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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announced yesterday that it raised $20 million in the second quarter, which is a pretty strong number. That said, a closer look at the Florida Republican’s haul pointed to some possible trouble areas.
* Sen. Jon Tester is going to be a top Republican target in 2024, but the Montana Democrat appears well positioned to compete financially: The incumbent raised $5 million in the second quarter, and as of the end of June, Tester had more than $10 million in his campaign account.
* If former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is going to qualify for next month’s Republican presidential debate, he’ll need at least 40,000 donors. As of last week, he had 5,000.
* Two years ago, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he was seeking statewide office in part to help protect the interests of children. It was against this backdrop that The Washington Post reported that the Virginia Republican’s administration “quietly took down LGBTQ+ youth resources from a state website after a conservative media outlet questioned the links, records show, building on a pattern of removals derided by public health employees who say their work is being politicized.”
* A group called the Win it Back PAC, which has ties to the far-right Club for Growth, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission this week, and as Politico reported, it intends to stop Donald Trump from winning the Republicans’ 2024 nomination.
* Last year in Illinois, Republican Darren Bailey, a former state senator, ran failed a failed gubernatorial campaign, losing by more than 12 points to incumbent Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Now, Bailey is trying again, kicking off a congressional primary campaign against Rep. Mike Bost.
* And a super PAC supporting Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s GOP presidential campaign did something new and unusual this week: The SOS America PAC launched an artificial intelligence chatbot to answer questions about him.