Morning Digest: A GOP congressman wanted to run for governor. Trump had other ideas.

Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn says he'll run for reelection—apparently, whether he wants to or not

Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn (R), at right (credit: Zach Nunn Facebook)

Leading Off

IA-Gov, IA-03

Rep. Zach Nunn ended the week exactly where he started: not running for governor.

Donald Trump announced Friday evening that Nunn would seek reelection to Iowa's swingy 3rd District rather than launch a bid for governor, a decision Nunn confirmed a short time later.

Trump broke the news a day after state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann informed KGAN that he'd also decided not to join the race to succeed retiring Gov. Kim Reynolds and would instead seek the position of majority leader in the state House next month. Trump, though, already scooped Kaufmann earlier this month when he took it upon himself to designate him "majority-leader elect."

That leadership post is vacant because fellow state Rep. Matt Windschitl relinquished it last week when he announced his campaign to replace Rep. Randy Feenstra, whom Kaufmann and Nunn would likely have had to get past in the primary for governor.

Nunn, for his part, reportedly was interested in pulling a Boebert by running to replace Feenstra in the dark red 4th District rather than defending the 3rd District. The possibility of a district swap was first raised by Jacob Rubashkin at Inside Elections a month ago, who said that "GOP strategists need to make sure Nunn runs [in the 3rd] instead of jumping to the 4th District."

Those strategists seem to have succeeded. Punchbowl's Ally Mutnick relays that when Nunn presumably broached the idea, the "White House shot that down." But despite MAGAworld's displeasure at the possibility that he might abandon a competitive seat, Nunn continued to look for an escape hatch.

Last week, the Des Moines Register reported that Nunn, who had previously rejected a bid for governor, had reversed course and was reconsidering whether to join the race after all. Not only did the White House oppose the idea, though, but other powerful far-right institutions did as well.

"RINO @ZachNunn has one of the lowest scores among Republicans in Congress," tweeted Club for Growth head David McIntosh. "He’d be an even worse governor."

One unnamed GOP strategist also took a shot at Nunn's efforts to shop around for a more winnable race, telling Punchbowl's Max Cohen, "It’s surprising to see a man with his commitment to service and mission put himself above the House majority and the president’s agenda."

Trump, however, definitively ended any such talk on Friday, when he posted to his Truth Social platform, "Just spoke to Great Combat Veteran Zach Nunn, and he is committed to the mission of, HOLDING THE MAJORITY."

Nunn will once again try to defend a Des Moines-area constituency that, according to calculations by The Downballot, favored Trump by a relatively close 52-47 spread last year after supporting him just 49.3 to 48.9 in 2020. State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott and state Rep. Jennifer Konfrst are both running to flip a district where Democrats are hoping a backlash against Trump will wipe away the GOP's recent gains.

Trump, though, doesn't think it'll be a problem at all for Nunn to be linked so closely to him.

"He is a team player, with a tremendous future—And 100% MAGA," Trump wrote. "Zach Nunn has my Complete and Total Endorsement. HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!"

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Zohran's pollster pulls back the curtain on how he won

2Q Fundraising

• LA-Sen: Bill Cassidy (R-inc): $2.1 million raised, $9 million cash on hand

• TX-Sen: Ken Paxton (R): $2.9 million raised; Terry Virts (D): $200,000 raised (in one week)

• WI-Gov: Josh Schoemann (R): $420,000 raised (in two months), $340,000 cash on hand

• CA-45: Derek Tran (D-inc): $830,000 raised, $1.1 million cash on hand

• FL-23: George Moraitis (R): $130,000 raised, $360,000 cash on hand

• MI-08: Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-inc): $800,000 raised, $1.25 million cash on hand

• NY-17: Mike Lawler (R-inc): $1.3 million raised, $2.2 million cash on hand

• NY-18: Pat Ryan (D-inc): $750,000 raised, $1.6 million cash on hand

• TN-07: Matt Van Epps (R): $100,000 raised (in three weeks)

• WI Supreme Court: Chris Taylor: $580,000 raised (in six weeks)

Senate

AL-Sen, AL-01

Republican Rep. Barry Moore is set to make what he's called a "BIG announcement" on Aug. 15.

Moore, who has talked about running for Alabama's open U.S. Senate seat, did not reveal what he'll be announcing, but his choice of venue—the town of Sylvania in the northeastern part of the state—is far outside of the boundaries of his 1st Congressional District.

Navy SEAL veteran Jared Hudson and Attorney General Steve Marshall have so far had the GOP primary to themselves as they campaign to succeed Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a fellow Republican who is on a glide path in the governor's race. If Moore joins them, he's set off another open-seat race to replace him in the 1st, a dark red constituency based in southern Alabama.

