Morning Digest: Nebraska conservatives want to put a near-total abortion ban on the ballot

Anti-abortion advocates say a new "spiritual battle" awaits

Opponents of abortion rights got a big victory last year in Nebraska, and a new campaign is underway to pass a near-total ban (credit: Nebraska Family Alliance Facebook)

Leading Off

NE Ballot

Conservatives in Nebraska are collecting signatures to put an amendment before voters next year that would impose a near-total ban on abortion in the state, the Nebraska Examiner's Juan Salinas reports.

The new effort comes after hardliners defeated an attempt to undo the state's current 12-week ban last year. Supporters of reproductive rights attempted to pass an amendment to guarantee the right to an abortion until fetal viability. Anti-abortion groups, however, placed a rival amendment on the ballot to enshrine the existing ban while still allowing lawmakers to pass more restrictive measures.

State law said that if both amendments won, the one with the highest vote total would become law regarding any conflicting provisions. It wasn't clear exactly how that might work out in practice because the amendments didn't overlap completely, but the question became moot: Nebraskans narrowly rejected the abortion rights amendment 51-49, while they voted 55-45 to uphold the status quo.

Despite their victory, however, many conservatives were—unsurprisingly—not content with Nebraska's 12-week ban. Last year, a campaign called Choose Life Now sought to place a third amendment before voters that would have effectively outlawed abortion altogether by granting "personhood" to fetuses. That effort, however, only kicked off late in the cycle, and after raising little money, organizers failed to qualify it for the ballot.

Choose Life Now, though, began its second effort mere months after the election. The group filed paperwork in January and officially launched what it called its new "spiritual battle" two months later.

"This initiative is all about ending abortion in Nebraska," one leader said at a March rally. "It proposes to amend the state constitution with very clear language that recognizes the person and the child in the womb."

So far, though, supporters have once again gotten off to a slow start on the fundraising front and reported having less than $12,000 in the bank in recent disclosures, Salinas writes. However, that could quickly change if some of the Republicans who funded the effort to preserve the 12-week ban open their wallets.

The campaign has until July of next year to collect signatures from 10% of all registered voters, as well as hit certain geographic targets in at least 38 of Nebraska's 93 counties. The exact requirement won't be known until the filing deadline because it's based on the registration numbers at the time, though the state had about 1.26 million registered voters as of the start of the month.

The Downballot Podcast

Primary season starts now

The 2025 primaries are underway! On this week's episode of The Downballot podcast, we're recapping all the action from Tuesday's elections in New Jersey and previewing next week's contests in Virginia. As per usual, there are also special elections to discuss, including a monster Democratic overperformance in Oklahoma.

We've also got the bizarre case of Republican Rep. Mark Green, who just announced his resignation … while reportedly in Guayana, where he's apparently in the midst of some mysterious business dealings that have even fellow Republicans saying, WTF?

The Downballot podcast comes out every Thursday morning everywhere you listen to podcasts. Click here to subscribe and to find a complete transcript!

Senate

IA-Sen

State Sen. Zach Wahls confirmed Wednesday that he would seek the Democratic nomination to face Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, an announcement that came two days after Semafor first reported that he'd run. Wahls joins veteran Nathan Sage and state Rep. J.D. Scholten in the primary.

Morning Digest: Joni Ernst draws major challenger after town hall outburst

IL-Sen

Democrat Awisi Bustos, who leads the Illinois Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs, filed paperwork with the FEC on Tuesday ahead of a possible campaign for Senate.

SC-Sen

Former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh, who just last week said he'd switched his affiliation to the Democratic Party, now tells Politico that he might also change his state of residence to run for the Senate.

"I am seriously considering moving to South Carolina and challenging Lindsey Graham next year, because he’s a piece of shit," said Walsh, who briefly represented Illinois in the House more than a decade ago. So far, pediatrician Annie Andrews is currently the only notable Democrat campaigning against Graham.

Walsh was elected to his sole term in Congress in 2010 as a tea party candidate, but his career seemed dead after Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth unseated him just two years later. Improbably, though, Walsh reemerged in 2019 when he launched a doomed campaign to wrest the GOP presidential nomination from Donald Trump, and he's continued to draw attention as a vocal Trump critic.

Governors

ME-Gov

University of Maine Trustee Owen McCarthy announced Wednesday that he was joining the busy Republican primary for the state's open governorship. McCarthy, who co-founded a medical device company, has never held elected office before.

MN-Gov

State House Speaker Lisa Demuth said Tuesday that she wasn't ruling out seeking the Republican nomination to take on Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.

"I would never say no to running for governor," she told radio host Jason DeRusha, right before cautioning, "I’m not telling you yes, so be very clear about that."

