The National Republican Senatorial Committee is targeting Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., in a new ad campaign in the senator’s home state.

While Arizona Republicans won’t have an official nominee to replace Kelly until after the August 3 primary, the NRSC — the campaign arm for Senate Republicans — is filling the void when it comes to attacking the Democrat.  

The ad's narrator claims that “Kelly votes 97% with Biden. He voted for sanctuary cities, for benefits to illegals and against a border wall.”

“Tell Senator Kelly stop voting with Biden and against Arizona,” the ad continues.

Kelly has voted with Biden’s agenda 97.7 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. But he's also  opposing the president on at least one major immigration issue — the administration’s plan to lift Title 42, a pandemic-era rule that prohibited migrants seeking asylum from crossing the border. 

Kelly and a bipartisan group of senators even introduced a bill to delay the lifting of Title 42, which is currently set to end on May 23.

The NRSC is running ads targeting Kelly in English and Spanish, hoping to appeal to Arizona’s large Spanish-speaking population. 

“This will continue to be an important theme in both English and Spanish advertising,” Chris Hartline, the NRSC’s communications director told NBC News.

This particular commercial is part of a seven-figure ad buy, Hartline added.

He also said that the group will continue to attack Kelly on other themes, too, including inflation and his past in business.

In Georgia’s upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary, former Sen. David Perdue has relied — almost entirely — on Donald Trump and relitigating the former president’s discredited claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election, according to an analysis of Perdue’s ads, speeches and tweets in his contest against incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp. 

All five of Perdue’s television ads have mentioned the 2020 election or election security, and they all prominently feature Trump’s endorsement.

“Kemp is just another establishment politician who fought Trump,” Perdue says in his most recent ad. “I'll make sure our elections are never stolen again,” he continues, arguing that Kemp shouldn’t have certified the 2020 presidential election results after Joe Biden defeated Trump in the Peach State by more than 11,000 votes.

In Perdue’s five-minute speech at Trump’s rally in Commerce, Ga., in March, all five minutes were dedicated to Trump’s presidential record, the 2020 election and Perdue’s top campaign issue of establishing an election law enforcement agency and eradicating Dominion voting machines.  

“In the state of Georgia, thanks to Brian Kemp, our elections in 2020 were absolutely stolen,” Perdue said. 

And of Perdue’s nearly 70 tweets since March 1, 17 have mentioned Trump; four have mentioned Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.; eight have mentioned 2020 election theories or allegations of fraud; and only four mention other issues — like eliminating the state income tax and education.

“President Trump endorsed me because he knows Kemp can’t defeat Abrams in November. Kemp abandoned conservatives, divided our party, and can’t pull us together,” Perdue, the former senator who lost his seat in Jan. 2021, tweeted back in March. 

“Georgia conservatives have been abandoned by Kemp, and he cannot pull the party together to win the general election," Perdue’s campaign said in a statement to NBC News.

“While David Perdue continues to run a failing campaign based on lies about Brian Kemp's record, Gov. Kemp will continue to tell the truth, [and] share his record with Georgia voters," said Cody Hall, Kemp's communications director, responds. 

Polls have consistently shown Kemp leading Perdue in the May 24 primary, with one Fox News poll from March putting the incumbent governor ahead by double digits. 

Still, Charles Bullock, a political-science professor at the University Georgia, points to recent polling finding that nearly half of Republican voters believe Trump’s endorsement is very or somewhat important, as well as three-quarters of them saying that widespread voter fraud took place in 2020.

In fact, Perdue allies point to how Trump’s endorsement of Kemp in 2018 catapulted him to the governor’s mansion four years ago. 

If no candidate clears 50 percent of the vote next month, this GOP gubernatorial primary will head to a June 21 runoff, and the winner will face Democrat Stacey Abrams in November. 

Pennsylvania Senate Democratic hopefuls Rep. Conor Lamb and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta pushed Lt. Gov. John Fetterman onto the defensive during Thursday's primary debate over questions about a 2013 incident when Fetterman confronted an unarmed Black jogger with a shotgun after saying he heard gunshots.

Asked if he would do anything differently about the incident today, Fetterman recounted the situation and said that: "It's not it's certainly not a situation that anyone would want to be involved with with gun violence. But I'd like to point out that I'm the only Democrat on this stage that has successfully confronted crime and gun violence and has been in charge of a police department."

He quickly clashed with his rivals over the question of whether he pointed his gun at the jogger, Christopher Miyares. Miyares has said that Fetterman pointed the gun at his chest, but Fetterman has repeatedly denied that charge. When the lieutenant governor describes the incident, he has said he had his gun but never pointed it at Miyares. 

“Not only will John not admit that to pointing, he won't admit that he was pointing the gun at this person," Lamb said during the debate. 

"He also won’t really answer your question as to whether he did anything wrong and should have done it differently. And I just think that's disqualifying for any of us who have to work hard to gain the trust of the black community.”

