A trio of 2023 governor’s races

David Mark

December 29, 11:30 PM December 29, 11:31 PM

Voters ready for a respite after the rough-and-tumble 2022 midterm elections aren’t going to have much of a break — at least, if they live in Kentucky, Louisiana, or Mississippi, which have gubernatorial elections coming up in November 2023.

The Kentucky and Mississippi contests will test the popularity of Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) and Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS). The open-seat Louisiana contest will show whether term-limited Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards's two wins in the deeply red state were a political fluke or if gubernatorial contests can be truly competitive over the long term.

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More broadly, the trio of 2023 governor’s races will offer a glimpse into the political mood heading into the 2024 presidential race. With President Joe Biden expected to seek a second White House term and former President Donald Trump the only declared Republican candidate to date, the gubernatorial outcomes will offer a fresh dataset, if a limited one, about which party may have the upper hand.

The campaigns come a year after the Democrats fared much better than expected in the 2022 midterm elections, including governor race pickups. After all incoming governors are inaugurated, Republicans will hold a 26-24 edge over Democrats in state chief executives. That’s down two governors from the current 28-22 split that favors Republicans.

Kentucky

The Bluegrass State’s Jan. 6 filing deadline to run for governor is fast approaching ahead of the May 16 primary for the right to face Beshear.

Republican candidates have already crowded the field, such as Trump-endorsed state Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R-KY) and Kelly Craft, a GOP donor and former U.N. ambassador during the Trump administration. The GOP field also includes state Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles and Kentucky state Auditor Mike Harmon. Somerset Mayor Alan Keck, who leads a community of 12,000 people in heavily conservative southern Kentucky, is also running, and more Republican candidates could jump in at the last minute.

Beshear is a ripe Republican target in a deeply red state, where Trump crushed Biden 62% to 36% in 2020. But the incumbent Democrat may not be so easy to beat. He is one of America's most popular governors, per an October 2022 Morning Consult survey. He also has millions of dollars in the bank, along with strong name recognition as the current governor and son of Gov. Steve Beshear (D-KY), who held the office from 2007 to 2015. Then-Attorney General Andy Beshear succeeded his father as Kentucky governor by beating Gov. Matt Bevin (R-KY) in the 2019 governor’s race.

Throughout his term, Beshear has had a limited national profile, focusing on Kentucky issues. Beshear mostly makes national news after a tornado or flood has hit his home state and he appeals for federal assistance. Beshear also has tried to build up bipartisan legislative credentials. The Democratic governor and Republican-dominated legislature, for instance, in April 2021 hammered out a compromise election reform law. They found common ground on an issue that has become so contentious and partisan in other states.

The law, enacted in April 2021, provides for three days of no-excuse, early in-person voting, including a Saturday, before Election Day. It also allows counties to establish voting centers where any registered voter in each county can cast their ballot, regardless of their precinct. The law also includes several features aimed at strengthening election security protections.

Louisiana

Edwards has confounded Louisiana Republicans, foiling their plans to win the governorship in 2015 and 2019. But the centrist Democratic governor, a West Point graduate who served in the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division and later became an attorney and state lawmaker, must leave office when his two terms as Louisiana's chief executive are up.

And it may be hard for Democrats to match the crossover appeal of Edwards. A few Democratic state lawmakers are eyeing the race, along with state Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson.

But the real action is on the Republican side, especially in a state where in 2020 Trump easily beat Biden, 58% to 40%. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R-LA) was the first to jump into the race on Oct. 5. Landry was a one-term House member, elected in the 2010 Republican wave. But redistricting in the following election cycle left him out in the political cold, and in 2015, he successfully ran for state attorney general.

Landry has the backing of many state establishment Republican figures. Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser (R-LA) said he’ll announce his decision in early January. But the Republican field could also be upended by the gubernatorial candidacy of Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who has said he’s seriously considering a bid. In 2020, Kennedy won a second, six-year Senate term. It's not hard to see potential Republican gubernatorial rivals trying to put Kennedy on the defensive for trying to already leave a job voters effectively just gave him an extended contract on.

