 Campaign Report |
Campaign Report |
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Dems vie for Santos's seat on snowy Election Day |
New York voters are heading to the polls to decide who will fill former Rep. George Santos's seat, as the GOP seeks to protect its slim House majority. |
New York's special election to replace ousted GOP Rep. George Santos, who was caught in a bevy of lies and accused of flouting ethics and campaign finance laws, is underway. It's an expensive race to fill the Long Island-centered seat that could have a major impact on the GOP's razor-thin hold of the House majority. Add to that: New York is being hit by a Nor'easter snowstorm that threatens to keep voters from heading to cast their ballots. Polls in the race have shown former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D) with a slim lead over Republican Mazi Pilip, a Nassau County lawmaker. Souzzi was in the House from 2017 to 2023, before his district was redrawn. He had previously defeated Santos in 2020, then faced a new Republican challenger in 2022. Pilip, who is Jewish and was born in Ethiopia, lived in Israel and served in the Israeli Defense Forces. Santos, 35, was ejected from the House in a historic bipartisan vote after an Ethics Committee investigation claimed he had misused campaign funds and charged donors' credit cards without authorization. He's reportedly been involved in plea negotiations on federal fraud charges. He said he doesn't plan to vote in Tuesday's race to replace him, and he has hinted that he's not done with politics. Despite the spending, the winner will get less than a year in office before heading into a potential reelection, as the seat's back up for grabs in November. |
Welcome to The Hill's Campaign Report. I'm Liz Crisp, Happy Mardi Gras! Each week we track the key stories you need to know to stay ahead of the 2024 election and who will set the agenda in Washington. |
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Key election stories and other recent campaign coverage: |
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GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Tuesday ripped former President Trump’s endorsement of his preferred candidates to take over Republican National Committee (RNC) leadership. Trump on Monday backed Michael Whatley, the head of the North Carolina GOP, to replace Ronna McDaniel, who is expected to step down as RNC chair after South Carolina's GOP primary later this month. He also threw his support behind his daughter-in-law, … |
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Former President Trump will sit for a town hall event hosted by Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham next week. The event, which will be pre-taped and span one hour, will air at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 20 from Spartanburg, S.C. The network said the forum will focus on “the domestic and foreign policy challenges facing America and solutions for addressing them.” It will also, Fox said, “explore the potential that … |
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Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is urging President Biden to "reverse course" on his campaign joining video-streaming platform TikTok. "If we continue to go down this road, we are going to effectively cede control of our news media to a hostile foreign country," Gallagher said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. "That’s unacceptable. I urge … |
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Upcoming news themes and events we're watching: |
- 11 days until the South Carolina Republican primary
- 21 days until Super Tuesday
- 265 days until the general election
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Haley, Trump butt heads on RNC future: 'Blow it all up' |
Nikki Haley, who is running a long-shot bid for the GOP presidential nomination, is calling for a total shake-up at the Republican National Committee – everyone fired and a new team leading the way. As her campaign manager Betsy Ankney put it in a statement, Haley wants to "blow it all up." The news comes as former President Trump, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, has outlined his plan for leadership at the RNC, following speculation builds around Ronna McDaniel stepping down. "Trump just announced he is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," Ankney said in the statement. Ankney outlined Haley's plan: "Everyone at the RNC will be fired, there will be a full and complete audit of the gross misuse of funds, and there will be a formal application process to become RNC chair based on MERIT, not on back scratching. "The days of overpaid consultants getting rich off of the RNC while losing elections will be over, and Republicans will finally get back to WINNING," she added (emphasis the campaign's). Trump has endorsed his friend, North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Watley, to lead the national party, along with Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump as co-chair. He also named Chris LaCivita, a pro-Trump political strategist, as his pick for chief operating officer. "This group of three is highly talented, battle-tested, and smart," Trump said in the statement. "They have my complete and total endorsement to lead the Republican National Committee." |
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Branch out with a different read from The Hill: |
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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I) is staring down a tight deadline to make a decision on whether or not to run for reelection in Arizona, joining an already heated race that includes Republican Kari Lake and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego. Sinema has kept mum about her reelection plans since the Democrat-turned-independent changed parties in 2022. Earlier this month, she told CBS's "Face the Nation" that she was committed to staying … |
The Biden-Harris campaign is launching a series of radio, print and digital ads targeting Black voters in battleground states. The ads, according to the reelection campaign, will highlight promises President Biden kept to Black Americans over the last four years. Two radio ads — "Reflect," which runs for 30 seconds, and "Remarkable," which is a minute long — will run Feb. 14-26 in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, … |
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Local and state headlines regarding campaigns and elections: |
- Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee swore off corporate PAC money. What does that mean? (CalMatters)
- Watch a Feb. 27 symposium on the state of democracy in Texas (Texas Tribune)
- Former Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler wants to use Marsy's Law. Police say he's not a victim. (Tampa Bay Times)
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Election news we've flagged from other outlets: |
- Scoop: Inside the GOP plan to keep Biden's age in the spotlight (Axios)
- Get Used to It: Biden Isn't Going Anywhere (Politico Magazine)
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Key stories on The Hill right now: |
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave Special Counsel Jack Smith one week to respond to former President Trump's request to keep his federal Jan. 6 trial on hold as he appeals his immunity claims. In a brief order, the high court ordered Smith to respond by Tuesday, Feb. 20, not a particularly speedy schedule. Trump filed an emergency motion … Read more |
| Former President Trump isn't the only public official whose disqualification under the 14th Amendment's insurrection ban has landed at the Supreme Court. Just days after the justices heard oral arguments in Trump's historic case Thursday, they are scheduled this week to consider taking up another official's disqualification: a New … Read more |
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Opinions related to campaigns and elections submitted to The Hill: |
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You're all caught up. See you next time! |
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