Morning Digest: Federal judge tells North Carolina to certify Democrat as Supreme Court winner

"You establish the rules before the game. You don't change them after the game is done," writes Trump appointee.

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs (D) (credit: Allison Riggs Facebook)

Leading Off

NC Supreme Court

A federal judge ordered North Carolina election officials to certify Democrat Allison Riggs as the winner of last year's race for the state Supreme Court on Monday evening, holding that state court rulings that would retroactively throw out valid votes violate the U.S. Constitution.

"You establish the rules before the game," wrote District Court Judge Richard Myers, an appointee of Donald Trump, in a 68-page opinion. "You don't change them after the game is done."

Three different counts confirmed Riggs, the incumbent, as the winner over Republican Jefferson Griffin by 734 votes, but Griffin challenged more than 60,000 ballots after the election, saying they should not be counted even though they were cast in compliance with the rules at the time of November's election.

In a divided ruling last month, four Republicans on the seven-member Supreme Court threw out most of those challenges but still allowed as many as 7,000 to proceed. Myers' decision countermands that ruling, though he stayed his order for a week to allow Griffin to appeal.

However, his next stop would be the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with Riggs in its most recent ruling and told election administrators not to discard any votes. Griffin could ultimately proceed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but election law expert Rick Hasen said he "expect[s] any appeal would be rejected."

If Myers' ruling stands, Republicans would still hold a 5-2 majority on North Carolina's top court. Democrats, however, would have the chance to take the court back in 2028, when three Republican-held seats will all be on the ballot.

We’ve closely followed every twist and turn in the GOP’s effort to subvert democracy and overturn North Carolina’s Supreme Court election—and we’ll keep doing so until the very end. If you’ve appreciated our coverage, we’d be so grateful if you’d sign up as a paid subscriber today.

Senate

AL-Sen

Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who recently asked his Facebook followers which office he should run for next year, said in an interview on WVNN last week that if Sen. Tommy Tuberville seeks Alabama's open governorship, "[M]aybe I'll run for Senate." However, Ainsworth, a Republican, added that a bid for Congress was "not something I've really had a desire to do."

FL-Sen, FL-07

In a major new investigation, NOTUS reports that five different fellow soldiers who served with Republican Rep. Cory Mills in Iraq dispute that he saved the lives of two troops who'd come under fire—acts for which he was awarded a Bronze Star.

“He didn’t save my life,” said Pfc. Joe Heit, one of the men Mills was credited with saving. “I don’t recall him being there either.” Heit also told NOTUS that his injuries were not life-threatening, and that he'd been wounded by friendly fire—not enemy fire—as Mills' commendation stated.

According to sources who spoke with NOTUS, Mills may be under investigation by the FBI and the Army Criminal Investigation Division. The congressman largely did not dispute the publication's reporting, saying only, "It was a chaotic day and understandable that others may have different recollections of events."

Mills, who represents Florida's 7th District, has said he's considering a primary challenge against Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, whom Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to replace Marco Rubio earlier this year. Mills is also being investigated by the House Ethics Committee over alleged conflicts of interest and by the police in Washington, D.C., for allegedly assaulting a 27-year-old woman at his home.

GA-Sen

Term-limited Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced on Monday that he would not run for the Senate, dealing a major blow to Republican recruiters who had for months pleaded with him to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.

The news, which was first reported by Politico, deprives the GOP of its strongest candidate against Ossoff. Just last week, a poll conducted for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found Kemp leading the incumbent by a 49-46 margin while every other potential contender trailed by anywhere from 9 to 17 points.

The only positive for Republicans is that Kemp's decision will finally unfreeze the race. That development, however, opens the door to a messy primary that might only get resolved in a runoff. It could also pave the way for a deeply flawed candidate like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—who lagged Ossoff by a daunting 54-37 spread in the AJC's survey—to emerge as the party's nominee.

IL-Sen, IL-02

Rep. Robin Kelly announced Tuesday morning that she would run for Illinois' open Senate seat, making her the second prominent Democrat to join the race to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin.

In her launch video, Kelly focuses heavily on her work to combat gun violence, including a bill she passed in the state legislature to thwart straw gun purchases that was cosponsored by Barack Obama—then a member of the state Senate.

At the moment, Kelly's sole competition for the nomination is Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, though others are likely to join soon. Either Kelly or Stratton would be the second Black woman to represent Illinois in the Senate, following the trailblazing Carol Moseley Braun.

A day earlier, however, another Democrat, state Treasurer Michael Frerichs, announced that he would not enter the race.

