Morning Digest: Democrats begin piling into Maine's newly reopened Senate race
Five familiar names are already running
Leading Off
ME-Sen
Democrats began piling into Maine’s newly reopened Senate race after Graham Platner announced on Wednesday that he’d quit his campaign following rape allegations, all of whom previously ran for office this cycle.
One candidate actually jumped in even before Platner’s announcement, brewery owner Dan Kleban. Last year, Kleban briefly ran in the Democratic primary that Platner eventually won but abandoned his effort after just six weeks.
While he was a candidate, Kleban initially wavered when asked in September if he’d continue his bid if Gov. Janet Mills were to enter the contest, then told Semafor, “I’m 100% in this race. I don’t really care who gets in.” Ultimately, though, he dropped out the day that Mills kicked off her ill-fated campaign and endorsed her, saying in a statement that she was “the right leader for this moment and is in the best position to win.”
Shortly after Platner’s departure, former state Senate President Troy Jackson launched his own bid. He was soon followed the next day by former state health director Nirav Shah, former congressional aide Jordan Wood, and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
Jackson, Shah, and Bellows all sought the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed Mills, a primary that was won by former state House Speaker Hannah Pingree following ranked-choice tabulations.
The four were tightly bunched up in the first round of that race. Shah was the first choice of 27% of voters, while Pingree took 23%, Jackson 21.1%, and Bellows 20.6%. However, Pingree, Jackson, and Bellows had formed an alliance, urging their supporters to rank all three. It paid off: After Bellows and Jackson were eliminated in subsequent rounds, Pingree defeated Shah 56-44 in the fourth and final round.
As for Wood, he, like Kleban, also ran a short-lived campaign for the Senate but never registered in the polls. After Democratic Rep. Jared Golden unexpectedly announced his retirement in November, he switched over to the suddenly open race for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. Wood was eliminated in the second round of the primary, which was won by state Auditor Matt Dunlap.
Jackson had endorsed Platner in March, while Mills was still running, while Shah, Bellows, and Wood only lined up behind him after Mills suspended her campaign at the end of April. It does not appear that Kleban ever switched his endorsement.
It’s not yet clear how exactly Democrats will choose between these options, or when. On Wednesday, shortly before Platner dropped out, the state party said in a statement that it had voted to hold a “nominating convention” to select a candidate and promised more information about the details of that process “soon.”
According to an unnamed source who spoke with the Bangor Daily News, Democrats plan to convene approximately 600 people, including “500 delegates elected proportionally by county committees” and the 113 members of its governing body, known as the Democratic State Committee. Under Maine law, a new candidate must be selected by July 27.
Platner, meanwhile, still has yet to file the paperwork required to withdraw from the race, even though he could do so by fax or email. According to Axios, Platner has told his campaign staff that he won’t do so until Monday, which is the final day to submit the necessary papers. If he fails to act by then, it’s very unlikely Democrats would be able to replace him.
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2Q Fundraising
OH-Gov: Amy Acton (D): $9.4 million raised, $10 million cash on hand
AZ-06: JoAnna Mendoza (D): $1.9 million raised, $3.1 million cash on hand
FL-16: Sydney Gruters (R): $960,000 raised
FL-25: Dan Franzese (R): $39,000 raised, additional $1 million self-funded, $1.1 million cash on hand
KY-06: Zach Dembo (D): $625,000 raised, $500,000 cash on hand
MN-01: Jake Johnson (D): $650,000 raised, $950,000 cash on hand
Governors
AL-Gov
State Judge Brooke Reid on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging Republican Tommy Tuberville’s eligibility to serve as Alabama governor, concluding that she didn’t have the authority to proceed.
Reid, who did not rule on the merits of the case, said last week she anticipated the state Supreme Court would have the final word on whether Tuberville has lived in the state for the requisite seven years prior to Election Day. The plaintiffs have not yet announced if they’ll appeal, but their attorney also predicted Thursday the state’s highest court would ultimately determine Tuberville’s fate.
Tuberville, who last voted in Florida in 2018, launched a successful campaign for the U.S. Senate back in Alabama the next year. His critics, though, argue that Tuberville continued to reside in Florida after Nov. 3, 2019, when the seven-year period would have begun.
CO-Gov
Christian ministry founder Victor Marx, who has said his stepfather forced him to kill a man when he was seven years old, has won the Republican primary for governor in Colorado, the Associated Press projects.
The AP’s call came more than a week after election night, when state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer held a narrow advantage. But later-counted votes consistently favored Marx, who is currently ahead 39.9 to 39.4.
Marx, who refused to tell 9News’ Kyle Clark the total number of people he’s killed in a May interview, will now be an extreme underdog against the Democratic nominee, state Attorney General Phil Weiser, as the two vie to succeed term-limited Democratic incumbent Jared Polis.
House
MI-13
State Rep. Donavan McKinney’s new ad focuses on allegations that a pharmaceutical lab owned by Rep. Shri Thanedar abandoned hundreds of animals in 2010 after the company went bankrupt, a story that has followed Thanedar throughout his political career.
“Shri Thanedar tested drugs on dogs, then left them to die,” the audience hears a reporter say. “The allegations involve mistreatment of dogs and monkeys used for testing. … The dogs were found abandoned without food and water.”
The narrator for McKinney, who is challenging Thanedar in next month’s Democratic primary for Michigan’s safely blue 13th District, concludes by calling the incumbent “one sick puppy.”
These allegations first became widely known in 2018 when Thanedar, a wealthy first-time candidate, was seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. Thanedar responded by claiming Bank of America was “anxious to sell all of the assets” of the shuttered New Jersey lab, including 118 beagles and 55 monkeys.