The filing deadline is Aug. 10 for Louisiana’s all-party “jungle” primary, scheduled for Oct. 14. Assuming no gubernatorial candidate breaks 50% of the vote, the general election will be held on Nov. 18.

Mississippi

Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS), who won the office in 2019, hasn’t announced if he’s running for reelection yet. That has largely stalled the potential candidate pool in this strongly Republican state. Candidates can’t qualify for state offices until Jan. 3. The filing deadline is Feb. 1, and the primary is set for Aug. 8.

Democratic Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley’s name has been floated as a potential candidate. Presley in August attracted attention with a six-figure fundraiser held in Tupelo, Mississippi, at the birthplace and museum of Brandon Presley’s famous cousin Elvis. A family connection to the late rock star could help the Democratic officeholder if he seeks a promotion to governor.

And there has been some action on the GOP side. Secretary of State Michael Watson (R-MS) is reportedly considering a run. Several other statewide elected officials also have been mentioned as potential primary challengers to Reeves.

Reeves's popularity started to tumble early in the coronavirus pandemic, just months after winning the governorship in November 2019. Reeves was the sole elected official who could issue statewide safety orders such as mask mandates and crowd size limits and, at times, seemed to hem-and-haw about which direction to go. Reeves drew criticism from all quarters, including from those who wanted stringent public health regulations and others who believed the government should have been hands-off.

A Morning Consult poll released in October, conducted over a three-month period this summer, tagged Reeves as the nation's fifth-most unpopular governor. The Mississippi Republican received 48% approval and 42% disapproval.

The countrywide survey found that many governors had positive approval ratings, but Reeves was one of just eight leaders with a rating that was lower than 50%.

A way too early look at the 2024 presidential contenders

Ryan King

December 27, 07:09 AM December 27, 07:09 AM

Now that the midterm elections have wrapped up, a political cold war is brewing for the next major electoral tussle on the horizon: the 2024 presidential race.

Former President Donald Trump preempted his rivals by becoming the first heavyweight contender to enter the race in November, although his campaign has been largely idle in the public eye since its debut. However, Trump’s early strike has expedited the timeline for others considering jumping into the fray.

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“The fact that President Trump has already announced accelerates everyone’s time frame. So the first quarter of next year, you either need to be in or out,” said Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AK), who is mulling a presidential bid.

Here is an early rundown of speculated 2024 hopefuls.

Republicans

Donald Trump

Already in the race, Trump has seemingly weathered a steady stream of mishaps and political fumbles since his campaign announcement. Starting with the lackluster GOP midterm outing that failed to manifest tailwinds he expected to have during his launch, Trump quickly ran into hot water shortly after by having dinner with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and Nick Fuentes, both of whom have promoted antisemitism.

From there, he raised eyebrows by floating the idea of “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” to overturn his 2020 defeat and then baffled even some of his most fervent supporters by rolling out non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Those snags coupled with rising legal troubles have seemingly emboldened Republicans eyeing a challenge against him despite his robust support in polling.

Ron DeSantis

Widely polled as the top possible challenger to Trump, DeSantis has been coy in public about his plans for 2024. Trump has already directed political fire his way, but the Florida governor has largely held back from responding, with DeSantis’s advisers reportedly believing it best to wait until he reaches a decision on running in the spring before sparring with Trump.

Mike Pence

Since departing the White House, Pence has made trips to critical battleground states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. Despite being Trump’s wingman for four years, he has contended that “we’ll have better choices” than his old boss and explained that he’s giving a 2024 stint “prayerful consideration.”

Mike Pompeo

Pompeo has begun taking veiled jabs at Trump, venting that he was "tired of losing" and has said his 2024 decision will come in the spring. He has run book advertisements in key states such as South Carolina, Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire.

Chris Christie

Nearly a decade ago, Christie was a rising GOP star, but he skipped out on the 2012 election before running unsuccessfully in 2016. He has kept the door open to 2024.

Tim Scott

Scott sailed to a massive reelection victory in the midterm elections and has dropped serious hints about a 2024 run, saying he wished his grandfather “lived long enough to see perhaps another man of color elected president of the United States, but this time let it be a Republican.”