Then state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who is Black, repeatedly asked Fetterman if he would apologize for the incident. After Fetterman denied pointing the gun at the man and repeated his comments that he "successfully confronted gun violence" in his town while mayor, Kenyatta replied: "You're the only Democrat who used a shotgun to chase down an unarmed black man."

While the conversation about the incident may have been the flashpoint of the debate, the three candidates mixed it up on a variety of other issues. 

Lamb and Kenyatta came out against suspending the federal gas tax, something Fetterman said he'd support. Lamb and Fetterman supported extending the Title 42 pandemic border policy that has blocked asylum on the Southern border, and split on Philadelphia's recent, and brief, reimposition of its indoor mask mandate (Fetterman and Kenyatta against it, with Lamb supportive of it). 

And the group tangled over Fetterman's support for a tax on the wealthiest individuals. Fetterman responded to a question from the moderator about what income levels he'd want a wealth tax to apply for by saying "you know it when you see it." 

That prompted both Lamb and Kenyatta to attack, criticizing Fetterman for offering a lack of specifics. 

Indiana’s primary election is less than two weeks away, and the Republican fight for the state’s ninth Congressional District is heating up on the airwaves.

The seat is up for grabs in the wake of Rep. Trey Hollingsworth’s decision not to seek another term, setting up a battle featuring nine candidates, three of whom have been spending on TV ads.

Stu Barnes-Israel, a veteran who’s running for the Republican nomination, has been up on the air for weeks. In an ad from March, he touts his “conservative plan” to “fight for freedom, lower gas prices and secure the southern border.” 

Barnes-Israel has also had an outside group, Hoosier Values, running ads in his favor.

In one such ad, the narrator says, “Hoosiers don't need another politician in Congress. We need a conservative outsider. Stu Barnes Israel.”

“Stu supports a strong military and opposes Biden's disastrous foreign policy,” the narrator adds later.

Barnes-Israel has also earned endorsements from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

His most prominent opponents are two candidates who have run for the seat before — businessman Mike Sodrel and former state Sen. Erin Houchin. Sodrel even served as the representative for this district for one term from 2005 to 2007.

Sodrel’s ads have focused on inflation, with a narrator telling voters “Mike Sodrel will work to get American energy independent again, stop inflation and lower prices at the gas pump.”

He’s also got an outside group running ads to support him and attack Houchin.

“Career politician Erin Houchin has failed us. It's time to drain the swamp,” a narrator says in an ad funded by the House Freedom Action. The group supports conservative candidates in congressional elections across the country. In Wyoming, they’re backing an opponent to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and in Colorado, they support right wing Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.

Meanwhile, Houchin has been touting her record in state politics in an ad. 

“To save America, we have to fight,” she says. “I fought Biden's mandates, and won. After the 2020 election, I wrote the bill to require photo ID for everyone. I authored the ban on critical race theory and have been the state's number one defender of our law enforcement officers.” 

She adds, “I'm pro-life, pro-Trump, pro-Second Amendment.”

Of the candidates, Sodrel has spent the most on ads so far, dropping $225,000, per AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm. Houchin is behind him, having spent $133,000 and Barnes-Israel trails, with only $111,000 spent on ads.

Faiz Shakir, a senior advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders and his former campaign manager called on Democrats to embrace a more progressive stance in the midterm elections in an interview with MTP Daily Thursday. 

Shakir discussed a memo he recently wrote to Sanders supporters, in which he argued that a progressive agenda is popular and can work to win elections.

“The Democratic Party is certainly losing some support,” Shakir said on Thursday. “Who are they losing support with? Young people, working class people, disaffected people who have become cynical about politics. Who speaks to them? How do you get people who aren’t already with you? And I think Senator Sanders’ vision does that.”

Watch the full interview: 

A new ad in Alabama's hotly contested GOP Senate primary uses old footage of Mike Durant talking about gun regulations to argue that he's a "RINO," or a Republican In Name Only. 

The new spot from Alabama RINO PAC, which popped up earlier this year to attack Durant, relies on recently unearthed footage of Durant in 2011, when he said: "From a military perspective, the first thing that needs to be done is to disarm the population. Let’s face it, if we could do that in some of our U.S. cities, that would be a pretty good step toward law and order. But, you ever ask yourself: Why don't we do it here? Because it's hard. It could result in rioting and widespread rebellion, making the situation worse." 

While the comments are more than a decade old, they were recently unearthed by the conservative media website Breitbart. In response, Durant told the Rightside Radio show that the comments were "mischaracterized" and that he's "absolutely pro-2nd amendment" with his "own collection of weapons." 

"I was an attack helicopter pilot in special aviation operations. I shoot more rounds every month than most people shoot in their lives. You know, this is just typical. If this is the best you can do ... my opponents can dig up something from 10 years ago that wasn’t really what I was saying, then, you know, I guess it’s part of the game. But to me, it’s really meaningless.”

Durant is running primarily against former GOP Senate aide Katie Britt and Rep. Mo Brooks, who had been endorsed by former President Trump before he rescinded his endorsement. 