FL-Sen, FL-Gov, FL-AG

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz tells Politico that he doesn't intend to seek any office next year, which hopefully means this is the last we'll hear from him this cycle. Hopefully. Given Gaetz's love of flirting with running for higher office, though, we'll wait for candidate filing to close in Florida next spring until we can be sure.

House

AZ-01

Attorney Mark Robert Gordon, a member of the Democratic National Committee, said Thursday that he was joining the primary to face Republican Rep. David Schweikert in Arizona's swingy 1st District.

The Arizona Republic's Laura Gersony writes that Gordon is a voting rights attorney and longtime party activist going back to the 1980s. He's also a former actor who, among other things, was a recurring character on the soap opera "Guiding Light" in the 1990s.

Gordon ran for secretary of state in 2018 but failed to make the ballot after election officials determined that he'd failed to turn in the requisite number of signatures. He initially filed a lawsuit alleging that the secretary of state's office lost over 1,000 of his signatures, but Gordon ultimately withdrew his suit and backed Katie Hobbs; Hobbs went on to win the general election and was elected governor in 2022.

Gordon is the fifth notable Democrat to enter the race to flip this constituency in the Phoenix area. The field already consists of former state Rep. Amish Shah, who was Schweikert's opponent last year; Marlene Galan-Woods, a former TV anchor who took a close third place against Shah in the last primary; and a pair of businessmen, Rick McCartney and Jonathan Treble.

The 1st District is one of the most competitive in the nation: Calculations by The Downballot show that Donald Trump won it by just a 51-48 margin, four years after Joe Biden carried it by an even slimmer 50-49 spread.

IL-02

State Sen. Willie Preston tells Politico he's considering running to replace Rep. Robin Kelly, a fellow Democrat who is running for the Senate. Several Democrats are already campaigning for Illinois' 2nd District, a safely blue seat based in the Chicago area.

IL-07

Former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin has filed campaign paperwork with the FEC for a potential campaign to replace Democratic Rep. Danny Davis, whom Boykin once worked for as his chief of staff. Politico, however, previously reported that Boykin was only interested in running if the 83-year-old incumbent retires.

TN-06

Former Rep. Van Hilleary announced Friday that he is running for the House after nearly a quarter century out of office. Tennessee's 6th District is open because Republican Rep. John Rose, who employs Hilleary as his chief of staff, is running for governor.

Hilleary, whose previous tenure ran from 1995 to 2003, entered the race a few days after state Rep. Johnny Garrett became the first notable Republican to announce a campaign. This constituency, which includes eastern Nashville communities to the east, backed Donald Trump 67-32 last year.

Hilleary, who left the House after losing a tight race for governor to Democrat Phil Bredesen in 2002, wants to regain his old job after a 24-year break. He wouldn't be shattering any records, though: A 19th-century Maryland Democrat named Philip Francis Thomas waited 34 years—from 1841 to 1875—to return to the House.

Unlike Hilleary, however, Thomas got to serve as governor of his state during the intervening time.

VA-01

Attorney Melvin Tull announced Thursday that he would oppose Republican Rep. Rob Wittman in Virginia's 1st District, a longtime Republican stronghold where Democrats see an opening next year thanks to shifting political trends. Tull, an Army veteran who does not appear to have sought office before, joins three other notable Democrats in the primary.

Calculations from The Downballot show that the 1st District voted for Donald Trump 52-47 in November after supporting him 52-46 four years earlier, which makes it the only one of Virginia's 11 congressional districts that moved to the left last year.

Mayors & County Leaders

King County, WA Executive

King County Assessor John Wilson said Thursday that he was suspending his campaign for county executive, a decision that came the week after he was arrested for allegedly violating a restraining order his former domestic partner filed against him.

Wilson's name will remain on the Aug. 5 top-two primary ballot, but there's little question that Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay, who both serve on the County Council, will advance to the November general election. (All three are Democrats.)

The winner of this officially nonpartisan election will become the leader of Washington's largest county, which is home to Seattle and nearby communities, and consequently will become one of the most prominent politicians in the state.

The previous executive, Democrat Dow Constantine, announced last year that he would not seek a fifth term. He later resigned in March to head the regional transit authority. Shannon Braddock was appointed by the County Council to serve the rest of Constantine's term but is not running for a full term.

New York, NY Mayor

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo will announce this week that he will run as an independent for mayor of New York, NY1's Ayana Harry reports.

While Cuomo, who lost last month's Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani, has a spot on the November ballot under his self-created "Fight and Deliver" ballot line, he spent the last few weeks keeping everyone guessing whether he'd do any active campaigning.

Mayor Eric Adams is also on the ballot as an independent, with Republican Curtis Sliwa and unaffiliated candidate Jim Walden rounding out the field. Harry reports that Cuomo will call for his fellow non-Mamdani candidates to drop out by mid-September if they’re polling poorly in order to avoid fracturing the vote—there's no ranked choice voting for the general election—though the deadline for anyone to remove their names from the November ballot passed last month.