Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With Matt Gaetz having resigned from Congress, there will be a special election in the Republican’s Florida district on April 1, 2025. A variety of GOP candidates have already expressed an interest in running in the Jan. 28 primary, and given the district’s partisan leanings, the winner of that Republican primary will be overwhelmingly favored to win.
* In Mississippi, there will be a runoff state Supreme Court election this week.
* It took a little longer than expected, but Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s Republican rival on Friday called the incumbent congresswoman late last week to concede the race. Kaptur appears to have prevailed by less than 1% of the overall vote total.
* Speaking of the Buckeye State, Sen. Sherrod Brown lost his re-election bid this year by roughly four points — in a state that Donald Trump won by 11 points — but the Ohio Democrat has expressed an interest in another possible campaign, telling CNN that he hasn’t ruled out the state’s U.S. Senate race in 2026.
* The Democratic National Committee will need a new chair, and Martin O’Malley has already thrown his hat into the ring. The current commissioner of the Social Security Administration also served as governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore.
* On a related note, the day after O’Malley kicked off his DNC candidacy, Ken Martin, the Minnesota Democratic chairman, announced that he’s running for the position, too.
* In Georgia, term limits will prevent incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp from seeking a third term, though the state’s Republican attorney general, Chris Carr, kicked off his gubernatorial bid last week.
* How did ranked-choice voting in Alaska manage to withstand a repeal effort? Support from Native American voters appears to have been crucial.
