Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Politico reported this week that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called a senior official with President Biden’s campaign on Friday night, and conveyed a clear message: The Democratic governor “hated the way her name was being floated as a replacement for Biden and she wasn’t behind the chatter.”
* Speaking of Whitmer, there were reports that the governor told Team Biden that the incumbent president probably won’t win Michigan in the fall, but she pushed back against such talk yesterday. “I am proud to support Joe Biden as our nominee and I am behind him 100 percent in the fight to defeat Donald Trump,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Not only do I believe Joe can win Michigan, I know he can because he’s got the receipts: he’s lowered health care costs, brought back manufacturing jobs, and is committed to restoring the reproductive freedom women lost under Donald Trump.”
* And speaking of Michigan, the latest EPIC-MRA poll found Donald Trump leading Biden by four points in the Wolverine State — three points with third-party candidates in the mix — in a survey that was conducted before last week’s presidential debate.
* It was of interest to see reports that Biden has used teleprompters during some recent fundraising events. That’s not common among presidents and/or presidential candidates.
* The incumbent president’s political operation announced that it raised $264 million in the second quarter of 2024 — including $127 million in June, which proved to be the Democratic campaign’s best month of the cycle.
* A group of prominent conservative Trump critics agreed to meet with senior Biden campaign officials yesterday. Participants in the event — which was scheduled before last week’s debate — have been tight-lipped about how the discussion went.
* And in Georgia, which Biden narrowly carried in 2020, the latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed Trump ahead, 43% to 38%. The survey was also conducted before the debate.
