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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In the final NBC News poll of the election cycle, Democrats narrowly lead Republicans among likely voters, 48% to 47%. Last month, it was the GOP ahead by an identical margin.
* In the final Washington Post-ABC News poll of the cycle, however, it was Republicans narrowly ahead among likely voters, 50% to 48%.
* After Oprah Winfrey endorsed John Fetterman over Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, the top Democratic Senate super PAC quickly put together an ad. “She knows Oz better than anyone,” a narrator says in the commercial, referring to the GOP nominee. “But Oprah wouldn’t vote for him.”
* Early voting in this year’s elections has reportedly already topped the total from the 2018 midterms.
* In Michigan’s gubernatorial race, the final Detroit Free Press poll found incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with a fairly comfortable lead over Republican commentator Tudor Dixon, 54% to 43%.
* In Nevada, incumbent Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is reminding voters that 14 members of Republican Adam Laxalt’s family have endorsed her over their own relative. Late night host Jimmy Kimmel released a video last week emphasizing the same point, referring to the far-right nominee as the “creepy cousin” who “no one wants to sit with at Thanksgiving.”
* While some recent polling suggested Iowa’s U.S. Senate race might be competitive, the final Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll found incumbent Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley ahead of Democrat Mike Franken, 53% to 41%.
* Arizona is home to some of this year’s most important races, but Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema — who isn’t up for re-election until 2024 — reportedly hasn’t campaigned with her party’s nominees, and according to a Daily Best report, she hasn’t donated to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign or Adrian Fontes’ secretary of state race.
* And as a prominent Russian entrepreneur linked to the Kremlin admits to interfering in U.S. elections, The New York Times reports that Russia is once again trying to “stoke anger among conservative voters and to undermine trust in the American electoral system.” The efforts appear to be intended, at least in part, “to undermine the Biden administration’s extensive military assistance to Ukraine.”