Ambitious politicians will also have their eye on Kelly's seat in the House, a solidly blue slice of Chicago and its southern suburbs that voted for Kamala Harris by a 66-33 margin last year, according to calculations from The Downballot.

Kelly, 69, got her start in elective office by unseating a longtime incumbent in the state House in 2002, defeating five-term Rep. Harold Murphy by a 56-44 margin in the primary. She resigned her post in 2007 to take a job as chief of staff to Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, then ran for his job in 2010 when Giannoulias launched a bid for Illinois' other Senate seat—the one that had been held by Moseley Braun and Obama.

Facing that year's GOP wave, though, Kelly lost to Republican Dan Rutherford 50-45 while Giannoulias fell to Republican Mark Kirk 48-46. Kelly, however, bounced back just two-and-a-half years later with a stunning upset in a special election for the 2nd Congressional District, which had become vacant after Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned amid a corruption investigation that would later send him to prison.

Kelly began that race in third place, facing off against a pair of better-known local politicians in the Democratic primary, former Rep. Debbie Halvorson and state Sen. Toi Hutchinson. But the two front-runners both shared a major vulnerability: They had received "A" ratings from the NRA due to their expansive support for gun rights.

Kelly, by contrast, declared she "could not be more proud" of the "F" she'd earned from the NRA and made cracking down on gun violence—a major problem in the Chicago-based 2nd District, and an issue that had taken on new salience after the Sandy Hook massacre the prior year—a centerpiece of her campaign.

That message inspired a super PAC run by then-New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg to spend heavily on her behalf and prompted an influx of grassroots donations led by Daily Kos.

Momentum shifted with shocking speed, so much so that Hutchinson wound up dropping out shortly before the primary and endorsed Kelly. Ten days later, Kelly won an outright majority despite the 16-candidate field, trouncing Halvorson 52-24. Given the district's strong Democratic lean, the general election was a formality, and Kelly never again faced a serious threat after that first race.

At The Downballot, our decades of experience allow us to share deep knowledge about important elections of the past—like Robin Kelly’s first congressional race, describe just above—that shed light on critical elections of the future. You won’t find coverage like ours anywhere. If you haven’t yet, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription today!

MI-Sen

Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga, who's the target of an effort at the highest reaches of his party to keep him running for Michigan's open Senate seat, sounds undeterred by the attempt to squeeze him out.

“The Senate leadership has picked their candidate, same guy who ran last time, but I truly believe that this should not be a decision by Senate leadership," Huizenga told WSJM. "This needs to be from Michigan voters. So we’re keeping our options very wide open and moving ahead with this.”

Those remarks came a day after Axios reported that a top official at the NRSC told donors they should not contribute to Huizenga, who said last month that he's considering the race. The man Senate bigwigs prefer is former Rep. Mike Rogers, who narrowly lost to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in 2024.

Governors

FL-Gov

Former Rep. David Jolly, who's been considering a bid for Florida's open governorship, tells the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, "I anticipate getting into the governor’s race." Jolly, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, said at the end of March that he'd make an announcement sometime this month.

IA-Gov

Republican Rep. Zach Nunn said in a new interview that he won't run for Iowa's open governorship next year, though he did not tell host Simon Conway whether he'd seek reelection to the House (see our IA-03 item below for more). So far, no major candidates on either side have entered the race to succeed Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds following her surprise retirement announcement last month, though several are considering.

ME-Gov

Businessman Angus King III, the son of Sen. Angus King, announced on Tuesday that he would join the race for Maine's open governorship.

Unlike his father, who has always sought office as an independent, King is seeking the Democratic nod in the contest to succeed term-limited Gov. Janet Mills. That didn't stop the elder King from endorsing his son, joking in a press release that he would "be in the top two governors named Angus ever." (Before joining the Senate in 2013, King Jr. served two terms as governor.)

The younger King, who has not previously sought office, runs a renewable energy company that converts cow manure into fertilizer. He touts that work in his launch video, along with his efforts to build "affordable housing for thousands of families across six states that's actually affordable." He also mentions that "if you know my dad, you know my values," as a photo of the two appears on screen.

King joins Secretary of State Shenna Bellows in the Democratic primary, while several other big names could still get in. For Republicans, the only notable candidate so far is attorney Bobby Charles, a frequent guest on Fox News.

NH-Gov

Former state Sen. Tom Sherman, who's been considering a bid for New Hampshire's open 1st District, tells WMUR that he's also thinking about challenging Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte next year. Sherman ran against Ayotte's predecessor, Chris Sununu, in 2022 but lost by a 57-41 margin. He's the first Democrat to publicly express an interest in seeking the governorship in 2026.