A HuffPost report, though, found that the bank’s receiver had asked the bankruptcy court for permission to place the animals in sanctuaries, and that it was Thanedar who had unsuccessfully tried to have them sold. That piece also highlighted a 2010 USA Today story saying that “[t]he animals’ caretakers had reportedly climbed fences to provide food and water until more solid arrangements were made.”
Thanedar, who was the target of attack ads from the Humane Society, would go on to badly lose the primary to now-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The scandal, however, didn’t prevent him from getting elected to the state House in 2020 and to Congress two years later. And while Thanedar’s detractors have occasionally brought up the allegations, this appears to be the first time in eight years that anyone has run a commercial about them.
“All animals were fully cared for and went to good homes,” the congressman said in a statement to the Detroit News in response to McKinney’s ad. He also pointed to praise from groups like his old critics at the Humane Society, which said in 2024 that, despite his past, he’d “made animal welfare a legislative priority.”
McKinney’s commercial comes just days after Thanedar debuted his own spot attacking the challenger for accepting $2,000 in contributions for his old legislative campaign from Matthew Moroun, a major Republican donor who owns the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit to Canada.
“Some bridges connect people. The Ambassador Bridge connects Donavan McKinney to Donald Trump,” charged Thanedar’s narrator. “McKinney is funded by the billionaire bridge owner Matt Moroun, who gave $1 million to Trump’s super PAC.”
The challenger’s team told the Detroit News that the Moroun family had donated to food programs McKinney led, adding that Moroun’s contributions were “put toward community events, not to promote his legislative candidacy or campaign.”
NH-01
VoteVets, an influential group that backs Democrats with national security backgrounds, announced Thursday that it was launching a $150,000 ad campaign to aid Marine veteran Maura Sullivan in the busy Sept. 8 primary for New Hampshire’s open 1st District.
The commercial begins with a clip of Donald Trump bragging, “I’m profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash.” VoteVets’ narrator jumps in, “Insider families. Insider corruption. Only one candidate has what it takes to take them on.”
Sullivan, whom the ad touts as part of “a new generation of leadership,” is one of nine Democrats campaigning to replace Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, who is giving up this competitive House seat to run to succeed retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Sullivan’s most prominent intraparty opponent is Stefany Shaheen, a former Portsmouth City Council member and the daughter of the outgoing senator. The lineup also features Hampton Selectwoman Carleigh Beriont, state Rep. Heath Howard, attorney Christian Urrutia, and four other candidates.
A recent survey from Saint Anselm College showed Shaheen leading Sullivan 22-15, with Howard at 9% and the rest of the field earning 3% or less. A 47% plurality of respondents, though, were undecided.
Five Republicans are campaigning to flip a constituency that, according to calculations from The Downballot, supported Kamala Harris by a slender 51-49 spread. Saint Anselm, though, found that none of the GOP hopefuls have emerged as a frontrunner, with more than 60% of voters saying they haven’t made up their minds.
DCCC
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Manny Rutinel and Cait Conley to its Red to Blue program on Thursday after their respective victories in the primaries for Colorado’s 8th District and New York’s 17th District last month, but it has yet to induct a third candidate everyone is waiting on.
Maine State Auditor Matt Dunlap secured the nomination for the 2nd District in June by defeating state Sen. Joe Baldacci, who was a Red to Blue member before he lost. The DCCC even ran joint ads with Baldacci after a shadowy conservative group meddled in the primary to boost Dunlap and attack Baldacci.
The DCCC responded to Dunlap’s victory days later with a statement saying he was “uniquely positioned to win back the working families” that Republican nominee Paul LePage, Maine’s former governor, had cast aside. Dunlap’s campaign manager likewise told the Bangor Daily News the candidate is “in conversations with DCCC leadership, they’re very much supporting us and helping us out.”
State Legislature
FL State House
A Florida judge on Wednesday rejected Republican state Rep. Paula Stark’s lawsuit to get back onto the ballot, though he gave her another week to show that she’d actually submitted a required document to state election officials before a key deadline last month. If Stark fails in court, though, Democrats will automatically flip her seat in the GOP-dominated chamber without opposition.
Stark, who narrowly flipped the 47th District in the Orlando area in 2022, stunned just about everyone on June 12 when filing closed and her name was not listed on the secretary of state’s list of candidates.
Officials said that because Stark had failed to file a necessary financial disclosure form, her candidacy could not move forward. The lawmaker went to court to restore her name to the ballot, maintaining that she submitted the document before filing closed.
Judge Joshua Hawks, though, on Wednesday sided with election administrators who said that they would have stamped Stark’s disclosure form if she’d submitted it on time. Hawks’ ruling still gives Stark another seven days to provide evidence that she’d acted in time, but the judge said she’s off the ballot unless she can make her case.
But if Stark fails to persuade Hawks, the winner of the Aug. 18 Democratic primary between Jorge Figueroa and Anthony Nieves will win her seat by default because no other Republicans or write-in candidates filed.
Poll Pile
FL-Gov (R): David Jay Wolfson for Jay Collins:
Byron Donalds: 38, Collins: 20, James Fishback: 10, Paul Renner: 2.
PA-07: GBAO Research for House Majority PAC:
Bob Brooks (D): 47, Ryan Mackenzie (R-inc): 43.
Calling out Mainers - who’s best positioned to win this seat now !!??
Having Paula Stark lose in court benefits FL Democrats. I think the seat would flip to Democrats even if she qualified (being that it's mostly an Orange County seat).