Ohio’s GOP Senate primary turns nasty as Trump’s candidate tries to fend off rivals
CLEVELAND — Trump endorsed Bernie Moreno in December, catapulting the businessman to contention in an Ohio Senate primary featuring two better-known Republicans.
With less than two weeks until the primary, the race has turned increasingly hostile as it remains in a competitive haze.
There have been few independent polls to measure the three candidates running for the chance to unseat Democrat Sherrod Brown in what is expected to be one of the top Senate battles this fall. An internal poll from the Moreno campaign last week showed him with a double-digit lead over Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan, but it also found roughly a quarter of likely primary voters remained undecided. Other close observers believe the primary is much tighter.
“From everything I’ve seen in both public and private polls, along with talking to folks on the ground, the Senate race looks like it’s a dead heat,” said GOP strategist Scott Guthrie, a veteran of Ohio Senate campaigns who is not aligned with any candidate here this cycle. “I’ve seen polls with each of the candidates in the lead, and everyone is within the margin of error.”
The three candidates are set to meet for their final debate tonight. And while a rally with Trump could help push Moreno across the finish line, a source close to Trump said an Ohio visit is “highly unlikely” before the March 19 primary but declined to elaborate.
Kim Reynolds, who previously backed Ron DeSantis, endorses Trump
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced on X today that she would back Trump.
"Joe Biden has been a disaster for our country. Higher prices, inflation, an open border, crime, and the destruction of America’s image on the world stage," she said in the post. "I will do everything to defeat him and elect Donald J. Trump for President of the United States!"
She previously supported DeSantis and said she believed Trump could not win.
Biden called Dean Phillips today
Biden called Rep. Dean Phillips this afternoon after Phillips suspended his presidential campaign, said Katie Dolan, the former national press secretary for Phillips’ campaign.
It’s unclear what the two spoke about and how long the conversation was.
Phillips endorsed Biden seconds after he ended his own campaign and emphasized that his ultimate goal is defeating Trump.
Biden welcomed Phillips' support.
"Dean, thanks for the kind words. And welcome to the team. We need you with us," Biden wrote in response to a tweet from Phillips emphasizing Biden's "empathy and kindness."
'Thirsty for attention': Biden campaign responds to Trump's debate push
A Biden campaign spokesperson responded to Trump's call for a debate by suggesting the former president was "thirsty for attention and struggling to expand his appeal beyond the MAGA base," while urging Trump to tune in for Biden's State of the Union address tomorrow night.
"He might even learn a thing or two about bringing people together and actually delivering for the American people," Michael Tyler, the communications director for the Biden-Harris re-election campaign, said of the speech.
Tyler also said discussions about a debate would happen "at the appropriate time in this cycle." Biden has not said whether he plans to debate Trump.
Trump previously refused to debate other Republican presidential candidates.
Biden will deliver his final State of the Union address before the November elections at 9 ET tomorrow night.
Nikki Haley argued only she could beat Biden. Voters didn’t buy it.
For months, before groups both big and small, Haley would trot out a compelling statistic.
She was in an admirable position, she’d say, because she could beat Biden by 17 points, citing a Wall Street Journal poll. And even in recent weeks, Haley would argue that Trump, on the other hand, would lose to Biden in the general election or, at the very least, that he was within the margin of error of losing.
The electability argument became central to Haley’s theory of the case against Trump.
But aside from her inability to lay out a winning path in the primary campaign, Haley ran up against another problematic fact: Poll after poll has indicated Trump would beat Biden.
As time wore on, evidence for Haley’s argument disintegrated. And though she at times still polled ahead of Trump in a general election matchup with Biden — a Marquette University poll found Haley would beat Biden by 16 points in Wisconsin among registered voters, while Trump was tied — she failed to gain traction among Republican voters.
Biden automatically wins Florida after state Democratic Party vote
The Florida Democratic Party voted unanimously to place only Biden on the primary ballot scheduled for March 19. Under Florida law, uncontested races do not appear on the ballot; therefore, Biden became the automatic winner of the presidential primary and Florida’s 224 Democratic delegates can be allocated to him.
The NBC News Decision Desk has allocated the 224 delegates to Biden.
The national delegate count on the Democratic side as of today is: Biden 1,818, Uncommitted 13, Palmer 3.
Kennedy will be on ballot in Nevada, campaign announces
Last night, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign announced it had collected the 15,000 signatures necessary for him to appear on the ballot in Nevada. His release noted that Biden's margin of victory in the state in 2020 was only 2.39 percentage points.
Actor Ben Savage trails 6 other candidates in California House race
Ben Savage, the actor best known for starring in the beloved coming-of-age sitcom "Boy Meets World," appears unlikely to meet Congress after he struggled in his California House race yesterday.
Savage was in seventh place with just 4% of the vote as of Wednesday afternoon, with about half of the expected votes counted. NBC News has not yet called the race in California’s 30th Congressional District.
Savage drew national attention last year when he entered the crowded race to replace Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who stepped aside to run for the Senate and advanced in that race, NBC News projected.
Savage's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democratic state Rep. Laura Friedman and Republican Alex Balekian, a physician, are leading the 15-candidate all-party primary, with 27% and 21%, respectively. The top two vote-getters will advance to the general election in November.
Also ahead of Savage is Maebe A. Girl, a drag queen and activist who is on the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.
Savage raised $1.4 million for his campaign, most of which he self-funded, according to federal campaign finance records. After his child acting career, he graduated from Stanford University with a degree in political science, according to his official biography, and he still works in the entertainment industry.
Savage ran for the West Hollywood City Council in 2022 but did not win one of the three all-large seats on the ballot that year.
Trump says he will debate Biden 'anytime'
In a post today on Truth Social, Trump said that "for the good of our country" he would debate Biden "ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!" He included that the debates could be run "by the Corrupt DNC, or their Subsidiary, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD)."
Last year, the Republican National Committee voted unanimously not to have its candidates participate in events run by the nonpartisan commission.
Trump declined to take part in Republican primary debates and has been critical of general election candidate matchups hosted by the long-standing Commission on Presidential Debates. But today, he said he would go toe-to-toe with Biden in CPD debates — or even debates hosted by the Democratic National Committee — if Biden will agree.
Texas AG Ken Paxton boasts of revenge — and readies for more
Out of the 70 candidates on the ballot yesterday that Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton endorsed, 33 won their primaries outright, while 10 have advanced to a runoff.
Paxton helped defeat seven Republican state House members who voted to impeach him last year on corruption charges. He also boosted nine other GOP candidates for state House seats.
His endorsed candidates unseated three Republican judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, who had angered Paxton by keeping his office from prosecuting voter fraud, and a handful of other incumbents.
“Texans have spoken loud and clear," Paxton wrote on X, the platform once known as Twitter. "The victory of Judges David Schenck, Gina Parker, and Lee Finley, endorsed by my office, marks a significant moment in our state’s legal history. It sends a powerful message that Texans demand judges who prioritize the Constitution and uphold the rule of law."
Paxton isn’t letting off the gas, in no small part because his top target — Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who led impeachment proceedings — is heading to May runoff election.
Paxton, along with Trump, endorsed one of Phelan’s opponents, Republican activist David Covey.
“Today’s election results have revealed that the battle for the soul of Texas is far from over,” Paxton wrote in a post on X early Wednesday, addressing the outcome of Phelan's race. “This runoff is not a defeat, but rather a call to arms for all who stand for the principles of the America First movement. Let this runoff be a rallying cry for all conservatives across Texas.”
The Texas runoff elections will occur on May 28, a little over a month after Paxton’s first court appearance on April 15 for charges of securities fraud.