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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* The U.S. Senate race in Nevada may very well determine which party is in the majority next year, and an NBC News report noted that Democrats are facing a possible nightmare scenario: “At the doors, on the phones and on the streets, Latinos are threatening to stay home. And that is despite the presence of the first-ever Latina elected to the U.S. Senate, Catherine Cortez Masto, at the top of the ballot.”
* On a related note, the latest Nevada Independent/OH Predictive Insights poll found Republican Adam Laxalt inching past Cortez Masto, 45% to 43%. The same survey also showed Republican Joe Lombardo leading the incumbent Democratic governor, Steve Sisolak, 45% to 42%.
* A new Siena poll in Florida offered more good news for Republicans: Gov. Ron DeSantis leads Democrat Charlie Crist in the survey, 49% to 41%, while Sen. Marco Rubio leads Democratic Rep. Val Demings by a similar margin, 48% to 41%.
* While North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race isn’t generally seen as a key opportunity for Democrats, the two latest polls in the state show Republican Rep. Ted Budd tied with former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley.
* The editorial board of The Detroit Free Press not only endorsed the slate of Democratic candidates seeking statewide office this year, the newspaper’s editors also said that democracy itself “is in a fight for its life.”
* In Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes raised an interesting observation Friday night: Fox News has been “monomaniacally obsessed” with trying to defeat Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s candidacy.
* Following up on an item from last week, it appears the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party — whose family members don’t vote because they consider voter ID cards to be the mark of the beast foretold in the Book of Revelation — has cast ballots thanks to an ID card he made himself, which has no official validity.
* In case congressional hopeful Joe Kent’s ties to right-wing extremists weren’t obvious enough, CNN reported that the Washington state Republican gave an interview in June to a Nazi sympathizer and white nationalist.
* And in Florida, Democrat Ted Deutch officially resigned Friday to become the new head of the American Jewish Committee. As things now stand, the U.S. House has 220 Democrats, 212 Republicans and three vacancies.