NV-Gov

State Attorney General Aaron Ford, who all but announced a bid for governor way back in December, plans to kick off his campaign in July, reports the Las Vegas Sun. Despite signaling his intentions so early, Ford is not the only big-name Democrat who might seek to take on Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo: Former Gov. Steve Sisolak is also weighing a bid, though the Sun says he's "less sure about reentering the fray."

OH-Gov

Former Rep. Tim Ryan is "seriously considering" a bid for Ohio's open governorship, according to a Ryan advisor who spoke with cleveland.com's Jeremy Pelzer. That's a shift from February, when Ryan himself was much less committal after TV host Bill Maher asked him about the race.

"I don't know if I'm running for governor or not, but I appreciate the shoutout," he told Maher.

Ryan, however, was more brash on Friday, trash-talking GOP frontrunner Vivek Ramaswamy in a social media post.

"If I decided to run, which I haven’t, I’d beat him by 5 pts AT LEAST," wrote the ex-congressman. So far, the only Democrat to enter the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Mike DeWine is former state health director Amy Acton.

WI-Gov

Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann announced a bid for Wisconsin's governorship over the weekend, making him the first notable Republican to enter the race.

Schoemann, who served in Iraq with the Army National Guard, became the county's first elected executive in 2020 with an easy 62-38 victory in an officially nonpartisan race, then won a second term four years later without opposition.

Washington, together with Ozaukee and Waukesha, is known as one of the "WOW" counties that surround Milwaukee—a trio that has long been the chief bastion of GOP support in Wisconsin. Of the three, Washington is the most conservative, backing Trump by a 67-31 margin last year and displaying fewer signs of the leftward movement its two sister counties have shown in recent years.

Democrats, meanwhile, are waiting to hear from Gov. Tony Evers, who has said he'll decide whether to seek a third term after the state's biennial budget process concludes, which typically happens in July.

House

IA-03

State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott announced she would run against Republican Rep. Zach Nunn on Monday, making her the first notable Democrat to enter the race for Iowa's competitive 1st District.

Trone Garriott previously won three straight difficult elections to the state Senate, first flipping a GOP-held seat in 2020; then defeating the chamber's Republican president following redistricting in 2022; and finally surviving her campaign for a full four-year term by just 29 votes last year, even as Donald Trump was narrowly carrying her district.

A battle with Nunn, who just turned down a bid for governor, would be even harder fought. Nunn defeated Democrat Lanon Baccam last year by a 52-48 margin after an expensive battle, running just behind Trump's 52-47 showing in his Des Moines-area district, according to calculations from The Downballot.

Two other Democratic lawmakers have also said they're considering the contest, state House Minority leader Jennifer Konfrst and state Rep. Austin Baeth. Unlike Trone Garriott, though, Konfrst and Baeth would have to give up their seats in the legislature to run.

David Nir here, publisher of The Downballot! Readers like you are why we’re able to cover elections like nobody else. I hope today’s the day you decide to join us as a paid subscriber—we’d be incredibly grateful if you do.

IL-09

Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a longtime progressive icon, announced Monday that she would not seek a 15th term representing Illinois in the House.

Schakowsky's 9th District, which includes part of Chicago and the communities of Evanston and Skokie to the north, is solidly blue turf: Kamala Harris carried this constituency 68-31, according to calculations by The Downballot, so the eventual Democratic nominee should have no trouble holding it.

The 80-year-old Schakowsky had already drawn a primary challenge from political commentator Kat Abughazaleh, a newcomer to Illinois politics. With the congresswoman's departure, however, interest is certain to be high among Democrats, particularly since next year's election will be just the third time the 9th District has come open since Harry Truman occupied the White House.

Before winning elective office, Schakowsky was an advocate for consumer rights and senior citizens, jobs that sometimes involved making fellow Illinois Democrats uncomfortable. In 1989, Schakowsky organized a group of 100 irate seniors who famously heckled and chased down Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, seeking to confront him about increased costs of Medicare benefits.

The next year, Schakowsky won election to the state House. She got her chance to run for Congress in 1998 when Democratic Rep. Sidney Yates, who had represented the 9th District for all but two of the previous 50 years, decided to retire.

Schakowsky, saying she doubted she could "be defined as too far left in a district like this," won a three-way primary 45-34 against state Sen. Howie Carroll. The balance went to JB Pritzker, who wouldn't appear on the ballot again until his successful campaign for governor two decades later.

