Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In Wisconsin, the latest Quinnipiac University poll found President Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by six points, 50% to 44%, though the incumbent Democrat’s advantage slips to just one point when third-party candidates are added to the mix.
* The same Quinnipiac poll in Wisconsin found Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin with a double-digit lead over her Republican rival, Eric Hovde, 54% to 42%.
* Speaking of the Badger State, former House Speaker Paul Ryan confirmed this week that he will not vote for Trump in the fall. “Character is too important to me, and it’s a job that requires the kind of character he just doesn’t have,” the former congressman said.
* Ohio’s Republican-led legislature was expected to tweak the state’s deadlines to ensure that Biden would appear on Ohio’s general election ballot. But what was supposed to be a relatively straightforward process has grown quite messy, and as NBC News reported, it now appears litigation will be needed to resolve the matter.
* In Indiana’s 7th Congressional District, Jennifer Pace appears to be on track to win the Republican Party’s nomination, which is problematic because Pace died in March.
* Following some brutal media appearances, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem canceled some on-air interviews yesterday, blaming the weather.
* And Politico reported this week, “FreedomWorks, the once-swaggering conservative organization that helped turn tea party protesters into a national political force, is shutting down, according to its president.” The libertarian-minded Obama-era organization focused on government spending and combatting “big government,” neither of which are especially important to the Trumpified GOP.