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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Donald Trump’s political committee is investing $500,000 in new advertising that attacks the Jan. 6 committee as “a disgrace.” The ads will reportedly run through the weekend.
* In Pennsylvania’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has launched a new ad slamming Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who recently suffered a stroke, over questions about his health transparency.
* On a related note, the recount process in Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary is over, and the revised count was nearly identical to the initial tallies. As The Philadelphia Inquirer noted, “[T]he fact that the numbers barely shifted — in counties big and small, Democratic and Republican — should build public trust.”
* Alaska’s congressional primary to replace the late Rep. Don Young is tomorrow, and there are 48 candidates — including former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin — competing. As the Anchorage Daily News explained, it’s “the first all-mail election in the state,” and “the first under Alaska’s new election laws that put all candidates on a single primary ballot regardless of party affiliation.”
* In Colorado’s Republican U.S. Senate primary, Democrats are running ads touting state Rep. Ron Hanks’ conservative credentials, hoping to give him a boost because they see him as unelectable in a general election. (This is a tactic I call “pulling a McCaskill.”)
* In Mississippi, two Republican U.S. House incumbents — Michael Guest and Steven Palazzo — were both pushed into runoff elections this week. The latter has struggled in the face of ethics allegations, while the former faced GOP pushback for supporting a bipartisan plan to create a Jan. 6 commission. The runoff elections for both will be held on June 28.
* And in Kansas, state Sen. Dennis Pyle, announced this week that he’ll run a far-right gubernatorial campaign this year as an independent. This will likely help incumbent Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who’s set to face Republican state Attorney General Derek Schmidt in the fall.