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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In case Democratic voters weren’t already feeling anxious, new Fox News polling found Donald Trump leading President Joe Biden in Pennsylvania by two points, and in Arizona by four points. The Democratic incumbent narrowly carried both states four years ago.
* The Washington Post reported on the creation of the Clear Choice super PAC, which was launched by Biden’s allies to undermine third-party candidates who would likely boost Trump’s election prospects.
* In related news, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) said this week that it’s prepared to spend $200 million to mobilize working-class voters in support of Biden and the Democratic ticket.
* Republicans for Ukraine is launching a new ad this week in the hopes of convincing congressional Republicans to support an aid package for Ukraine.
* Up until this week, former Republican Rep. Mark Walker was seeking a comeback bid in North Carolina. Now, he’s dropping out of the race and joining Donald Trump’s campaign team.
* In his latest interview with Newsmax, Trump claimed that even Democrats want to be his running mate. “There’s is not a person in politics that doesn’t want it, and that includes Democrats,” he claimed, apparently assuming his audience would buy anything. “If I wanted, I’d have a Democrat; I’d have a liberal; I’d have ... anybody I want.”
* The New York Times reported that the new team at the Republican National Committee is “shuttering all of the community centers it established for minority outreach nationwide and laying off their staffs.”
* In Ohio’s Republican U.S. Senate primary, Democrats are intervening — a move I like to call “pulling a McCaskill” — in the hopes of boosting businessman Bernie Moreno, whom Democrats see as easier to defeat in the fall.
* And as the No Labels operation moves forward with plans to run a presidential ticket, former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has become the latest prominent figure to resign from the organization. The Republican was the group’s national co-chair.