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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In response to a newly gerrymandered district map in North Carolina, Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel announced that he won’t run for re-election next year, though he is eyeing a 2026 race against incumbent Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
* Speaking of congressional retirements, Republican Rep. Drew Ferguson, who received death threats after opposing Republican Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid for House speaker, also announced that he won’t run again in his Georgia district.
* In the race to replace former Rep. George Santos in New York, local Republican officials have selected Nassau County legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip as the GOP nominee, despite the fact that she’s apparently a registered Democrat. Pilip is set to face former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in a Feb. 13 special election.
* With the New Hampshire primary less than six weeks away, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has launched his first television ad of the campaign cycle, which will run in the Granite State. It positions Christie as the only Republican “trying to beat Trump.”
* An effort underway in Florida to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution reportedly has the signatures necessary to get the question onto the statewide ballot next fall.
* A national Pew Research Center poll found Donald Trump continuing to dominate in the race for the GOP’s presidential nomination with 52% support. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was second in the survey with 14%, followed by former Ambassador Nikki Haley with 11%. No other candidate was above 3%.
* An appeals court in Michigan this week rejected an effort to remove Trump from the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot. The underlying challenge, which also failed at the lower court, argued that the former president was ineligible under the insurrection clause in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.