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
● New York: New York's Democratic-run legislature has passed a number of bills to make voting more accessible this fall, including measures to:
The bill regarding online registration in New York City has only passed the Senate, but the rest have all been approved by both chambers and now to go Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Election Changes
● Connecticut: A state court judge has rejected a suit brought by four Republican congressional candidates in Connecticut who want to prevent election officials from mailing out absentee ballots after Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont allowed all voters to request such ballots due to the pandemic. Plaintiffs have said they will appeal.
● West Virginia: In a Wednesday press conference, Republican Gov. Jim Justice said, "From the standpoint of absentee, I think what we’re going to do is go back to the way we were," but what he means by that is unclear. West Virginia made two significant changes to the way it conducts elections primary before the state's June 9 primary: It allowed all voters to request absentee ballots due to the pandemic, and it sent applications to every voter. It's therefore possible that Justice could be referring to either or both of these practices.
In separate remarks before a U.S. Senate committee the same day, Republican Secretary of State Mac Warner said that "county clerks have asked that we return to voters initiating requests to vote absentee, consistent with state law." However, neither he nor Justice appeared to address whether they are considering a return to a strict excuse requirement in order to request an absentee ballot.
Senate
● AK-Sen: Physician Al Gross, an independent running with the support of Democrats, is airing the first TV ad of his campaign against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The minute-long spot emphasizes Gross' Alaska roots and features him aboard a fishing vessel in Stephens Passage as a narrator recounts his life story, including his early career as a commercial fisherman and his journey to become "a renowned orthopedic surgeon" before leaving his practice to help reform Alaska's healthcare system (along the way, he "killed a grizzly bear in self-defense").
● AZ-Sen: Democrat Mark Kelly has released his first Spanish-language TV ad of the general election in which a narrator describes his support for Dreamers and increased COVID-19 testing.
● LA-Sen: A day after his entry into Louisiana's Senate race, the DSCC has endorsed Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins in his campaign against Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy.
● MA-Sen: Democratic Sen. Ed Markey is airing his first TV ad ahead of his Sept. 1 primary bout with Rep. Joe Kennedy III. Markey himself narrates the spot, which features footage of the senator striding through his hometown of Malden, just outside of Boston, wearing his trademark sneakers. Markey highlights his humble roots, saying, "My father was a milkman. I drove an ice cream truck to pay for college." (There is actually an awesome story about this.)
He goes on to say, "Lessons I learned here still drive me today: Don't be scared of the tough fights," explaining that's why he was "an original sponsor of Medicare for All" and "wrote the Green New Deal to fight climate change." (New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Markey endorser, makes a brief cameo here.) The Boston Globe reports that the ad will air statewide on broadcast and cable and notes Kennedy has been on the airwaves since early May.
House
● MA-01: Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Richie Neal in the Sept. 1 primary, is going up with his first TV ad of the race. Morse begins by saying that his brother died earlier this year "after a long struggle with opioid addiction" because he "fell through the cracks of our cruel health care system." He then pivots to criticizing Neal, saying that "instead of standing up for patients," the congressman "is using his power and seniority to fight for the same drug companies that are fueling this crisis."
In response, a Neal spokesperson attacked Morse, saying, "Addiction and loss are not political footballs, and invoking the loss of a family member in an attack full of lies is despicable and appalling."
● TX-21: Democrat Wendy Davis has released a new internal poll from Garin-Hart-Yang showing Republican Rep. Chip Roy with just a 46-45 edge in their race for Texas' 21st Congressional District. The survey also shows Joe Biden leading Donald Trump 50-47; four years ago, Trump carried this badly gerrymandered district, which connects parts of Austin and San Antonio with Texas Hill Country, by a 52-42 margin, and Ted Cruz won it just 49.6-49.5 in the midterms. This is the first poll of this race released publicly by either side.
Ad Roundup