• ND-Gov: Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller announced Thursday that she will run to replace her boss and fellow Republican, retiring Gov. Doug Burgum. Miller joins Rep. Kelly Armstrong in the June 11 primary to lead this dark red state, though other candidates could still get in ahead of the April 8 filing deadline.
Miller, who was appointed to her current post in late 2022, has never won elected office before, but she has plenty of political connections. In 2006, she became CEO of Border States Electric, a large electrical distribution company, and she was still serving in that capacity in 2017 when longtime political writer Rob Port reported that unnamed state GOP officials were trying to recruit her to take on Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. Miller ultimately sat the race out, though, and Rep. Kevin Cramer went on to oust Heitkamp as Armstrong was winning the race for his now-open House seat.
Miller left Border States in 2019 when Burgum picked her to serve as his administration's chief operating officer. The governor gave her another promotion in 2022 when he appointed her to replace Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford, who resigned to rejoin the private sector.
• IN-04: Republican Rep. Jim Baird did indeed file for a fourth term ahead of the Feb. 9 deadline, though that still may not quiet chatter that he could retire from this dark red seat. Howey Politics relayed speculation in September that Baird could drop out after winning the May 7 primary so that party leaders could make his son, state Rep. Beau Baird, the new nominee.
In any case, the older Baird should have little trouble winning that primary. The congressman ended 2023 with a $351,000 to $86,000 cash on hand lead over the only other Republican candidate who has reported raising any money, businessman Charles Bookwalter. State Rep. Craig Haggard, who formed a campaign account in November so he could run whenever Baird retired, is seeking reelection to the legislature.
• IN-08: Former Trump staffer Dominick Kavanaugh joined the May GOP primary to replace retiring Republican Rep. Larry Bucshon shortly before filing closed last week, and the 28-year-old first-time candidate reportedly has been implying he'll have his old boss' backing.
"That’s what he has suggested," Vanderburgh County GOP Chairman Mike Duckworth told Thomas Langhorne of the Evansville Courier & Press. Duckworth added that he's not the only local chair in this 21-county constituency "trying to substantiate what he’s saying about his connection to Trump."
Duckworth, however, said he wasn't sure about Kavanaugh's recent history in this safely red district in southwestern Indiana. The candidate says he was born and raised in what's now the 8th District, and Langhorne writes that he's cast ballots there during the last several election cycles. However, Langhorne adds that Kavanaugh's LinkedIn shows that he's held jobs outside the Hoosier State, and that he began his most recent gig in September in Washington, D.C.
• PA-03: While state Rep. Chris Rabb filed FEC paperwork in the fall for a potential primary challenge against Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans, he did not submit his name before Tuesday's candidate filing deadline. Evans' only intraparty foe in this dark blue constituency is former Philadelphia Register of Wills Tracey Gordon, who does not appear to have set up a fundraising account yet.
Gordon lost renomination 32-30 last year to attorney John Sabatina after a turbulent four years in office. Among other things, five former public employees have filed lawsuits alleging that Gordon fired them because they wouldn't donate to her campaign. The Philadelphia Inquirer also reported last year that Gordon allowed her daughter to sell Philadelphia Eagles shirts out of her office.
• TX-26: The Texas Tribune's Matthew Choi takes a deep dive into the 11-way March 5 Republican primary and notes that three members of Texas' House delegation are backing far-right media figure Brandon Gill: 5th District Rep. Lance Gooden; 22nd District Rep. Troy Nehls, and 13th District Ronny Jackson, whom Donald Trump unsuccessfully tapped to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2018. The Trump-endorsed Gill, like his father-in-law, Dinesh D'Souza, is an election denier.
Gill's main intra-party foe in the race to replace retiring GOP Rep. Michael Burgess in this reliably red seat appears to be Southlake Mayor John Huffman, who has former Gov. Rick Perry and 24th District Rep. Beth Van Duyne on his side. However, as Choi notes, the fundraising contest between them isn't close. Gill, who self-funded more than half of his haul, ended 2023 with a $439,000 to $286,000 cash on hand lead over Huffman, while businesswoman Luisa del Rosal had only $127,000 available.
