Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* At the 2004 Republican National Convention, some attendees put bandages on their faces as a way to mock then-Sen. John Kerry’s Purple Heart. Twenty years later, at the 2024 Republican National Convention, some attendees have put bandages on their ears as a sign of solidarity with Donald Trump.
* On the second night of the Republicans’ convention, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice declared, in apparent reference to his fellow partisans, “We become totally unhinged if Donald Trump is not elected in November.”
* Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. JD Vance reportedly spoke yesterday and agreed to debate. The details, however, are still being negotiated.
* While abortion rights proponents in Arkansas apparently collected enough signatures to force a vote on a constitutional amendment, Republican Secretary of State John Thurston concluded that there was a technical problem with organizers’ paperwork. Not surprisingly, this is now the subject of a new lawsuit.
* In related news, voters in Arizona are slated to vote in the fall on an abortion rights measure, but a Republican-dominated legislative panel wants to include language in a voter pamphlet that refers to a fetus as an “unborn human being.” This, too, is the subject of a new lawsuit.
* In New Jersey, Democratic primary voters this week chose LaMonica McIver, the Newark city council president, as their choice to replace the late U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr. The general election in this race is Sept. 18, and McIver will face Carmen Bucco, a small-business owner who ran unopposed in the Republican primary.
* Late last week, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced it’s rolling back some restrictions on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. The New York Times reported, “Under the restrictions on Mr. Trump’s accounts, he could have been suspended from Meta’s services — which also include Threads and WhatsApp — if he had posted content that sought to delegitimize this November’s election, among other things. But Meta said it was now relaxing those restrictions, reducing the potential for a suspension if Mr. Trump violated the company’s terms of service.”