Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Donald Trump will make history today, becoming the first former American president to check in with a probation officer.
* At a campaign rally in Nevada yesterday, where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the former president told local followers, “Do you feel the breeze? I don’t want anybody going on me. We need every voter. I don’t care about you. I just want your vote. I don’t care.” I think he was kidding, though it was an exceedingly odd thing for him to say. (The Biden campaign is already having some fun with this.)
* There are a variety of interesting races on tap for tomorrow, including a primary campaign for Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who just learned she’s the subject of a new ethics investigation.
* The latest CBS News/YouGov poll found Trump with a narrow national lead over President Joe Biden, 50% to 49%. As recently as March, this same poll showed the former president ahead by four.
* In state polling, Fox News surveys found Trump head of Biden by five points in Arizona, four points in Florida and five points in Nevada. Perhaps most notably, Fox News also polled Virginia — a state Democrats have carried in each of the last four presidential election cycles — and found the two candidates tied, thanks in large part to significant gains for Trump among Black voters in the commonwealth.
* To the great relief of the Republican establishment, Trump has endorsed Sam Brown’s U.S. Senate candidacy.
* Cornel West’s presidential campaign is struggling in practically every way, but a group of operatives with GOP ties are working on trying to get the far-left candidate onto the ballot in North Carolina, which is expected to be one of the South’s most competitive states in the fall.
* And in Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, Republican candidate Chuck Hand walked out of a televised debate over the weekend ahead of next week’s primary runoff. Hand is one of the candidates running for Congress this year after having been convicted of Jan. 6 crimes.