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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* While most prominent Republican voices shrugged off the outcome of E. Jean Carroll’s case against Donald Trump, former Ambassador Nikki Haley appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and told host Kristen Welker, “I absolutely trust the jury. ... I think that they made their decision based on the evidence.”
* Arizona Republicans elected a new state party chair over the weekend: Gina Swoboda, who oversaw “integrity operations” for Donald Trump’s campaign in 2020, and who runs an organization called the Voter Reference Foundation, which has been accused of peddling false claims about 2020 election results.
* On a related note, it’s worth emphasizing that the former president endorsed Swoboda ahead of the state GOP vote.
* In Michigan, a group of Muslim leaders were supposed to meet with Julie Chavez Rodriguez, President Joe Biden’s campaign manager, on Friday, but they canceled after hearing from local allies who oppose the White House’s support for Israel.
* NBC News reported that House Democrats have chosen their first 17 candidates in competitive congressional districts, as part of the party’s “red-to-blue” program for the 2024 cycle. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s list is likely to give these candidates a fundraising boost.
* The list of retiring congressional incumbents continues to grow: Democratic Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland announced late last week that he won’t seek a 12th term.
* And Sen. Bob Menendez spoke to The Washington Post last week about his current challenges but insisted that his word is “as good as gold.” Given the fact that the criminal indictment against the New Jersey Democrat accused him of, among other things, accepting gold bars as bribes, he might want to consider alternative idiomatic expressions.