turned 80 this year, remained in the upper chamber, he would pass Byrd as the longest-serving senator in American history in late June of 2026.
● WI-Sen: The Democratic primary to take on Republican incumbent Ron Johnson kicked off a week before Election Day when Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson launched his campaign, and plenty of other Badger State politicians may be interested. Late last month, Politico and the AP mentioned Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, state Attorney General Josh Kaul, and Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry as possible contenders, though none of them appear to have said anything publicly yet.
Johnson, for his part, has yet to announce if he'll seek a third term in this swing state.
● NRSC: On Tuesday, Florida Sen. Rick Scott won an uncontested race to chair the NRSC for the 2022 cycle.
Gubernatorial
● AL-Gov: Republican incumbent Kay Ivey, who was elevated from lieutenant governor to governor in the spring of 2017 after Robert Bentley resigned in disgrace, is eligible to seek a second full term in 2022, but she hasn't announced her plans yet. Ivey is 76, and longtime state political observer Steve Flowers predicted in June that she'd retire.
● MA-Gov: When a reporter asked Republican Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday if he'd be on the ballot in 2022, the incumbent only responded, "That's a long time away." Massachusetts does not have term limits for its governors, and the Boston Globe reported back in 2019 that Baker was putting together a team for a possible bid for a third term.
Baker would tie Democrat Michael Dukakis for the longest-serving chief executive in state history if he sought and served out another term, though Dukakis got an involuntary four-year break between his first and second term following his 1982 primary loss.
● NJ-Gov: Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is seeking re-election next year in what's usually a reliably blue state, and Team Red could have a competitive primary.
Former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who lost the 2017 nomination contest, announced he'd run back in January, and he said he'd raised almost $820,000 through the end of September. Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick also recently told the New Jersey Globe that he'd decide after the 2020 elections were over, while the site says that state Party Chair Doug Steinhardt is still interested. (Steinhardt memorably said early this year that he had "no timeline whatsoever because I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know where I'm going," which should inspire Republicans everywhere.)
Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden, who also serves as the county's party chair, also didn't rule anything out when asked in 2018, and NJ.com mentioned him as a possible contender this week. That story also name-dropped state Sen. Declan O'Scanlon as a possibility, and O'Scanlon shared the story on Twitter.
One person we probably won't see running, though, is wealthy businessman Bob Hugin, who spent $36 million during his unsuccessful 2018 bid against Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez. While a writer for the far-right Daily Caller said last week that he'd take on Murphy, the New Jersey Globe's David Wildstein quickly reported that this "does not appear to be true," and that multiple people close to Hugin had heard nothing from him about a possible campaign.
Wildstein said that some Republicans had encouraged Hugin to run and that his "friends say that he doesn't take Shermanesque positions of permanently ruling out an option," but he otherwise didn't seem interested. One unnamed county party chair told Wildstein, "We're close friends. If he were interested, he'd have called me. I haven't heard from him."
● NY-Gov: Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last year that he'd seek a fourth term in 2022.
● TX-Gov: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said last year that he'd seek a third term, and he reaffirmed earlier this month that he'd run for re-election.
Uncalled Races
Quite a few contests remain uncalled, but we’re tracking all of them on our continually updated cheat-sheet, and of course we’ll cover each of them in the Digest once they’re resolved.
● Alaska: Election authorities in Alaska announced Tuesday that they would tally about a third of the estimated 155,000 uncounted ballots, which altogether will make up about 44% of the total vote, that evening. Here is where things stood in uncalled contests before those new votes were included:
● AK-Sen: Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan led Democratic nominee Al Gross.
● AK-AL: Republican Rep. Don Young led Democratic nominee Alyse Galvin.
● AK Ballot: Measure 1, which would increase the state's fuel production tax, trailed. Measure 2, which would establish a "top-four" primary system, also trailed.
● CA Ballot: Proposition 14, which would issue a stem cell research bond, leads 51-49 with 14.7 million votes counted. Proposition 19, known as the Property Tax Transfers, Exemptions, and Revenue for Wildfire Agencies and Counties Amendment, leads 51-49 with 14.6 million votes counted.
● San Francisco, CA Ballot: Proposition G, which would lower the voting age to 16 for local elections, trails 51-49 with 418,000 votes in.
Called Races
● NC-Sen: Republican Sen. Thom Tillis secured a second term on Tuesday after Democrat Cal Cunningham conceded.
● CA-48: Republican Michelle Steel secured victory on Tuesday when freshman Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda conceded. Rouda sounded interested in seeking a rematch, though, adding, "While one campaign ends today, another is just beginning. I look forward to having voters compare my opponent's two years in Congress with my accomplishments on November 8, 2022."
● TX-24: Republican Beth Van Duyne claimed victory after Democrat Candace Valenzuela conceded on Tuesday.
● PA Treasurer: Republican Stacy Garrity flipped this seat for her party after Democratic incumbent Joe Torsella conceded on Tuesday.