Morning Digest: Furious Republican congressman doesn't rule out voting for Democrat vying to succeed him

Two months on, Mark Amodei is still pissed about a candidate who parachuted into northern Nevada

Republican Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada. (Credit: Mark Amodei Facebook)

Leading Off

NV-02

Two months after the state’s primaries, bitter feelings continue to linger in northern Nevada as retiring Republican Rep. Mark Amodei still won’t endorse the man who won the GOP nomination in the race to succeed him—and hasn’t ruled out voting for his Democratic opponent.

Repeatedly pressed by longtime Nevada journalist Sam Shad on his show Nevada Newsmakers, Amodei expressed nothing but contempt for Air Force veteran David Flippo, who defeated his preferred candidate, former state Sen. James Settelmeyer, 47-35.

“No. Not my cup of tea,” the congressman said in an interview flagged by the Nevada Independent. “Listen, go get him, Tiger. Good luck. But you pull out of [Congressional District] 4 72 hours after I say I’m not coming back. Oh, there’s a Republican seat. I’m going to go run for it. You run an absolutely scurrilous campaign against the guy who’s one of the nicest guys around.”

Amodei was referencing Flippo’s decision to jettison his second bid for the swingy 4th District in the Las Vegas area and instead seek the much redder 2nd District, even though he had no ties to the region.

“The voters are never wrong. But guess what? Mark Amodei’s not endorsing him,” he continued. “I wish him all the best. No way. No, thank you.”

Flippo managed to earn Donald Trump’s endorsement, but that move sparked rare dissent from Amodei, who wrote on social media that Trump had “made a mistake.”

“With all due respect Mr. President, Nevada already has five representatives who live in Clark County,” Amodei posted, referring to the populous county that’s home to Vegas. “Your endorsement if followed, would make it six out of six.”

There’s still a chance, though, that Amodei’s six-out-of-six prophecy might not come to pass.

The 2nd District, which voted for Trump by a 56-42 margin, has always been inhospitable for the Democratic Party ever since it was first created more than 40 years ago.

However, Flippo’s lack of roots in the region combined with a favorable political environment has Democrats hoping their nominee, former state Assembly Majority Leader Teresa Benitez-Thompson, might be able to pull off an upset.

Flippo himself hasn’t helped matters. After relocating earlier this year from Vegas to Reno—some 400 miles to the north—he told a group of supporters, “I’m from everywhere. I don’t have a hometown,” in remarks quoted by the Independent.

The ongoing GOP infighting could also play a role. Asked by Shad whether he might cast a ballot for Benitez-Thompson, Amodei noted that an independent is also on the ballot before saying, “So as we get closer to the start of early voting, I’ll make my mind up.”

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The pro-pipe bomb Republican running for secretary of state

Election Recaps

HI-01 (D) (62-37 Harris)

Rep. Ed Case turned back a challenge from state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole in Saturday’s Democratic primary by a 58-37 margin, all but ensuring the moderate congressman will win another term representing Hawaii’s safely blue 1st District.

Keohokalole, who is three decades Case’s junior, had argued that the incumbent—who, among other things, voted for the SAVE Act—had failed to stand up to Donald Trump. A late internal poll for Keohokalole’s campaign from BluePrint Polling showed him up 47-38, but it proved to be far off the mark.

However, the 73-year-old congressman’s showing on Saturday was by far his weakest in a House primary while in office, suggesting he could be vulnerable in the future.

House

LA-06, LA-05

Republican state Sen. Blake Miguez announced Friday that he would seek Louisiana’s redrawn 6th District, an open seat that Miguez and his colleagues completely transformed in May, rather than pursue a bid for the neighboring 5th District.

But Miguez, who made his plans public just hours before candidate filing closed for the state’s all-party primaries on Nov. 3, began the race to represent the Baton Rouge area without the key endorsement he’d notched before he helped gerrymander the state’s congressional map.

In February, Donald Trump backed Miguez shortly after he ended his campaign for the U.S. Senate and began running in the 5th to replace Rep. Julia Letlow, Trump’s pick for the upper chamber. Trump stuck with him the next month after The Atlantic reported that Miguez’s former girlfriend accused him of rape in 2007, allegations Miguez has denied.

Trump, though, has said nothing about Miguez’s future in the more than two months since the GOP-dominated legislature implemented a new map after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais.

The new lines transformed Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields’ predominantly Black 6th District into a majority-white and safely Republican constituency that Trump, according to calculations by The Downballot, would have carried 64-34. Fields ultimately decided to campaign for the state Senate rather than seek reelection in a constituency Democrats are all but assured of losing.

Miguez, for his part, kept everyone guessing about whether he’d seek the new 6th, keep campaigning for the 5th—with Trump’s blessing—or simply not run for Congress anywhere. But while he finally made his plans known on Friday, Republican state Sen. Rick Edmonds, the most prominent candidate in the new 6th District, is arguing that Trump’s silence about Miguez speaks volumes.

“He and his out-of-state supporters have been panicked since losing President Trump’s endorsement,” Edmonds said in a statement on Friday.

Edmonds also took the opportunity to highlight that Miguez’s home in the Acadiana region remains well outside of either of the congressional districts he wanted to represent.

