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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Despite recent polling showing him with weak support among Republicans, former Vice President Mike Pence will reportedly launch his 2024 candidacy on June 7 with a campaign video and a kickoff speech in Des Moines, Iowa.
* An NBC News analysis took a closer look at the Republican Party’s voter-contact operation from the 2022 election cycle and found a striking failure. Among the principal problems: Canvassers who were paid to knock on voters’ doors simply didn’t follow through.
* Undeterred by a series of embarrassing failures, Kari Lake is apparently filing another legal challenge, contesting her unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in Arizona last year. The Republican conspiracy theorist now claims to have new evidence, which seems very difficult to believe.
* As his Republican U.S. Senate campaign in West Virginia moves forward, Gov. Jim Justice has a new headache to deal with: HuffPost reported yesterday that the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the governor’s coal empire, pointing to “over $5 million in unpaid fines related to health, safety and environmental violations.”
* FiveThirtyEight has launched a new resource on the GOP’s 2024 presidential candidates and their endorsements. Not surprisingly, Donald Trump is leading the field, at least for now.
* How upset is the far-right about the bipartisan budget deal that resolved the Republicans’ debt ceiling crisis? Steve Bannon is now calling for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to face a GOP primary challenge because the right-wing Georgian voted for the bill.
* And as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign moves forward, there’s still some question as to how to properly pronounce his last name. Axios reported that the candidate and his team, just over the last week, have used competing pronunciations, and when DeSantis’ campaign manager was asked which is the correct one, he declined to answer.