Morning Digest: Another senior House member draws a challenge from a fellow Democrat

Doris Matsui, who's represented Sacramento for 20 years, now faces an opponent half her age

Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang (D) (credit: Mai Vang Instagram)

Leading Off

CA-07

Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang launched a challenge against longtime Rep. Doris Matsui on Tuesday, setting up yet another battle between an elderly Democratic incumbent and a much younger intra-party opponent.

"I'm stepping into the ring to ensure that there's another choice—the people's choice-- on the ballot," Vang said at her kickoff.

"I have deep gratitude for the Matsui family, who have served our region for over 47 years, but in this moment, we need leaders who can actually meet the moment. That means leaders who are clear on their stance on immigration, clear on their stance on healthcare, and is clear on how we use our tax dollars."

Vang, 40, is the daughter of Hmong refugees who fled Laos following the Vietnam War and the eldest of 16 siblings. Vang first won her seat on the Council following a competitive race in 2020, then secured a second term without opposition four years later.

At 80, Matsui is twice as old as her new rival—and has been around local politics far longer. Her husband, Bob Matsui, was first elected to Congress in what was then numbered the 3rd District in 1978. He rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, but died on New Year's Day in 2005.

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His wife succeeded him a few months later, easily winning a special election. Matsui has never had trouble winning reelection to her safely blue district, now known as the 7th: During her long tenure, she's never earned less than two-thirds of the vote. The few Democrats who've sought to challenge Matsui over the years, however, have all been minor figures who lack backgrounds in elective office like Vang's.

Matsui's district could, however, soon undergo a considerable transformation—in ways that might both help and hurt the incumbent.

Under a new map that will go before California voters in November, more than a quarter of residents of the current 7th would be moved into new districts, meaning a large swath of voters would not have seen Matsui on their ballots before.

On the flipside, the district would become considerably redder to help make surrounding constituencies bluer: The old 7th voted for Kamala Harris by a 63-34 margin, but the new version would have yielded just a 55-42 win for her.

Counterintuitively, that could actually be good news for Matsui, since, if she advances through next year's top-two primary to the general election, she'd be more likely to face a Republican rather than a fellow Democrat. Since the district would still lean left, any Democrat would be the favorite over a Republican, while a race between two Democrats would be much less predictable.

You have more power than you think

Redistricting Roundup

IN Redistricting

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun is predicting that his fellow Republicans in the legislature will ultimately agree to redraw the state's congressional map, despite a decided lack of enthusiasm on their part to date.

"You're going to find that, probably, the legislators will come around to it," Braun told WOWO radio on Monday, in remarks transcribed by the Indiana Capitol Chronicle. "I'm going to give them time. I think eventually we'll get there."

Braun added that he'd like to call a special session "ideally sometime in November," though he also said the issue could be taken up when lawmakers convene for their next regularly scheduled session in January.

But in separate remarks to reporters on Tuesday, the governor acknowledged that support is currently lacking.

"We're going to poll our legislators, and if it's there, we're going to do it," he said. "My feeling is it probably will happen."

Braun also said that he might ask legislators to consider another topic during a special session: a vague proposal to, as the Indianapolis Star put it, "align Indiana law more" with Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

One Democratic lawmaker, however, says that Braun is trying to woo reluctant Republicans by piling new issues onto the agenda.

"It isn't really a one-issue special session," state Rep. Ed Delaney told reporters on Tuesday. "That's what he's trying to avoid because he can't get the support to have everybody come in just for that one issue. So he figures out, add to the list and that avoids that problem."

UT Redistricting

The Utah Supreme Court has declined to block a lower court ruling ordering lawmakers to produce a new congressional map, unanimously holding that Judge Dianna Gibson had not abused her discretion when she rejected their earlier request that she stay her own order.

As a result, Utah's Republican-dominated legislature must still publish a new map—that complies with an anti-gerrymandering ballot initiative voters approved in 2018—by Sept. 26 and pass one by Oct. 6.

Election Recaps

Special Elections

Former Brooklyn Park City Councilmember Xp Lee easily won Tuesday's special election to fill the seat held by former Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman, who was murdered along with her husband in June.

Lee defeated Republican Ruth Bittner by a 61-39 margin in the race for District 34B in the Minneapolis suburbs, a constituency that Kamala Harris carried 63-35 last year.

