Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* With 15 weeks remaining in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, the latest poll from the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University found former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger with a double-digit lead over Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, 49% to 37%.
* On a related note, Earle-Sears’ campaign manager, Will Archer, was a pastor who’d never managed a campaign or participated in politics. Last week, the struggling GOP candidate asked him to step aside.
* In Arizona, where local Democratic politics has been deeply divided in recent months, party officials ousted Robert Branscomb last week after a tumultuous six-month tenure as the state party chair.
* Despite the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill’s broad unpopularity, a Republican group called One Nation, the nonprofit arm of the super PAC aligned with the Senate GOP leadership, has launched a new attack ad, criticizing Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia for having voted against the far-right package.
* In Texas, Rep. Wesley Hunt has yet to launch a Republican Senate campaign, but the congressman has started running ads far from his Houston-area district, as part of an apparent effort to introduce himself to statewide primary voters. The GOP primary race already features incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
* Amid scuttlebutt that Sen. Joni Ernst is planning to forgo a re-election bid next year, Politico reports that White House officials are leaning on the Iowa Republican to seek a third term.
* And in Tennessee, Republican Mark Green officially vacated his U.S. House seat over the weekend, leaving a chamber that now has 219 Republicans and 212 Democrats. Other than Green’s seat, there are three other vacancies, all resulting from House Democratic members who’ve died in recent months: Virginia’s Gerry Connolly, Arizona’s Raúl Grijalva and Texas’ Sylvester Turner.