Nikki Haley

Throughout the midterm elections, Haley stumped for candidates in critical races, such as Herschel Walker in Georgia. As a former governor and United Nations ambassador, she has executive and foreign policy experience on her resume. She says she is now looking at 2024 in a “serious way” and has teased that she has "never lost an election, and I’m not gonna start now.”

Asa Hutchinson

Often blunt with his assessments of Trump, Hutchinson has actively courted speculation of a 2024 run and revealed that he plans to make a decision in the first quarter of 2023. Hutchinson has blasted a Trump 2024 ticket as the "worst case" scenario for Republicans in the next election.

Glenn Youngkin

Republicans’ ill-fated hopes of a red wave in 2022 were partly fueled by Youngkin’s stunning off-year victory in Virginia, which has leaned Democratic in recent years. Youngkin crisscrossed the country in 2022, going to bat for GOP candidates while making inroads in critical primary states.

Other notable mentions

Many other names have been floated as Republican contenders, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rick Scott (R-FL), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Josh Hawley (R-MO), as well as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, and outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY).

Additionally, some who have enjoyed 2024 rumblings such as Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Mitt Romney (R-UT) have seemingly bowed out.

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Democrats

Joe Biden

Top-tier Democrats are seemingly in stasis circa 2024, awaiting Biden’s decision to run for a second term. The president has given a lukewarm commitment, declaring his “intention” to run while stopping short of going all in just yet.

Recently, he backed a move to elevate South Carolina, which served as his 2020 lifeline, to the No. 1 primary state, making the landscape favorable to him. He would be 82 years old during a second inauguration and 86 at the end of a second term. Some Democratic heavyweights have pinned their prospective bids on whether or not Biden runs in 2024.

Bernie Sanders

Having finished in second place during the past two Democratic primaries, Sanders will likely take a “hard look” at running if Biden doesn’t go for it, according to an adviser. Sanders has long been a favorite among progressives and has amplified socialism.

Kamala Harris

The first female vice president in U.S. history, Harris spent about 85 minutes serving as acting president while Biden underwent a colonoscopy last year. But she faces a significant hurdle to overcome if she were to vie for the real thing: She’s more unpopular than Biden in many polls. A recent CNN poll found that she had a 32% favorable rating compared to Biden's 42%.

Pete Buttigieg

With sharp oratory skills, Buttigieg emerged from obscurity as a breakout star in the 2020 election cycle. Serving as the transportation secretary, Buttigieg has been tight-lipped about any future presidential aspirations, but that has not stopped speculation from swirling.

Gavin Newsom

Since fending off a recall effort, Newsom has drawn applause from progressives for a raft of actions on hot-button issues such as gun control, climate change, healthcare, abortion, and more. However, the California governor has been adamant that he’s “all in” on Biden in 2024.

Other notable mentions

Additional names from Democrats thrown around include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

Judge rules Los Angeles must turn over voter records to DA recall committee

Tori Richards

December 07, 07:19 AM December 07, 07:19 AM

Los Angeles County’s top elections official was ordered by a judge to turn over additional voter information to a committee seeking to overturn the failed recall of District Attorney George Gascon.

The committee claims Registrar Dean Logan improperly dismissed thousands of voter signatures seeking to place an election on the ballot to remove Gascon from office for malfeasance. The initiative failed by 46,807 signatures on Aug. 15 but undaunted committee volunteers have been combing through petitions looking for errors, a process that has been thwarted by Logan, a lawsuit claims.

“I’m ordering the parties to meet and confer, that the counting would be done by March 31,” said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant.

He criticized a process put in place by Logan that would drag out the review process of all disqualified petitions by nearly two years – a point when Gascon would be up for reelection.

“I’m not going to take 18 months to do this — you’ve got 400 [temporary] workers. Bring them back,” Chalfant said to county attorneys.

The failed recall challenge is the largest inspection in county history, with organizers seeking to inspect the voter profile for every one of the 195,783 invalid signatures.

The lawsuit says they are stymied by Logan’s refusal to give them records to determine whether signatures, addresses or registration were actually invalid or errors on the part of county workers.

