The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
● NC-10, NC-13, NC-Sen, NC-LG: GOP Rep. Mark Walker announced Monday that he would not run for anything in 2020, a decision he made weeks after North Carolina's new court-ordered congressional map utterly scrambled his old 6th Congressional District. GOP Rep. George Holding also announced his retirement earlier this month after his own seat was un-gerrymandered.
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Walker didn't want to leave Congress, though, and he quickly started looking for ways to stick around. The congressman knew he couldn't win in the new 6th District, a seat that backed Clinton 59-38, but he talked about launching a primary bid against Sen. Thom Tillis or taking on fellow GOP Reps. Patrick McHenry or Ted Budd in the new 10th or 13th Districts. There were even reports that Republicans wanted Walker to run for the open seat race for lieutenant governor, and Donald Trump reportedly said he'd back Walker if he did this.
However, with days to go before the Dec. 20 filing deadline, Walker announced Monday that he'd be sitting out the 2020 cycle altogether. We may have him to kick around again soon, though, since the congressman said he's considering running for the Senate in 2022 to succeed GOP incumbent Richard Burr, who says he'll retire.
Walker's spokesperson said last week that Trump had offered him "an open endorsement" for this contest, and Walker himself may think that he already has Trump's backing. In his Monday statement Walker also said that after this election cycle is over "we will take a look at the 2022 Senate race, and we are thankful to have President Trump's support."
However, plenty of other Republicans are likely to take a look at the Senate seat assuming Burr keeps his word and retires, so Walker probably shouldn't count on automatically having Trump's support this far ahead of time no matter what he was told at the White House. And of course, no one should ever count on Donald Trump to keep a promise, much less "an open endorsement."
For now at least, though, Walker's once unlikely congressional career is about to come to an end. Walker, who worked as a Baptist pastor, first ran for office in 2014 to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Howard Coble in another previous version of the 6th District, but he didn't raise much money. The primary frontrunner was Rockingham County District Attorney Phil Berger, Jr., the son and namesake of the powerful state Senate leader Phil Berger, while several other candidates had more resources than Walker.
Berger needed to win 40% of the vote to win the primary in May without a July runoff, but he fell short with 34%. (North Carolina changed the rules in 2017, and now candidates can win the first round of the primary outright as long as they have more than 30% of the vote.) Walker secured the second-place spot 25-11, but he still looked like the underdog going into the second round.
Walker was again outspent, and the elder Berger even used his national influence to get the Republican State Leadership Committee—the entity tasked with helping GOP legislative candidates—to funnel $75,000 to a super PAC to help him out on his son's campaign.
However, Walker hailed from the district's largest county, Guilford, and had a strong grassroots network thanks to his religious background. Walker also likely benefited from the anti-establishment backlash that harmed plenty of influential Republicans in the 2014 primaries. Walker ended up pulling off a solid 60-40 win, and he had no trouble winning the general election.
North Carolina had to redraw its congressional map in 2016, but Walker faced no serious opposition in his new seat (once again numbered the 6th District) in either 2016 or 2018. And like so many former anti-establishment candidates, Walker became a member of the party leadership by winning the post of Republican Conference vice chair last year.
Walker initially considered challenging Tillis for renomination in the winter after the senator pissed off almost everyone with his flip-flop on Trump's bogus emergency declaration. Walker at first said he wouldn't do this in April but soon began to reconsider; he again declined to run in June after Trump greeted the idea coldly. Walker once again talked about taking on Tillis after the state's new congressional map took effect, which made Monday the third time he's said no to a Senate run in the space of a year.
Gubernatorial
● PR-Gov: On Monday, Wanda Vázquez announced that she would seek a full term in 2020 as governor of Puerto Rico. Vázquez, who is a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (NPP), will face opposition in the primary from former Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, who acted as governor for several days in August until the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that he had been unconstitutionally sworn in and ordered him to resign so that Vázquez could take over. Several candidates are also competing for the nomination for the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party including San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who leads Puerto Rico's largest city.
Vázquez was elevated from justice minister to the governorship over the summer after weeks of uncertainty about who would lead the commonwealth. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, another member of the NPP, was badly damaged after a series of online chats between the governor and his allies leaked in which participants lobbed violent, misogynist, and homophobic insults at their enemies and joked about Puerto Ricans who died during Hurricane Maria. Mass protests soon broke out calling for Rosselló to quit, and the legislature began laying the groundwork to impeach him.
After two weeks of protests, Rosselló announced on July 24 he would resign nine days hence, but it was unclear who would succeed him. Normally the commonwealth's secretary of state would take over, but Luis Rivera Marin had previously resigned from that very post because of his own role in the chat scandal. Vázquez was next in the line of succession, but she said on July 28―less than a week before Rosselló's Aug. 2 departure―that she hoped that Rosselló would pick a new secretary of state, and that this new person will be governor instead of her.
Rosselló tried to do just that, and he announced on July 31 that he was appointing Pierluisi, who had previously served in DC as Puerto Rico's non-voting member of Congress. However, the commonwealth's constitution requires the secretary of state to be confirmed by both Puerto Rico's House and Senate, but Pierluisi was sworn into that job that very evening before any legislators had a chance to vote.
The House gave Pierluisi an affirmative vote on Aug. 2 about an hour before Rosselló's departure took effect, but the Senate postponed their own hearings until the following week. However, that didn't stop Pierluisi from being sworn in as governor right after Rosselló left office. Pierluisi cited a 2005 law that said that the secretary of state didn't need to have received legislative confirmation from both chambers if they need to take over as governor to make his case that he was indeed Puerto Rico's legitimate leader.
However, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that this provision was unconstitutional days later in the decision that ousted Pierluisi from the governor's office and put Vázquez in charge. While Vázquez said she hadn't wanted to be governor, she soon quashed speculation that she would only stay long enough to appoint a new secretary of state who would then take over as the commonwealth's leader.
House
● IL-06: The anti-tax Club for Growth has endorsed former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, who faces no serious GOP primary opposition in her bid to take on Democratic Rep. Sean Casten.
● NJ-02: Atlantic County Freeholder Ashley Bennett told The Nation on Tuesday that she would seek the Democratic nod to take on Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who will soon make his switch to the GOP official.
Bennett decided to run for office for the first time in 2017 after Republican incumbent John Carman shared a Facebook meme that asked if the Women's March would be "over in time for them to cook dinner." Bennett, who at age 32 was the youngest member of Atlantic County's Democratic ticket, unseated Carman 52-48 in a victory that attracted national attention.
Bennett joins Montclair State University professor Brigid Callahan Harrison, who also hails from populous Atlantic County, and West Cape May Commissioner John Francis in the June primary to take on Van Drew, and another local elected official isn't taking his name out of contention. Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo told the New Jersey Globe, "Would I take a shot? I wouldn't rule it out." Last month Mazzeo and fellow Democratic Assemblyman John Armato were both narrowly re-elected in the 2nd Legislative District, a 54-43 Clinton seat that is entirely located in Atlantic County.
Bruce Land, who lost re-election to the Assembly that same day, also isn't ruling it out, but he doesn't seem very serious about running. For one thing, Land responded to the news of Van Drew's impending party switch by saying, "Would I vote for him? I might," continuing, "I would never say never, because I've been a Democrat my whole life, but I have voted for Republicans if they were good people."
Land said he wasn't considering running against the guy he might vote for but, "I wouldn't rule it totally out. Never say never — I'm an old James Bond fan." (Actually, despite the title of one of his movies, we're very sure that James Bond actually could say never to a run for Congress in South Jersey.)
Insider NJ also reports that former state Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten is considering seeking the Democratic nod as well, though he hasn't said anything publicly yet. Batten, who is from Cape May County, waged four unsuccessful bids for the Assembly from 1985 through 1991, and he was appointed to the bench the following year. Batten retired in 2015, and he now works as an attorney.
Van Drew himself publicly spoke for the first time on Tuesday and while he still wouldn't confirm his impending party switch, he said he would seek a second term. Van Drew also mused, "I'm reevaluating my life and my thoughts," though it doesn't sound like he's reevaluating his impending defection: Roll Call writes that the congressman is expected to officially join the GOP on Wednesday after he votes against impeachment, which would be his final vote as a (nominal) Democrat.
● NY-21: EMILY's List has endorsed 2018 Democratic nominee Tedra Cobb's second bid against GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.
● WA-10: Pierce County Councilman Marty Campbell said this week that he was considering running in the August top-two primary for this open seat. Campbell, who is a Democrat, was elected to his current post last year after previously serving on the Tacoma City Council.
Grab Bag
● Deaths: Richard Hatcher, whose 1967 victory in the race for mayor of Gary, Indiana made him one of the first African Americans elected to lead a large city, died Friday at the age of 86. Hatcher was elected to five terms, but he lost renomination in 1987.
Hatcher was a member of the City Council when he unseated Mayor A. Martin Katz in the Democratic primary 39-35, and Lake County Democratic leaders were furious when Hatcher said that he wouldn't allow them to fill major city posts. They responded by aiding Republican Joseph Radigan in the general election, and Hatcher faced a tough contest in a city that hadn't had a GOP mayor since 1938.
Hatcher had little money left after the primary, but he raised the $8,000 he needed to place ads in the New York Times and the local Post-Tribune that read, "Richard Hatcher is battling bigotry and ignorance. And he needs your help." His appeal brought in $250,000, as well as attention from prominent Democrats like Sen. Robert Kennedy, and Hatcher won by a tight 51-49. Carl Stokes won the race to lead Cleveland that same day, which made him and Hatcher the first two African Americans to be elected mayor in a city of over 100,000 people.
Hatcher's tenure coincided with the decline of the steel industry, which hit Gary hard. The mayor secured hundreds of millions in federal funding for the city and enlarged the police force, but critics blamed him for the city's economic problems and the increase in crime. Hatcher himself argued in turn in 1978, "There's almost a vested interest among a lot of powerful business people, the tax assessors and other county officials who keep business taxes low here, in proving that a city run by a black will fail." He also said that the federal government hadn't done enough to help Gary.
Hatcher badly lost the 1987 primary 57-43 to Thomas Barnes, a fellow African American Democrat and a former ally who attacked the incumbent's handling of the local economy. Hatcher launched a comeback four years later, but he lost their rematch 45-26.