Morning Digest: Democrats are demanding new blood in primaries, but what about Republicans?

80-year-old Rep. Jim Baird may soon find out whether the GOP wants "generational change," too

Indiana Rep. Jim Baird (R), at left (Jim Baird Facebook)

Leading Off

IN-04

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Monday endorsed state Rep. Craig Haggard’s primary campaign against Rep. Jim Baird, an 80-year-old Republican who is seeking reelection in the deeply conservative 4th Congressional District.

While Rokita, who is Baird’s immediate predecessor, did not mention the four-term incumbent or his age, he argued in a statement that the challenger would bring about much-needed “change in this district.”

“[W]e need fresh, strong voices that believe in what they fight for,” Rokita said of Haggard, who is in his mid-to-late 50s. The attorney general promised that, if Republicans nominate Haggard on May 5, they’d be getting “a strong conservative fighter.”

Baird responded with a single sentence: “Congressman Baird is proud to have received the ‘complete and total endorsement’ of President Donald J. Trump.”

Trump delivered that endorsement in late January, a few weeks after Baird and his wife, Danise Baird, were badly hurt in a car crash. She died from her injuries in early March.

A third Republican, frequent candidate John Piper, is also running again after taking 8% of the vote against Baird in 2024. While Piper has attracted little attention for his second bid, his presence on the ballot could make it tougher for Haggard to earn enough votes to oust the incumbent. (Indiana does not require runoffs if no candidate earns a majority.)

Baird is seeking reelection at a time when many of his Democratic colleagues in their 70s and 80s face tough challenges from intraparty opponents who’ve argued that it’s time for change. Their Republican counterparts, though, have largely avoided such criticism.

One key reason for this is that Trump, who is himself 79, has been happy to provide his endorsement to keep loyal octogenarians in office. Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, 82, for instance, launched his reelection campaign last year with Trump’s backing, a move that helped deter any serious primary foes from running against him.

Baird is also seeking reelection even though political observers have spent years speculating that he would soon retire so that his son, state Rep. Beau Baird, could replace him.

Haggard, who said in 2023 he’d run whenever the incumbent retired, has been the source of some of this chatter: He noted that year that the congressman’s merchandise now emphasizes just the name “Baird.”

Both Bairds, though, ended up seeking reelection the following year, and the younger Baird won both his primary and general election without opposition. The congressman, by contrast, won renomination 65-27 against businessman Charles Bookwalter, a performance that, while not close, also wasn’t impressive for an incumbent in a primary. (The balance went to Piper.)

Baird easily prevailed in the fall general election for this safely red constituency, but talk soon began anew that 2026 would be the year he’d step aside for his son. Haggard, who got tired of waiting for the congressman to retire, announced last summer that he’d run, even though he said he didn’t know which member of the family might stand in his way.

“I believe I’ll be running against a Baird,” Haggard told the Indianapolis Star. “Which Baird? I don’t know.”

Jim Baird answered that question a few days later, and he did not hide his disgust with his primary opponent.

“Three years ago, my opponent was quoted by donors, stating I had only 18 months to live—a disgraceful lie,” the congressman said in a press release about a claim he alone seems to be the source for. “Now he says I’m retiring. What will he say next?”

Haggard was undeterred and continued his campaign to represent Indianapolis’ western suburbs and parts of west-central Indiana after learning he’d need to get past the incumbent.

The challenger shifted to criticizing the incumbent’s performance in office, telling the Indiana Capital Chronicle in December, “The reason I have the endorsements I have and the support I have is, I believe, the majority of the 4th Congressional District feels like it’s not currently being served by their current congressman.”

The GOP gets walloped—in Florida

Election Recaps

AR-SoS

State Sen. Kim Hammer won the Republican nomination for Arkansas secretary of state on Tuesday night by narrowly defeating Bryan Norris, who had the support of election conspiracy theorists like Mike Lindell, 50.6 to 49.4 in a primary runoff.

Hammer, who had the backing of prominent Republicans like Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sen. Tom Cotton, is now all but assured victory in the fall in this dark-red state.

Redistricting Roundup

WI Redistricting

A panel of three Wisconsin judges dismissed a Democratic-backed lawsuit challenging the state’s congressional map as an unlawful partisan gerrymander on Tuesday, ruling it lacked the power to do as plaintiffs asked.

In essence, the judges concluded in an 18-page opinion, plaintiffs wanted the court to overrule a past decision from the state Supreme Court, in which it found that state courts could not adjudicate claims of partisan gerrymandering. That prior ruling, known as Johnson I, came before conservatives lost their majority on the Supreme Court in 2023 but has yet to be directly overturned.

The conservative majority also imposed a new map in a subsequent decision called Johnson II, largely preserving a GOP-drawn gerrymander from a decade earlier. Plaintiffs argued that this second ruling violated the separation of powers doctrine, but the panel said it was likewise not empowered to revisit a decision from the state’s top court.