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Committee attorney Marian Thompson said she was reviewing petitions where notations of “VS,” for valid signature, had been erased from the documents. She had no way of knowing if the petition counted because the county has refused to give her a list of the valid signatures.

The county also limited computer access to previous signatures on file for comparison to 9,490 mismatched signatures and limited inspection hours along with the number of volunteers allowed on site.

County lawyers said the voter database has privacy issues and volunteers needed to be supervised but ongoing elections made this difficult because of staffing issues.

This mandate was dismantled by Chalfant, who ordered electronic access to speed up the process.

“Why can’t [an employee] sit at a computer and have all the signatures, the committee makes notes and says, ‘Next!’” Chalfant said. “Does it matter if access to private information is on the page if the registrar employee is the one doing the button punching?”

County attorney Deborah Caplan said Logan has the right to make decisions on operating his office, especially in light of other elections looming in January and March that need resources.

“He should have the flexibility for requirements to his own [office] space,” Caplan said, adding, “It’s hard to fill positions.”

The judge responded by saying the recall committee is “first in line” to resources and ordered the two sides to report back in January on their progress.

Caplan declined to comment on Chalfant’s orders. However, Thompson said she was very pleased.

“It will allow us to expedite the review and complete it by March,” she said.

Gascon has been in office just two years, but he has already rankled law enforcement, victims’ rights groups and his own prosecutors by a series of mandates softening penalties for criminals, including violent offenders.

The most high profile example was ordering staff to abandon the state’s "three strikes" law that placed lengthy prison terms on felons who had a history of violent crimes. Prosecutors in his office sued and a judge ruled that Gascon was violating state law with such a practice.

A large bipartisan group formed to unseat Gascon and submitted 715,833 signatures to place his recall on the ballot – 148,976 more than needed.

When the recall failed the group, led by former District Attorney Steve Cooley, vowed to investigate what went wrong believing that enough valid signatures had been collected.

Look at: Washington Examiner's Sarah Westwood claims voters may perhaps forgive Trump-critical Republicans

Jenny Goldsberry

June 15, 06:21 PM June 15, 06:21 PM

The Washington Examiner's Sarah Westwood commented on the latest triumphs of Republican candidates, these as Rep. Nancy Mace (SC), who fended off major challenges inspite of not wielding former President Donald Trump's endorsement.

Westwood appeared on WHD News's Your World with Neil Cavuto on Wednesday to issue out the techniques from the "Glenn Youngkin playbook" utilized by Mace, Gov. Brian Kemp (GA), and Ga Secretary of Condition Brad Raffensperger. Youngkin himself was endorsed by Trump even with by no means supporting claims that the 2020 election could have been stolen.

"Voters are showing a willingness to forgive Republicans that have been essential of Trump in the aftermath of 2020 but who minimal their criticism to what took place on Jan. 6 and what took place with the election but who are still complimentary of Trump as a man or woman, of his agenda, and of the motion still," Westwood discussed.

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Even though Trump endorsed Mace's opponent, Katie Arrington, he has considering the fact that congratulated Mace and inspired voters to vote for her as the Republican nominee.

"There’s sufficient of a constituency out there in the Republican Get together that wishes to see Trump entirely eradicated," Westwood continued. "I don’t know that that constituency is large ample anymore mainly because in all of these races, you are seeing voters do not want to listen to them bad-mouthing Trump. They want to hear a vision for how the celebration moves forward."

Trump has strictly endorsed Republican candidates who share the exact same policies that he enforced as president. Some of his endorsed candidates have fallen flat, such as Nebraska gubernatorial applicant Charles Herbster as perfectly as Arrington.

Even so, many of his picks have been successful. Rep. Tom Rice (SC) a short while ago missing his GOP major election to Trump-endorsed Russell Fry. Equally J.D. Vance in Ohio and Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania are advancing to their Senate elections with the coveted endorsements.

"They nonetheless want to listen to candidates chatting about the very same points that Trump was," Westwood said. "You know, profitable the trade war, securing the border, embracing populist concepts culturally. These are the types of things that voters are intrigued in."