Former Denton County Judge Scott Armey, who lost the 2002 runoff to Burgess in a major upset, at least doesn't have such high expectations this time: Armey, who is the son of former Majority Leader Dick Armey, finished December with only $67,000 in the bank. Candidates need to win a majority to avert a May 28 runoff.
• WI-03: Democratic state Rep. Katrina Shankland has publicized an internal poll from Blueprint Polling arguing she's a stronger candidate against GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden than businesswoman Rebecca Cooke, who is the only other notable Democrat running in the Aug. 13 primary. Blueprint finds Van Orden leading Shankland by a small 49-47 spread, while respondents back the incumbent 50-44 against Cooke.
• ND-AL: Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak announced Thursday that she would enter the June 11 primary to succeed Rep. Kelly Armstrong, a fellow Republican who is running for governor. Fedorchak told reporters that she would compete for the party's endorsement at its early April convention but says she'll remain in the race even if she didn't get it.
Fedorchak was state director for Sen. John Hoeven in 2012 when then-Gov. Jack Dalrymple appointed her to fill a vacancy on the three-person body that regulates utilities. (The person she was chosen to replace was Rep.-elect Kevin Cramer, who is now North Dakota's other senator.) Fedorchak had no trouble winning a 2014 statewide special election to keep the job, and she won her most recent campaign 71-29 in 2022.
Fedorchak joins a field that already includes former state Sen. Tom Campbell and former state Rep. Rick Becker, and it may grow larger still. Cass County District Court Judge Wade Webb tells KFGO he's also thinking about seeking the GOP nod.
• WI-08: Brown County Director of Administration Chad Weininger tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Lawrence Andrea that he's interested in running to replace Rep. Mike Gallagher, a fellow Republican who unexpectedly announced his retirement over the weekend.
Weininger, who was elected to the state Assembly in 2010 but retired four years later, tried to regain elected office last year when he challenged Democratic incumbent Eric Genrich in the officially nonpartisan race for mayor of Green Bay.
The city, according to Dave's Redistricting App, supported Joe Biden 53-45 in 2020, but Weininger seemed to have a strong chance to score a pickup after outpacing Genrich 47.3-46.6 in the first round of voting. The mayor, though, turned things around in the general election by highlighting Weininger's anti-abortion stances, and he prevailed 53-47.
There's plenty of time for more Republicans to join the race for this 57-41 Trump seat in northeastern Wisconsin ahead of the June 3 filing deadline, though state Rep. John Macco says he won't be a candidate.
The only notable Republican in the race so far is former state Sen. Roger Roth, whose uncle, Toby Roth, represented a previous version of this seat from 1979 to 1997. Roger Roth, then a state representative, tried to get to the House in 2010 by challenging Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen, but he ended up losing the primary to the eventual winner, Reid Ribble, 48-32.
Roth ultimately returned to the legislature in 2014 by getting elected to the Senate, and he prevailed in the packed 2022 primary for lieutenant governor by beating his nearest opponent 30-18. However, the ticket led by Tim Michels lost 51-48 to the Democratic team of Gov. Tony Evers and Sara Rodriguez.
• MD-06: Former Del. Neil Parrott, who was GOP nominee the last two cycles, announced just before filing closed last week that he would run to succeed his old opponent, Democratic Senate candidate David Trone.
Parrott lost his last campaign to Trone 55-45 after the wealthy congressman ran ads blasting him for once proposing that HIV positive people should be denied medicine unless they got a tattoo "in a spot covered by a bathing suit" in order to warn potential sex partners about their status.
One Republican who will not be campaigning here, though, is Woodsboro Mayor Heath Barnes, who withdrew his name before the deadline. Joe Biden carried the 6th District 54-44 in 2020.
• PA-10: Army veteran Bob Forbes said just before filing closed Tuesday that he had not collected enough signatures to make the April 23 Democratic primary ballot to take on far-right Rep. Scott Perry. Six other Democrats, however, are still in the hunt.