As a result of Lee's victory, the Minnesota House will once again see both parties tied with 67 members apiece. Thanks to that deadlock, which arose after Republicans flipped three seats in the 2024 elections, the two sides reached a power-sharing agreement in which committees are equally divided but the GOP holds the speakership. All 134 seats in the chamber will be on the ballot next year.

Governors

FL-Gov

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has decided to seek the Democratic nomination for governor, Florida Politics reported Monday, and could announce "as early as next month."

Demings, who cannot seek reelection next year as leader of the populous community that includes Orlando, didn't dispute those reports at a subsequent press conference that day.

"I'm not saying that I'm not going to run for governor," he told reporters. "Given these things that's been happening, I just might do that."

Demings would be Florida's first Black leader if he wins next year's race to succeed termed-out Gov. Ron DeSantis, but he faces a tough campaign in what's become a conservative state. The mayor's wife, former Rep. Val Demings, waged a well-funded challenge against Republican Sen. Marco Rubio in 2022, only to lose by double digits.

Demings would first need to get past former Rep. David Jolly, an ex-Republican who joined the Democratic Party earlier this year, in the Aug. 18 primary. The winner will likely face GOP Rep. Byron Donalds, who would also be the state's first Black governor.

GA-Gov

Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who was elected as a Republican to his only term in 2018, announced Tuesday that he was entering the Democratic primary for governor.

Duncan, who used his launch video to highlight how his former party turned him into a pariah after he condemned Donald Trump's election lies in 2020, touted himself as a "proud Democrat" who will "make Georgia the frontline of democracy and a backstop against extremism."

In January, the state GOP voted to boot Duncan, who endorsed Kamala Harris last year, from the party. But while the former lieutenant governor announced last month that he had joined the Democratic Party, his opponents in next year's primary for governor are eager to remind Duncan's new party about his not-so-recent past.

Former state Sen. Jason Esteves welcomed his new rival into the race by blasting out a 2019 photo of Duncan watching with approval as Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the state's "heartbeat bill," which sought to ban abortion after just six weeks. (The bill, unconstitutional at the time of its passage, later took effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.) "Georgia women won't forget," Esteves wrote in his release.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is also running to succeed the termed-out Kemp, piled on with her own statement.

"Georgians want a governor who has fought to expand Medicaid instead of eliminate it, who protects reproductive rights rather than stands 100% against them and who puts Georgia, not political ambition, first," she said.

Duncan backed away from his old anti-abortion positions last year when he informed CNN that he'd come to share Harris' position that "[y]ou don't have to step on your faith to say the government shouldn't have a say in your life."

He further told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week, "The highest quality an effective leader can have is having the ability to say that they got something wrong. And I got it wrong." In that same interview, he also said that he now backs Medicaid expansion, an idea he opposed when he was a Republican.

Duncan, though, will need to convince a majority of Democratic primary voters that he's on their side if he's to win the nomination.

Duncan and his opponents, who also include former DeKalb County Chief Executive Michael Thurmond and state Rep. Derrick Jackson, will face off on May 19. Candidates, however, need to clear 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff on June 16—a difficult task in a field this large.

MN-Gov

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday that he would attempt to become the first person to secure a third four-year term as chief executive of Minnesota.

"I've seen how we help each other through the hard times," Walz, who was Kamala Harris' running mate last year, tells the audience in a video announcing his bid for reelection. "And boy, we've seen terrible times this year."

The governor, who launched his campaign three weeks after a gunman killed two children at Minneapolis' Annunciation Catholic School, continues, "I'm heartbroken and angry about the beautiful people we lost to gun violence, but it's in these moments we have to come together."

The video goes on to show a photo of Walz with ​​state Rep. Melissa Hortman, who was murdered in June with her husband, Mark. The Minnesota Star Tribune said last month that their deaths led Walz, who had reportedly hoped Hortman would someday succeed him, to reconsider his plan to run again.

The incumbent, though, ultimately decided to defend the office he first won in 2018, saying, "I want to make Minnesota a place where everyone has a chance to succeed—in every corner of the state."

Walz would be the first Minnesota governor to win three conservative contests since Democrat Orville Freeman secured a trio of two-year terms in the 1950s. The state began electing its leaders to four-year terms in 1962, and no one has remained in office for more than eight years at a time.

