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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* The latest national Fox News poll found President Joe Biden with a narrow lead over Donald Trump, 50% to 48%, among registered voters. This is the first time a Fox poll has found the Democratic incumbent ahead of his Republican challenger since last October, although the lead falls within the poll's margin of error.
* On a related note, Trump responded to the poll with an item on his social media platform that read in part, “FoxNews Polls are always the worst for me.” Fox News’ primetime hosts, meanwhile, largely ignored the survey’s findings.
* Don Tracy, the embattled chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, resigned this week. A Chicago Tribune report noted that his departure furthers “a chaotic period of leadership for a political organization bordering on irrelevancy” shortly before the party’s national convention.
* For the first time this year, the National Republican Congressional Committee outraised its Democratic counterparts in May, $12.6 million to $11.9 million. The NRCC’s efforts were bolstered by the party’s base responding to Trump’s recent criminal conviction.
* Speaking of fundraising, The New York Times reported that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign raised just $2.6 million last month, “a paltry sum that speaks to how reliant his bid has become on his running mate, the wealthy Silicon Valley lawyer Nicole Shanahan.”
* Speaking of Kennedy, CNN confirmed this morning that the independent conspiracy theorist failed to qualify for the first 2024 presidential debate, which the network will host a week from today.
* And those waiting to learn the outcome of Rep. Bob Good’s primary fight will apparently have to be patient. Voters weighed in on Tuesday, but a Washington Post report explained, “Starting with a tally of provisional ballots and Election Day-postmarked mail-ins that straggle in by Friday, the effort is likely to expand to a full recount that could take weeks.”