Plaintiffs can appeal to the state Supreme Court, though it’s not yet clear whether they will. A separate lawsuit challenging the congressional map on different grounds remains underway, but a motion to dismiss is still pending, and a trial, should one be needed, is not set to take place until April of 2027.

Governors

CA-Gov

A new super PAC opposed to billionaire Tom Steyer has launched an ad campaign seeking to thwart him in June’s top-two primary and has a budget of $25 million, Politico reports.

The group, called California is Not for Sale, is funded by real estate developers and building trade unions, according to the site. Its commercials, however, don’t focus on housing but rather seek to question Steyer’s liberal bona fides.

One spot charges that his hedge fund “invested $90 million in the Corrections Corporation of America, the private prison giant that cages migrants for ICE.” Another hits similar themes and includes a clip of Steyer saying, “I have no regrets about my investing career.”

MN-Gov

Private equity investor Mike Newcome, a conservative-leaning third-party candidate who’d been running for Minnesota’s open governorship under the “Forward Independence” banner, has dropped his bid after four months in the race.

Republicans have a busy primary in the race to replace retiring Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar is the only notable Democrat running. Newcome’s decision to quit means there are no notable independents in the race, though former Gov. Jesse Ventura has mooted a comeback.

NY-Gov

New York’s Public Campaign Finance Board denied Republican Bruce Blakeman $7 million in state matching funds for his campaign for governor on Tuesday in a 4-3 decision that broke down along partisan lines.

Blakeman, the county executive for Long Island’s populous Nassau County, told the New York Post before the panel’s determination that he “will pursue legal remedies” should his request for funds be rejected.

The four Democrats on the board found fault with Blakeman’s application because he did not include the name of his candidate for lieutenant governor, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood.

The 2026 midterms mark the first time that gubernatorial hopefuls in New York will get to pick their running mates. In the past, nominees for governor and lieutenant governor were chosen in separate primaries, sometimes leading to awkward “shotgun weddings” in the general election.

As the New York Times’ Grace Ashford notes, Blakeman had yet to tap Hood when he first sought matching funds late last year and did not update his application after he announced his selection in February.

This is also the first year that candidates for governor are eligible to receive matching funds under the state’s program, which was established in 2022. (New York City has a much older program that dates back to 1988.)

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she will not participate, even though participants are subject only to some additional disclosure requirements and, for statewide candidates, must take part in a one-hour public debate. Notably, the program imposes no spending caps and does not limit fundraising beyond existing state law.

Poll Pile

• ME-Sen (D): Impact Research for Troy Jackson:

  • Graham Platner: 66, Janet Mills: 28.

  • Troy Jackson is running for governor and supports Platner for Senate.

• NC-Sen: Catawba College and YouGov:

  • Roy Cooper (D): 48, Michael Whatley (R): 34.

• TX-Sen (R): GQR for Senate Majority PAC:

  • Ken Paxton: 47, John Cornyn (inc): 42.

  • Senate Majority PAC is the main pro-Democratic super PAC in Senate races.

• GA-Gov (D): 20/20 Insight for Penny Brown Reynolds:

  • Keisha Lance Bottoms: 32, Jason Esteves: 14, Geoff Duncan: 12, Michael Thurmond: 11, undecided: 30.

  • Brown Reynolds is a Democratic candidate for secretary of state.

• NV-Gov: Hart Research for The Majority Institute:

  • Joe Lombardo (R-inc): 46, Aaron Ford (D): 43.

  • The poll was conducted Feb. 11-17. The Majority Institute is a pro-Democratic group.

• NY-Gov: Siena University:

  • Kathy Hochul (D-inc): 47, Bruce Blakeman (R): 34. (Feb.: 51-31 Hochul)

• NY-Gov: Echelon Insights and Tusk Strategies:

  • Hochul (D-inc): 55, Blakeman (R): 40.

• CA-11 (top-two primary): Data for Progress for Saikat Chakrabarti:

  • Scott Wiener (D): 32, Saikat Chakrabarti (D): 20, Connie Chan (D): 17, another candidate: 13.

  • Previously unreleased January poll: Wiener: 37, Chan: 17, Chakrabarti: 16.

• PA-01: Global Strategy Group for Bob Harvie:

  • Brian Fitzpatrick (R-inc): 48, Bob Harvie (D): 42.

• UT-01 (D): Data for Progress for Nate Blouin:

  • Ben McAdams: 36, Nate Blouin: 23, Eva Lopez Chavez: 7, Kathleen Riebe: 7, other candidates 2% or less.

• NV-AG (R): Pulse Opinion Science for Danny Tarkanian:

  • Danny Tarkanian: 55, Adriana Guzman Fralick: 17.