Schakowsky thereafter never had any trouble winning or keeping her seat and established herself as an outspoken liberal. She would also provide a high-profile early endorsement to state Sen. Barack Obama, who was the underdog for most of his 2004 primary for the U.S. Senate.

It was during that nomination battle that Schakowsky told the New Yorker writer William Finnegan about a meeting she had with George W. Bush in the Oval Office that would later become famous. The congresswoman recounted that Bush saw her "Obama" button as she was departing, and "jumped back, almost literally."

Schakowsky realized the commander in chief had mistaken her candidate's name for "Osama," and she "reassured him it was Obama, with a 'b.'" The congresswoman proceeded to tell Bush about Obama, to which she said he replied, "Well, I don't know him." Schakowsky laconically responded, "You will."

MD-01

Democrat Jake Day, a member of Gov. Wes Moore's Cabinet, says he's exploring a bid against Republican Rep. Andy Harris in eastern Maryland's 1st Congressional District.

Harris' turf has long included the most conservative parts of the state and voted for Donald Trump by a 57-40 margin last year. Harris himself turned back an unheralded Democratic opponent 59-37 in 2024.

But during the 2008 wave, Democrat Frank Kratovil pulled off a massive upset, defeating Harris 49-48 after Harris ousted longtime GOP Rep. Wayne Gilchrest in the primary. Two years later, however, the tide reversed, and Harris won a rematch 54-42.

Repeating Kratovil's feat would require exceptional good fortune, but Maryland Democrats hope that Day might be able to capitalize if the stars align. Day, an Army veteran, served as mayor of Salisbury, the largest city on Maryland's Eastern Shore, before joining Moore's team in 2023 as head of the state's housing department.

Maryland Matters describes Day as "one of the most high-profile members" of Moore's Cabinet and says that "leading Democrats" have encouraged him to run.

ME-02

Former Gov. Paul LePage, who'd reportedly been considering another comeback bid, announced on Monday that he'd run for Maine's 2nd Congressional District.

The 76-year-old LePage gives Republicans a well-known candidate to take on Democratic Rep. Jared Golden in a conservative-leaning district the GOP has repeatedly targeted, but he also brings a truckload of baggage with him.

While serving as governor, LePage regularly made headlines as an unfiltered proto-Trump with a penchant for commentary that was both offensive and untrue.

In 2016, for instance, LePage blamed the state's opioid epidemic on "guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty" who "come from Connecticut and New York" to "sell their heroin" then "go back home."

He added, "Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we've got to deal with down the road." Public records were later released that showed that most drug arrests in Maine involved white suspects.

Even if LePage might get less grief for what comes out of his mouth in rural northern Maine, his recent electoral track record there has been less than stellar. When LePage challenged Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in 2022, he carried the 2nd District by a soft 50-47 margin en route to a 56-42 drubbing statewide. Donald Trump, by contrast, won the district 54-44 last year.

LePage has also eroded his ties to his home state: Immediately after Mills succeeded him in 2018, he registered to vote in Florida, only to later move back for their rematch—albeit to a town in the 1st District. But following his loss, LePage again decamped for the Sunshine State, where he's since spent most of his time.

Given his prominence, however, LePage is likely to clear the field. What's less clear is who his opponent might be. At the start of the cycle, Golden had appeared set on pursuing LePage's old job, but he hasn't taken any affirmative steps toward a bid. Last month, Golden held out the possibility that he might run for the Senate, though he could also seek reelection.

NH-01

Journalist Hanna Trudo, who has worked at outlets like The Hill, Daily Beast, and Politico, is considering a bid for New Hampshire's open 1st Congressional District, reports Politico. According to her LinkedIn profile, Trudo left The Hill in March. She tells Politico that she's a "fourth-generation Granite Stater" and moved back home after Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas announced he'd run for Senate.

Maura Sullivan, a former Obama administration official and Marine veteran, is already seeking the Democratic nod in the swingy 1st District in the eastern part of the state, though several others are considering. No Republicans have joined the race yet.

SC-06

Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, who has represented South Carolina's 6th District for more than three decades, sounds strongly disinclined to retire even though he'll be 86 by Election Day.

"Nancy left her seat. Steny left his seat. I left my seat. What the hell I'm supposed to do now?" Clyburn told the Wall Street Journal when asked about whether there was a need for new blood in the Democratic Party. "What do you want—me to give up my life?"

Clyburn did not, however, leave his seat (or give up his life)—nor did Nancy Pelosi or Steny Hoyer. Rather, the three voluntarily relinquished their leadership positions atop the House Democratic caucus following the 2022 elections. All sought and easily won reelection last year.