“Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dug in this weekend for what is expected to be a bitter and personal race between the two for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Trump revved up supporters Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington—an event Mr. DeSantis skipped—while the governor appeared before Republican groups in Texas and has a speech Sunday afternoon at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. The two will then descend on Iowa, which holds the first GOP nominating contest.”
CNN: “Trump’s lengthy address to the right-wing gathering in Maryland was filled with wildly inaccurate claims about his own presidency, Joe Biden’s presidency, foreign affairs, crime, elections and other subjects.”
NEVADA U.S. SENATOR. “No Nevada Republicans have officially entered the race to challenge Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) for re-election to the Senate in 2024, but at least one potential candidate is staying out of the race,” the Nevada Independent reports.
“Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) – Nevada’s sole Republican in Congress – said he plans to continue to serve in the House of Representatives.”
“Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Monroe (D) was elected chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party Saturday, ousting incumbent chair Judith Whitmer in a vote of 314-99 — a rebuke of Whitmer’s leadership ahead of key Senate and presidential races in 2024,” the Nevada Independent reports.
WEST VIRGINIA U.S. SENATOR. “Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is in no hurry to announce his plans for 2024, keeping the political world on the edge of their seats for the foreseeable future,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“While fellow red-state Democratic Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have announced their 2024 Senate campaigns, all eyes are on the centrist West Virginia Democrat, the only one up for reelection in a state former President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2020 who has not made his intentions known.”
NO HOGAN 2024, BUT HOGAN-MANCHIN 2024? “Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan said Sunday that he will not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024, in a move that avoids a showdown with Donald Trump, the former president whom Hogan has unsuccessfully sought to steer his party away from,” the Washington Post reports.
Notice the specific word play here. Hogan did not announce that he was not running for President. He specifically said he was not running for the the Republican nomination. That’s potentially a big difference. Hogan has long been floated by the advocacy group No Labels as a possible independent candidate for president.
Interestingly, Sen. Joe Manchin (D) today refused to rule out a presidential bid himself. It’s unlikely that Manchin would challenge President Biden, but an independent bid might make sense for him as well. A Manchin-Hogan pairing would certainly satisfy the No Labels push for a bipartisan “unity ticket.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) declined to endorse a potential reelection effort by President Biden on Sunday, saying he preferred to wait to see other options, Fox News reports.
Said Manchin: “There’s plenty of time for the election. This is the problem with America right now. We start an election every time there’s a cycle coming up. The bottom line is, let’s see who’s involved. Let’s wait until we see who all the players are. Let’s just wait until it all comes out.”
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports Manchin wouldn’t rule out running for the 2024 presidential nomination, potentially pitting him against Biden.
DESANTIS 2024. As he moves toward entering the 2024 presidential race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a pilgrimage to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Sunday, where the Republican accused leaders in blue states such as California of being ‘lockdown politicians’ and charged that the nation’s coronavirus crisis created ‘a great test in governing philosophies,’” the Washington Post reports.
“Speaking to a sold-out audience, with some 1,300 tickets sold and nearly 1,100 in attendance, according to organizers, DeSantis touted how Florida has led the nation in net migration — even though that is a trend set into motion long before he became governor.”
New York Times: “Since his landslide re-election victory, the emboldened Republican governor has proposed or endorsed policy after policy that has enthralled his supporters and alarmed his detractors: Allow Floridians to carry concealed weapons without a permit or training. Ban diversity and equity programs at public universities. Expand school vouchers. Allow a death sentence without a unanimous jury. Make it easier to sue the news media. Further restrict abortion.”
“Most — and perhaps all — of Mr. DeSantis’s wishes will likely soon be granted by the Republican-held State Legislature, giving him a broader platform from which to launch a widely expected 2024 presidential campaign. Ahead of the annual session, scheduled to begin on Tuesday and last 60 days, Republican lawmakers have given every indication that they will be guided by whatever the governor wants.”
WILLIAMSON 2024. “Marianne Williamson, the self-help author and spiritual adviser, launched her 2024 presidential campaign Saturday in an unlikely space: Union Station, the Washington, D.C., transportation hub where commuters catch Amtrak and metro trains,” NBC News reports.
“Throughout much of her announcement speech, Williamson railed against economic inequality and the U.S. governing system, which she called ‘intrinsically corrupt.’”
BIDEN 2024. “Though President Joe Biden has yet to announce his anticipated reelection bid, he will now have at least one long shot challenger from within his own party, with self-help author and former political candidate Marianne Williamson formally launching her 2024 campaign on Saturday,” ABC News reports.
“But leading Democrats tell ABC News they don’t anticipate a traditional primary playing out between now and the nominating convention next year — with many aligned behind Biden’s expected campaign for a second term, which is thought to be launching in the coming months.”
“Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois has maintained his political organization, built a progressive record and is open about his ambitions,” the New York Times reports. “For now, he says, they don’t include the White House.”
Politico: “If any subject is verboten in the early stages of the Republican presidential primary, it’s the insurrection that once served as a defining point in 2024 frontrunner Donald Trump’s career. Whereas Republicans once talked openly about it being disqualifying for the former president, today it is little more than a litmus test in GOP circles of a candidate’s MAGA bona fides. None of them want any part of it.”
“Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dug in this weekend for what is expected to be a bitter and personal race between the two for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Trump revved up supporters Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington—an event Mr. DeSantis skipped—while the governor appeared before Republican groups in Texas and has a speech Sunday afternoon at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. The two will then descend on Iowa, which holds the first GOP nominating contest.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said that he expects fellow Republicans to choose someone other than Donald Trump as the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, the HuffPost reports.
Said Sununu: “Obviously he’s in the race. He’s not going to be the nominee. That’s just not going to happen.”
Politico: “Democrats refreshed the party’s stock of up-and-coming contenders for statewide office over the last two midterms. Now, they are managing traffic jams building in several states over a handful of plum — and rarely open — statewide offices.”
Seth Masket: “It’s always somewhat blurry just who is running for president, particularly at this early stage of the cycle. There are a few candidates who have explicitly announced they are running (Trump, Haley), a few whom are being treated as candidates even though they haven’t announced (DeSantis, Pence, Pompeo), and some who are clearly doing the things that presidential candidates do, but haven’t received much attention for it yet (Hutchinson, Scott).”
“I’ve put details of these in the spreadsheet. I’ve tried to keep these as simple as possible… By my count, we’ve had 15 candidates so far, and two of them (Ted Cruz last month and Larry Hogan today) have been winnowed out.”
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