Alabama RINO PAC has spent about $630,000 on ads in the race so far, far less than other outside groups — the Club for Growth, which is backing Brooks, has spent $3.5 million and Alabama's Future, which has opposed Brooks, has spent $3.7 million, per ad-tracking firm AdImpact. 

Durant has spent more on advertising than any other candidate with $2.4 million, ahead of Britt's $1.9 million.

UPDATE: Durant launched an ad on Friday responding to the super PAC spot, calling it a "false attack ad."

In light of the recent federal court decision that halted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's mask mandate on public transportation, NBC's last poll in March found a slight majority supported keeping the mandate in effect. 

FIfty-one percent said that the government should continue to require face masks on public transportation, with 46 percent saying that they wanted the government to end the requirement (within the poll's 3.1 percent margin of error). 

Out of those who wanted the mandate to continue, 38 percent wanted it to last longer than 6 more months, 28 percent wanted it to last between 4-6 months, 16 percent wanted it to last 2-3 more months and 3 percent said they wanted it to last for the next month. 

The main fault lines on the issue were by political leaning and race. Eighty-four percent of Democrats supported keeping the mandate in place, but just 22 percent of Republicans. 

People of color (70 percent keep, 27 percent end mask mandate) were far more likely than whites (43 percent keep, 55 percent end) to support the mandate's extension. 

NBC polled 1,000 adults from March 18-23, about a month before this week's decision U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle for the Middle District of Florida that the CDC lacked the authority to impose the mandate. The Justice Department is appealing the ruling, but right now, the mandate is not being enforced. 

GOP Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., has endorsed Republican Katie Arrington in her primary bid against one of his own colleagues, fellow GOP South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace.

“Katie is a proven fighter for our conservative principles of limited government with expanded freedom which provides for a strong national defense and the safeguarding of our border,” Wilson said in a statement first reported by The State Newspaper. Wilson garnered national attention for shouting, "You lie!" during former President Barack Obama's 2009 State of the Union address. 

Mace responded by saying that Wilson is not sufficiently conservative and that he "is the reason we need term limits in Congress."

It’s unusual, but not unprecedented, for a House member to back a primary challenger taking on one of his or her colleagues. Four Democratic House members, for example, have endorsed attorney Jessica Cisneros over Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar. 

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Arrington in February, setting up the primary as a test of Trump’s influence in the party. Mace sharply criticized Trump after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, but she was not one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him for inciting an insurrection. 

Mace has argued that she is best positioned to win the 1st District in November. Arrington lost the 1st District in 2018 after defeating another Trump critic, former GOP Rep. Mark Sanford, in a Republican primary. The 1st District did become more Republican after redistricting, per 538. The Cook Political Report rates the 1st District race Solid Republican.

Like other Republicans facing Trump-backed primary challengers, Mace outraised Arrington in the first fundraising quarter of the year. Mace raised $863,000, ending the quarter with $2 million in her campaign account, while Arrington raised $814,000 and had $754,000 on hand. 

The South Carolina primary is set for June 14.

Sen. Bernie Sanders' former campaign manager Faiz Shakir made headlines for a memo that pointedly reminded us all that the Vermont Independent hasn't ruled out another run for president in 2024.

The memo that caused all the stir, addressed to Sanders' "allies," was mainly directed at candidates on the ballot this year, detailing a list of suggestions for how Sanders' preferred candidates should respond to questions about his endorsement.

Yet Sanders has only endorsed eight candidates so far, and a majority are running in deeply Democratic areas. 

He's only backed one candidate for Senate  — Vermont Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, who is running for his home state's open Senate seat. Sanders has also backed two House candidates taking on Democratic incumbents in primaries: attorney Jessica Cisneros, who faces Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, in a May 24 primary runoff next month, and Nina Turner, his presidential campaign co-chair who is taking on Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown in a May 3 primary. 

Three Democrats running in solidly Democratic open House seats have also earned Sanders' endorsement. Former Austin City Councilman Greg Casar won the Democratic primary in Texas' 35th District in March, while state Rep. Jasmine Crockett is competing in a primary runoff on Texas' 30th District. Sanders has also endorsed state Rep. Summer Lee, who is running in the open 12th District race in Pittsburgh. Lee's primary is set for May 17. 

Democrat Lee Merritt of Texas had Sanders’ backing in his failed bid for Texas attorney general. Sanders has also endorsed Los Angeles City Councilmember Gilbert Cedillo. 

Of these candidates, Cisneros has taken the most heat for her progressive policies. Shakir did provide some advice for candidates like Cisneros, encouraging them to embrace Sanders' endorsement.

"Sen. Sanders is putting forward an extremely popular vision for the Democratic Party that will win back critical support that we have lost," he wrote. 

Shakir also noted at the end of the memo that Sanders "is interested in endorsing more candidates."

Jonathan Allen contributed to this report.

On 4/20/2022, just 12 states fully prohibit marijuana use, with 91 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana for either medical or recreational use, according to a Pew poll. Watch the full breakdown below: