Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Though vote tallies suggest North Carolina’s Jefferson Griffin came up short in his bid for a seat on the state Supreme Court, the Republican is now asking that same court to discount more than 60,000 ballots. The state’s Board of Elections has already rejected a related effort.
* Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said he’d give the “final speech of this term” this week, but he refused to call it a “farewell speech,” despite his failed re-election bid in Ohio. Why? Because the outgoing senator is leaving the door wide open to another campaign, possibly as early as 2026.
* There was some recent scuttlebutt about Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow running for Democratic National Committee chair, but the state legislator ultimately passed on the race.
* In related news, David Hogg announced this week that he’s running to become a vice chair of the DNC. Hogg, who’s 24 years old, is perhaps best known to national audiences as an anti-violence activist who survived a mass shooting at a Florida high school in 2018.
* Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is reportedly eyeing a gubernatorial race in New Mexico in 2026. If elected, Haaland, who’s also a former congresswoman, would be the nation’s first Native American woman to serve as a governor.
* In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis will almost certainly have to choose a temporary successor for Republican Sen. Marco Rubio in the new year, and Donald Trump told reporters this week that he doesn’t expect the governor to pick his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. The president-elect added that that issue has “nothing to do with me,” though there has been some reporting to the contrary.
* In New York, where Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul appears to be gearing up for re-election bid, recent reporting suggests she might face a primary challenge from her own lieutenant governor: Antonio Delgado, a former Democratic congressman, hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a 2026 gubernatorial campaign.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com