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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* After several weeks of partisan drama inside the Pennsylvania state House, a trio of Democratic candidates won legislative special elections yesterday, giving the party a new, more stable majority in the chamber.
* On a related note, it’s worth emphasizing for context that these three Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania didn’t just win state House special elections, they did so amidst unusually high turnout.
* On the heels of his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden will travel today to Wisconsin, a highly competitive battleground state he narrowly carried in 2020, touting his message on the economy. The Democrat will be in Florida tomorrow.
* Speaking of the Sunshine State, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, ahead of a likely 2024 campaign, held an event yesterday in support of changing libel laws to make it easier to attack the news industry.
* In response to reporting that some unnamed “business leaders” are encouraging Sen. Joe Manchin to run for president, the conservative West Virginia Democrat gave an evasive answer yesterday when asked about a possible national candidacy.
* In New York, former Rep. Lee Zeldin ran a competitive-but-unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign last year, and the Republican appears interested in trying to parlay that experience into a possible 2024 campaign against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Note, New Yorkers haven’t elected a Republican to the Senate in 31 years.