Demuth holds the title of speaker of the Minnesota House, which has an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, under a power-sharing agreement the two parties agreed to in February.

Fluence Media says that fellow state Rep. Kristin Robbins is also thinking about seeking the GOP nod for governor, though there's no quote from her. In February, Robbins expressed interest in running for the U.S. Senate just days after Democratic incumbent Tina Smith unexpectedly announced her retirement, but she doesn't appear to have said anything about the idea since then.

Businessman Kendall Qualls is currently the only notable Republican who has entered the race for governor. Walz has yet to announce whether he'll seek a third term, though he said in April he was likely to run again.

NM-Gov

Wealthy businessman Duke Rodriguez filed paperwork with the state this week for a possible campaign for governor of New Mexico, though he has not yet announced whether he'll enter the Republican primary for this open post. Rodriguez, who runs a large medical cannabis company, said last month he'd likely self-fund at least $2 million if he runs.

House

CA-32

Former Biden administration official Jake Levine is considering launching an intraparty challenge to Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, Inside Elections' Jacob Rubashkin reports. Sherman already faces opposition from Democrat Jake Rakov, one of his former staffers, in the top-two primary for California's safely blue 32th District.

Levine is the son of former Rep. Mel Levine, who represented part of the Los Angeles area from 1983 through 1993. The younger Levine, who does not appear to have sought elected office before, rose to become the Biden administration's senior director for climate and energy.

GA-05

Former Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill, who served 10 months in federal prison after he was convicted in 2022 of violating the civil rights of prisoners he oversaw, announced Tuesday that he'd wage a longshot Democratic primary challenge to Rep. Nikema Williams.

Hill, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes, was found guilty of punishing detainees by strapping them into restraint chairs for hours, and he's currently being sued over his actions. The former sheriff, though, says that the inmates he was incarcerated with were the ones who came up with the idea of him running for Georgia's safely blue 5th District.

IL-08

Former Commerce Department official Dan Tully on Wednesday joined the crowded Democratic primary for Illinois' 8th District, which Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi is giving up to run for the Senate.

Tully, a former judge advocate in the U.S. Army Reserve, said he recently left his post at Commerce because Donald Trump "is a danger to our country, our economy and our democratic way of life."

MI-07

Education policy professor Josh Cowen, who teaches at Michigan State University, tells the Detroit News he's considering seeking the Democratic nomination to take on GOP Rep. Tom Barrett. Cowen, who said he'd have more to say in the next few weeks, is one of several Democrats looking at running for Michigan's swingy 7th District.

Morning Digest: Two new Democrats could challenge highly vulnerable Michigan Republican

TN-07

Two Tennessee Republicans have launched campaigns to succeed GOP Rep. Mark Green, who said Monday he'd resign at some unspecified time after the passage of the GOP's pending budget bill.

Matt Van Epps stepped down from Gov. Bill Lee's cabinet on Tuesday to run, while Montgomery County Commissioner Jason Knight announced a bid the following day.

State Sen. Bill Powers and state Rep. Jody Barrett also tell the Tennessee Lookout's Sam Stockard that they're interested in running for the conservative 7th District, though Barrett professed to lack any "burning desire to climb any political ladder or get to the next proverbial level."

Former state Rep. Brandon Ogles, the cousin of neighboring Rep. Andy Ogles, also said he was thinking about running. Stockard adds that state Rep. Gino Bulso has been talked about as a possible candidate, but said he was unable to reach the legislator.

No one's sure exactly when the special election to replace Green will be, though, especially since the incumbent won't even say what he's doing next beyond joining the "private sector."

Green's colleagues tell NOTUS' Reese Gorman that the still-congressman has approached them about investing in the South American nation of Guyana, but, in the words of one source, he's been "super cagey" about providing details. Gorman adds that Green, the chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has utilized his "connections to try to land meetings with potential investors."

Green, who reportedly announced his upcoming departure while in Guyana, responded by insisting he'd followed House ethics rules and "never solicited a lobbyist or executive to purchase a company I own, or am planning to own, or am planning to work for." Not everyone in the GOP caucus, though, is appeased.

"What the fuck?" an unnamed member exclaimed to Gorman. "How do you line up a job before you resign?"

VA-01

Democratic activist Lisa Vedernikova Khanna, a former chief of staff to New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger, announced Wednesday that she would challenge Republican Rep. Rob Wittman in Virginia's 1st District. The first-time candidate used her announcement to emphasize her background as the daughter of an undocumented immigrant from the former Soviet Union.