If Walz wins and serves out a new term, he would replace fellow Democrat Rudy Perpich as the longest-serving governor in state history. Perpich was elevated to the top job from the lieutenant governorship in 1976, lost a bid for a full term in 1978, but then came back to win two terms starting in 1982.

Perpich, though, involuntarily left office a second time following his close loss to Republican Arne Carlson 1990. The GOP hopes that voters will agree that Walz has likewise overstayed his welcome.

"The American people looked at Tim Walz and said, 'no thanks,'" said state Rep. Kristin Robbins, who is seeking the GOP nod to take him on. "Now it's time for Minnesota to do the same!"

The Republican field also includes two candidates who unsuccessfully sought the post in 2022: former state Sen. Scott Jensen, who lost to Walz 52-45, and businessman Kendall Qualls, whom Jensen defeated for the party's nomination.

Several other Republicans, including state Sen. Julia Coleman and attorney Chris Madel, haven't ruled out running. The primary won't take place until Aug. 12, though the spring party convention may winnow the field. Walz, for his part, is unlikely to face any serious intraparty opposition.

Republicans last won a statewide race in 2006 when Gov. Tim Pawlenty narrowly secured a second and final term, though they've come close to breaking that long losing streak several times since then.

But Walz believes that voter anger with Donald Trump, who lost the state 51-47 last year, will make it difficult for Republicans to prevail this time around.

"I've always tried to do what's right for Minnesota," he says in his launch video, "and I'll never stop fighting to protect us from the chaos, corruption, and cruelty coming out of Washington."

NY-Gov

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul posts a 52-27 lead over Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik in Siena University's new poll, a big increase from the 45-31 advantage the school gave Hochul a month ago.

Siena's release did not include numbers testing Hochul's standing against Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado in next June's Democratic primary, though its last survey showed her ahead 50-15.

RI-Gov

State Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz tells the Boston Globe she will decide "fairly soon" if she will seek the Republican nomination for governor of Rhode Island.

"I am considering all options because so many people have asked me to run," she said. "I am not necessarily ready to leave the Senate, so it's a weighty decision for me."

De la Cruz's deliberations come as Democratic Gov. Dan McKee faces a difficult primary next September against former CVS executive Helena Foulkes.

VA-Gov

New fundraising reports continue to show Democrat Abigail Spanberger crushing Republican Winsome Earle-Sears in this fall's race for Virginia's open governorship, though Earle-Sears is finally getting some substantive support from the Republican Governors Association.

Spanberger outraised her opponent $14 million to $5.2 million in July and August and ended the period with a gigantic $12.2 million to $4.9 million cash on hand advantage.

The RGA is now trying to help make up that gap, though the overall spending advantage still heavily favors Democrats. Politico reports that the group is financing Earle-Sears' new $2.7 million ad campaign. Virginia, unlike most states, doesn't place limits on campaign contributions in state races, so the RGA was able to contribute the money directly to Earle-Sears.

The GOP nominee is using those funds to double down on her previous efforts by airing more transphobic commercials. In her newest ad, a narrator claims that Spanberger voted both to "let boys share locker rooms with little girls" and "change genders without telling their parents."

A day before the RGA jumped in, however, AdImpact reported that Spanberger's side enjoyed a massive $8.1 million to $80,000 advantage in ad reservations for the remaining seven weeks of the campaign. AdImpact previously noted that Earle-Sears has been buying ad time week-to-week rather than reserving it ahead of time.

But while Earle-Sears believes anti-trans bigotry is the best message her limited campaign funds can buy, Spanberger thinks the voters will care more about the massive cuts to the federal workforce wrought by Donald Trump this year.

The Democrat recently got a new line of attack when Vivek Ramaswamy, who is the GOP frontrunner for governor of Ohio, announced he'd hold an event for Earle-Sears this week.

"[H]e was one of the chief architects of the DOGE effort," Spanberger said of Ramaswamy in a video posted Tuesday. "You know, that same effort that has led to thousands upon thousands of Virginians losing their jobs."

Republicans received an unwelcome reminder the previous day of how poignant this issue is when Chris Stone, the party's nominee for a state House seat in Northern Virginia, announced he was ending his campaign because he needed to take a new job in another state.

Stone, who lost his position as a federal contractor in July, told the Prince William Times, "I pressed ahead with the campaign, expecting it to be a short-term issue." He added, "But now that our family budget is tight due to no income, I have to do what's best for my family and take the job I'm offered."

