● NE Ballot: Reproductive rights advocates in Nebraska have taken their first steps towards placing a constitutional amendment on next year's ballot to undo the state's new 12-week abortion ban, though the Nebraska Examiner's Paul Hammel notes that organizers have yet to decide on the text of their measure or how far it might go. The drive comes months after Nebraska's unicameral legislature, an officially nonpartisan body that has been dominated by Republicans for decades, approved increased restrictions in the face of fierce opposition.
In 2010, the 49-member chamber passed a bill outlawing most abortions after 20 weeks, the first of its kind in the nation. Conservatives tried to go much further earlier this year when they introduced legislation that would have banned the procedure after only about six weeks. Democrats, though, organized a filibuster to prevent the bill from receiving the 33 votes it needed to advance.
During the 2022 elections, Republicans fell one seat short of obtaining the two-thirds majority they would need to overcome filibusters, but Democratic Sen. Mike McDonnell joined their efforts to move the bill forward. (Another Democrat, Justin Wayne, abstained.) However, Republican Sen. Merv Riepe made the crucial decision to abstain after his party refused to take up his plan to restrict access to 12 weeks. Riepe cited his own tough race months earlier to explain his reluctance to accept a six-week ban, warning his colleagues, "We must embrace the future of reproductive rights."
Riepe's move derailed the six-week ban, but conservatives weren't done yet. They instead took a previously unrelated plan to outlaw gender-affirming care for minors, legislation, which had been stalled thanks to the efforts of Democratic Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, and grafted on a 12-week abortion ban. Republican Sen. Julie Slama suggested that leadership did so in part to retaliate against Cavanaugh, who had slowed down every bill that had reached the floor; Slama, along with Riepe, backed the joint bill when it passed in May.
Cavanaugh was furious. "This place is morally bankrupt," said Cavanaugh as she vowed to keep delaying bills. "I'm looking forward to 2025 when I no longer have to serve with many of you." Sen. Megan Hunt, a progressive Democrat-turned-independent who had revealed that her son is trans months before, in turn responded by declaring she'd leave the state. Andi Curry Grubb, who serves as state director for the regional Planned Parenthood, further highlighted that the bill didn't include any exceptions for fetal anomalies, which often aren't diagnosed until after the 12th week of pregnancy.
Curry Grubb is now part of the newly formed campaign to amend Nebraska's constitution called Protect Our Rights, though she tells the Examiner that abortion rights advocates haven't given up hope of striking down the new bill in court. She added that her coalition is still formulating language for the proposed measure but noted the urgency of winning at the ballot box before GOP Gov. Jim Pillen and his allies can muster up support to pass a still-more restrictive ban as Republicans had originally wanted.
The secretary of state will need to approve the wording once it's been submitted before Protect Our Rights can start to collect signatures to place its amendment before voters. The campaign needs about 123,000 valid signatures, a figure that represents 10% of Nebraska's registered voters, and it also must collect petitions from 5% of voters in 38 of the state's 93 counties. According to Ballotpedia, their deadline is July 5.
The Cornhusker State is a longtime GOP stronghold that hasn't backed a Democratic candidate for president since Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide. However, there's reason to think an abortion rights amendment could still win enough support to pass next year: Polling from Civiqs finds that 49% of voters believe the procedure should be legal all or most of the time, while 46% say the opposite. Two polls taken last year also showed majorities opposed to further abortion restrictions.
The new campaign in Nebraska comes ahead of a Nov. 7 vote in Ohio on an amendment that would enshrine abortion rights into the state's constitution. Pro-choice advocates are also working to collect signatures in Arizona, Florida, and South Dakota to amend their own constitutions next year. Their counterparts in Missouri are looking to do the same in 2024, but first they're suing Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft over the misleading ballot summary text he crafted for their amendment.
Senate
● MI-Sen: EPIC-MRA's new survey for WLNS finds Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin leading former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers 42-37 in a hypothetical general election matchup. Rogers, who relocated to Florida sometime after leaving the House in 2015, is reportedly considering a comeback in his former state but has yet to announce.
Governors
● MS-Gov: Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has launched a transphobic ad insinuating that Democrat Brandon Presley "said he supports sex changes and puberty-blocking drugs for children."
Reporters asked Presley in June if he supported a new state law that banned gender-affirming care for minors, to which he responded, "I trust families, I trust mamas and I trust daddies to deal with the health care of their children first and foremost, period." The Democrat, though, also told Mississippi Today last month, "Tate Reeves knows that I won't work to overturn these laws, and this issue is settled in Mississippi, but he's busy pushing the same old false political attacks to cover up his career of corruption."
House
● AL-??: The conservative site 1819 News notes that Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, a Democrat who is up for reelection on Tuesday, has declined to rule out running for the House once the state finally has a new map. "If this new congressional district comes about, will you promise the citizens of Montgomery, should you be reelected, you won't try running for that position?" radio host Kevin Elkins asked last month, to which the mayor responded, "I don't know what I'm going to do. For one, I've got to win first."