Khanna entered the race just days after Chesterfield Clerk of Court Amanda Pohl became the first Democrat to challenge Wittman, whose district includes many of Richmond's suburbs as well as the western Chesapeake Bay. Calculations from The Downballot show that this constituency backed Donald Trump 52-47 after favoring him by a slightly wider spread in 2020, making this a rare district that moved to the left last year.

VA-11

A super PAC supporting Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw has released a poll showing him with a huge 41-8 lead over state Sen. Stella Pekarsky in the June 28 "firehouse" primary that Democrats are holding to choose a nominee, with six other candidates trailing still further.

This survey from Lake Research Partners, which was first shared by Punchbowl News, is the first poll we've seen of this month's contest. Whoever wins a plurality of the vote will be heavily favored in the Sept. 9 special election for Virginia's 11th District.

Washington, D.C. Delegate

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who turns 88 on Friday, has spent the last several days dealing with unwelcome questions about her reelection plans and her ability to serve as the nonvoting advocate for Washington, D.C., in the House.

Norton, a Democrat who is the oldest member of the lower chamber, initially told NBC on Tuesday she was "going to run" and didn't "know why anybody would even ask me." Hours later, though, she released a statement saying she was "still considering my options for the next election cycle."

Norton, who was first elected in 1990, was already the subject of a May piece in the Washingtonian in which reporter Rebecca Ritzel said she'd alarmed attendees at a gala when she "stumbled through a short speech in which she appeared to struggle with both reading and comprehension."

Days later, Mother Jones's Stephanie Mencimer wrote that Norton had difficulty answering questions at a town hall. A Washington Post story from last week also featured several admirers questioning whether she should remain in office, with one saying, "I just feel like the past few months, we’ve been behind—we’re reactive."

Norton, who is one of several elderly House Democrats facing ongoing questions about their political future, only drew more scrutiny after she backed off from her reelection announcement.

Following the about-face, the New York Times published a piece on Wednesday reporting that Norton "sometimes does not seem to recognize people she has known for years" and was "unable to function independently."

Norton responded to the questions about her health by defending her job performance, putting out a statement on Tuesday calling herself "among the most effective lawmakers in Congress" and pushing back on "anyone questioning my ability to continue serving effectively."

Should she decide to retire, though, her departure would be sure to set off a packed Democratic primary, especially because the winner would be assured victory in this bluest of cities. Norton's eventual successor would replace a delegate who made a name for herself in the national media, including as comedian Stephen Colbert's longtime "nemesis," by calling for statehood for her constituents.

Mayors & County Leaders

Harris County, TX Judge

Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker announced Wednesday that she would run in next year's Democratic primary for Harris County judge, a powerful post held by fellow Democrat Lina Hidalgo.

Hidalgo, who narrowly won a second term in the 2022 general election, has yet to announce whether she'll seek reelection as leader of America's third-largest county. (County judges in Texas are the equivalent of county executives elsewhere; they are not judicial positions.) Candidate filing closes in December.

Parker's 2009 victory made Houston the largest city in America to elect an openly gay mayor at the time, and it also established her as one of the most prominent Democrats in Texas. Term limits prohibited her from seeking reelection in 2015, though, and she went on to lead the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

Hidalgo made history herself in 2018 at the age of 27 when she unseated Republican County Judge Ed Emmett in a 50-48 squeaker. Hidalgo, who was born in Colombia and came to Texas as a teenager, became both the first woman and Latina to hold this office, as well as the first Democrat to do so since 1974. The judge went on to turn back a well-funded GOP opponent by a similarly close 51-49 margin in 2022.

The only Republican currently running is Aliza Dutt, who is mayor of the 3,000-person community of Piney Point Village, though others are sure to take a look. Kamala Harris carried the county 52-46, which represented a sizable shift to the right from Joe Biden's 56-43 performance four years earlier.

King County, WA Executive

The King County Council unanimously approved a no-confidence motion on Tuesday against County Assessor John Wilson after a former domestic partner accused him of stalking and harassing her. But Wilson, who has said the allegations are "exaggerated," insisted that he would both continue to run in this year's election for county executive and remain in his current office.

The auditor has accused his two main opponents, County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay, of promoting the motion in order to weaken him. The County Council does not have the ability to remove Wilson, who would be up for reelection next year; instead, the Seattle Times explains, a recall campaign would be required to oust him from office.

Balducci, Zahilay, and Wilson are all competing in the Aug. 5 top-two primary for the post that incumbent Dow Constantine is retiring from after four terms. (All are Democrats.) The two candidates who win the most votes in this officially nonpartisan race, which features five other little-known contenders, will advance to the November general election to lead Washington's largest county.

Correction: This piece misidentified the congressional District that California Rep. Brad Sherman represents; Sherman represents the 32nd District, not the 30th.