Recent Democratic fundraising success also extends further down the ticket. See our separate VA-AG, VA-LG item below.

House

ME-01

State Rep. Tiffany Roberts says she's exploring a possible challenge to Rep. Chellie Pingree in next year's Democratic primary, though she did not offer a timeline for making a decision.

Pingree, 70, has represented Maine's safely blue 1st District since 2009 and has never faced any opponents in a primary since her first race. Roberts, however, may not be positioning herself to capitalize on the grassroots groundswell mobilizing against senior House Democrats.

In a new interview with Maine Public Radio, Roberts "described herself as more of a centrist who is willing to work across the aisle."

"I do say I bring a different voice," she said. "And I just think that the semi-open primary will, in theory, play a part in that to see whether that is something that folks are looking for."

Roberts was referring to a change in Maine law that went into effect last year, allowing independents to vote in the party primary of their choosing. Previously, only those registered with a particular party could vote in primaries.

SD-AL

State Sen. Casey Crabtree just jumped into the race for South Dakota's open House seat, making him the second notable Republican seeking to succeed Rep. Dusty Johnson, who is running for governor.

Crabtree had served as majority leader in the Senate until earlier this year, when he was replaced after GOP primary voters ousted 14 incumbent lawmakers in a heated dispute over a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline.

As the South Dakota Searchlight explains, Crabtree sponsored legislation that sought to mitigate but not—as opponents demanded—ban the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the pipeline. Crabtree won another term, but many of his colleagues did not. Hardliners ultimately took over the legislature and passed a ban on using eminent domain for any carbon pipelines.

In his new bid for Congress, Crabtree joins Attorney General Marty Jackley in the Republican primary, though several others are eyeing the race.

Attorneys General

VA-AG, VA-LG

Democrats Jay Jones outraised Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares $4 million to $3.8 million in July and August, but the incumbent's years-long head start left him with a hefty $7.1 million to $3.7 million cash on hand advantage at the end of last month.

Miyares has used his financial reserves to outspend his opponent on the air. AdImpact says that Republicans have outspent Democrats $6.5 million to $2.1 million on ads, adding that Miyares' side enjoys a $5.6 million to $2.7 million advantage in reservations for the remainder of the campaign.

GOP donors, though, continue to show little interest in helping John Reid in the open-seat race for lieutenant governor. Democrat Ghazala Hashmi hauled in $1.4 million during this period, while Reid took in less than $400,000. Hashmi finished August with $2.2 million in the bank, while Reid had just over $300,000 available.

Mayors & County Leaders

Harris County, TX Judge

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced Monday evening that she would not seek a third term next year as leader of America's third-largest county.

Hidalgo, whose office is executive rather than judicial, made her plans known after a pair of fellow Democrats from Houston said they'd run whether or not she did as well. Those contenders are Annise Parker, who served as mayor from 2010 to 2016, and former City Councilwoman Letitia Plummer, who resigned so that she could run for Hidalgo's job.

Former Rep. Erica Lee Carter, by contrast, said in July she'd only enter if Hidalgo were to step aside, though she didn't immediately confirm that she still planned to seek what's now an open post. Carter won last November's special election to succeed her late mother, longtime Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, in the final two months of the 118th Congress, but she did not seek a full term.

Hidalgo's 2018 upset victory over Republican Judge Ed Emmett made her the first Democrat to hold this office since 1974, and the GOP is looking to take it back next year. The most prominent Republican in the race is Marty Lancton, who leads Houston's firefighters union.

Harris County has voted for every Democratic presidential nominee since Barack Obama first carried it in 2008, but Republicans are hoping they'll have an opening next year. 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.

Hidalgo, who narrowly won reelection in 2022, has also been locked in a nasty battle with the county's Commissioners Court, a legislative board on which Democrats hold a majority. The body voted last month to censure the judge after she brought several dozen children to a meeting as part of an unsuccessful effort to put a property tax extension on the ballot.

Party primaries will take place on March 3, but candidates need to win a majority of the vote to avoid a runoff on May 26.

Correction: This piece incorrectly stated that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz first won his post in 2010. He won it in 2018.

It also incorrectly stated that the late Rep. Bob Matsui rose to become the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. He was a senior member of the committee but never held the top post.