● AZ-03: Phoenix City Councilwoman Laura Pastor unexpectedly announced Friday that she was ending her campaign to succeed Senate candidate Ruben Gallego, a fellow Democrat. "Lately, I have developed some health concerns—not life-threatening, just enough for me to take stock and to prioritize my well-being," she said. Pastor is the daughter of Gallego's predecessor, the late Rep. Ed Pastor, and she'd been talked about as a likely House candidate for years.
Her departure, which came a week after local water conservation board member Ylenia Aguilar also left the race, leaves three declared Democrats in the contest for this safely blue seat. Phoenix City Councilmember Yassamin Ansari finished June with a wide $413,000 to $159,000 cash on hand edge over former state Sen. Raquel Terán, while Glendale Elementary School Board member Héctor Jaramillo did not report any fundraising. (Pastor and Aguilar respectively had $107,000 and $56,000 banked.) The field will likely grow again soon, though, as pediatrician Duane Wooten says he anticipates launching a campaign sometime this month.
● CA-27: Former Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides publicized an endorsement on Thursday from 30th District Rep. Adam Schiff, the prominent former chair of the House Judiciary Committee who is now running for Senate and represents a neighboring seat in Los Angeles County.
Whitesides is competing with a fellow Democrat, Los Angeles County Probation Oversight Commissioner Franky Carrillo, in the top-two primary to face GOP Rep. Mike Garcia, but there's a vast resource disparity between the two challengers. Whitesides, who self-funded a little more than half of his campaign during the first half of the year, finished June with a $1.2 million to $13,000 cash edge over Carrillo. Garcia, meanwhile had $1.2 million banked to defend this 55-43 Biden constituency.
● MD-05: Andrea Crooms, who is the director of the Prince George's County Department of the Environment, tells Maryland Matters' Josh Kurtz they plan to launch a Democratic primary bid against longtime Rep. Steny Hoyer next month. Crooms, who would be the first member of Congress to use they/them pronouns, said of the 84-year-old incumbent, "Steny Hoyer has been my representative since I was 2 years old. I can respect the heck out of them and still run against them." Crooms, who called fundraising "the worst thing on Earth," nevertheless said they hoped to raise $250,000 by the end of the quarter.
Hoyer, who stepped down as the number-two Democrat in the House following the 2022 elections, indicated in June that he plans to seek another term in this dark blue seat, though he hasn't announced a final decision yet. His only declared intra-party foe is McKayla Wilkes, who is waging her third consecutive bid against the incumbent. Hoyer won their initial 2020 match 64-27 and turned in a larger 71-19 victory two years later.
● OH-13: 2022 GOP nominee Madison Gesiotto Gilbert announced Friday that she was ending her bid for a rematch against freshman Democratic Rep. Emilia Strong Sykes and would instead serve as the national spokesperson for the RNC. Gesiotto Gilbert lost last year's contest 53-47 after waging a campaign during which she refused to respond to questions from reporters unless they were submitted by email. Despite raising large sums in her first go-round, she struggled to bring in any money at all for her second try.
Gesiotto Gilbert's departure leaves attorney Greg Wheeler, whom she beat 29-23 in last year's primary, as the only declared Republican, while Hudson City Councilman Chris Banweg filed paperwork last month. Politics1 also reported earlier in August that former state GOP chair Jane Timken was mulling a bid, but we've heard nothing else about her interest. Joe Biden would have carried this seat, which is based in the Akron and Canton areas, 51-48, though Republicans may have the chance to pass a new gerrymander this cycle.
● UT-02: Republican Gov. Spencer Cox showed he has a strange notion of what does or doesn't count as an endorsement during a Thursday press event at which he bestowed compliment after compliment on Celeste Maloy right immediately after insisting he wouldn't take sides in the special GOP primary to replace soon-to-be-former Rep. Chris Stewart on Sept. 5. "I would love to have some representation off of the Wasatch Front. … We don't have a member of Congress who lives out there," said the governor without explicitly mentioning Maloy, a former Stewart aide who is the only candidate from the area.
Cox quickly admitted, "I know that obviously sounds like I'm endorsing someone," and he went on to briefly say nice things about the other two Republicans in the race, former state Rep. Becky Edwards and former RNC member Bruce Hough. Cox, though, quickly made it clear once again exactly who he wants to win. "Celeste, having worked with Congressman Stewart, can hit the ground running faster than anybody else," he concluded.
Obituaries
● James L. Buckley, who won a three-way race for the U.S. Senate in 1970 as the nominee of New York's Conservative Party, died Friday at age 100.
- Three famous families. Buckley, the brother of the National Review founder William F. Buckley, entered a Senate race against members of two other prominent families—one with a connection to FDR, the other to the NFL.
- "Hardhatted political militants in the White House." GOP Sen. Charles Goodell and his Democratic opponent both opposed the Vietnam War, which left a big opening for Buckley to run and win as the pro-Nixon candidate. The Nixon administration, in the form of Vice President Spiro Agnew, also did its part to sink Goodell.
- The road to Citizens United. Buckley campaigned as a Republican in 1976 and badly lost reelection to Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but a favorable decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that year would have huge implications for campaign finance decades later.
Check out our obituary for more on this unlikely third-party senator.