“He’s not from here, he can’t vote here, and he doesn’t understand the issues facing our communities,” Edmonds said.

But Miguez, who says he owns a home and a business in Baton Rouge, retorted that Edmonds, a pastor at a church in Mississippi, is the real outsider.

“I hope that if he were elected, you would actually move to Louisiana,” Miguez told reporters. “That pastor has to go back to Mississippi this weekend and preach to his congregation, and he’s going to have to face them. I hope he’ll repent and he’ll come back with a more positive attitude next week.”

The back-and-forth between Miguez and Edmonds, who reacted to his opponent’s broadside by saying he lives in Louisiana but commutes to Mississippi on Sundays, may continue through December, well after just about every other race is settled.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry responded to the Callais decision by canceling the state’s May primaries that were to take place under the old map. Races for Louisiana’s six congressional districts this year will instead take place under the rules the state employed in most elections from 1975 onward. All candidates from all parties will run on a single ballot on Nov. 3, with the top two vote-getters advancing to a Dec. 2 runoff if no one wins a majority.

A total of six Republicans filed to run for the 6th District, but only Miguez and Edmonds have generated much notice. Three Democrats and one Libertarian round out the field.

Back in the 5th, six Republicans and three Democrats are running to replace Letlow, who secured the GOP nomination for Senate in June. (Party primaries for Senate and other offices were not impacted by Landry’s decision to cancel May’s House primaries.) Trump would have carried this constituency in the northeastern part of the state 66-32.

The GOP roster includes state Sen. Stewart Cathey; state Reps. Michael Echols and Gabe Firment; and Misti Cordell, the chair of the Louisiana Board of Regents. Two little-known Republicans are also on the ballot.

Three Democrats are running as well, including state Rep. Patricia Moore. While the GOP is all but assured to hold this seat, it’s possible one of the Democrats could win enough support to move forward and avert a Republican vs. Republican showdown in December.

P.S. Louisiana’s Friday filing deadline for House races marked the final day for major-party candidates to run for federal or state office anywhere in the country. It brought an end to a nine-month period that began all the way in November of last year, when the first deadline passed in Illinois.

OH-07

A key deadline came and went on Saturday without any action from Republican Rep. Max Miller, meaning that the embattled congressman will almost certainly remain on the ballot in Ohio’s competitive 7th District.

Under Ohio law, local party leaders have until 4 PM ET on Monday to name a replacement candidate, but they must give notice of any such meeting 48 hours in advance. One GOP official confirmed to the New York Times that no meeting had been called in a piece published after the Saturday cutoff.

A spokesperson for Miller also said the congressman would not drop out, despite the hopes of some Republicans—most of them unnamed—that he would step aside in the face of abuse allegations from his wife. GOP power brokers, however, took no overt steps to pressure Miller to quit, and Donald Trump himself refused to call on him to give up his bid for reelection.

Trump did, though, reportedly tell Miller that “things aren’t looking good” for his campaign for a third term, and for once, he’s not wrong. A poll conducted last week by co/efficient, a Republican firm, showed Miller trailing his Democratic opponent, ironworker Brian Poindexter, by a wide 47-33 margin.

Mayors & County Leaders

Chicago, IL Mayor

Businessman Willie Wilson, a wealthy perennial candidate who has competed in the last three races for mayor of Chicago, announced Wednesday that he was entering next year’s busy contest. Wilson joins a busy field of candidates campaigning against Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has not yet announced if he’ll seek a second term.

Wilson, who also identifies as a Democrat despite his past support for Republicans like Donald Trump and then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, hovered around 10% of the vote during each of his prior mayoral bids.

He most recently secured 9% in the 2023 primary, which was good for fifth place. Wilson went on to endorse Paul Vallas, who ultimately lost a close general election to Johnson.

Poll Pile

• KS-Sen: GBAO for Adam Hamilton:

  • Roger Marshall (R-inc): 47, Hamilton (D): 43.

• TX-Sen: ReconMR and Siena University for Texas A&M University:

  • James Talarico (D): 47, Ken Paxton (R): 43.

  • June: 46-46 tie.

• WI-Gov (D): State Navigate:

  • Francesca Hong: 44, David Crowley: 22, Kelda Roys: 11, Mandela Barnes: 6, Joel Brennan: 5, all others 3% or less.

  • Mandela Barnes dropped out on July 30 but remains on the ballot.

• TX-Gov: ReconMR and Siena:

  • Greg Abbott (R-inc): 46, Gina Hinojosa (D): 45.

  • June: 49-43 Abbott.

• FL-25 (D): Center for Strategic Politics for Oliver Larkin:

  • Jared Moskowitz (inc): 40, Larkin: 38.

• TX-AG: ReconMR and Siena:

  • Mayes Middleton (R): 46, Nathan Johnson (D): 44.

  • June: 45-40 Middleton.

• TX-LG: ReconMR and Siena:

  • Vikki Goodwin (D): 48, Dan Patrick (R-inc): 46.

  • June: 49-44 Patrick.

In our last Digest, we incorrectly said when a special election for U.S. Senate in Tennessee would take place if Marsha Blackburn is elected governor. The special election would be in November of 2028, not November of 2026.

We also incorrectly stated the Maui wildfires were in 2021. They were in 2023.