Morning Digest: GOP governor calls on GOP candidate for lieutenant governor to drop out

The race for Virginia's No. 2 post just got thrown into major turmoil

Virginia Republican John Reid, candidate for lieutenant governor (credit: John Reid campaign Facebook)

Leading Off

VA-LG

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin called conservative radio host John Reid on Friday to urge him to drop out of the race to serve as Virginia's next lieutenant governor, a story first reported by The Richmonder's Graham Moomaw.

Reid, the only Republican running in June's primary, responded with a statement claiming that he'd been the "target for malicious and salacious lies." In a video released on Sunday, Reid said he was "not going anywhere" and accused "insiders in Virginia politics" of staging "a coup against a gay man whom they didn't want to be their nominee but didn’t have the guts to run against."

Youngkin's concerns, says Moomaw, stem from sexually explicit online posts shared by an account allegedly tied to Reid. The account in question, on the site Tumblr, had the handle "JRdeaux," which matches the username on Reid's Instagram page. Reid, however, says the Tumblr account is not his.

Reid, who would be the first gay person to hold statewide office in Virginia, recently posted that a person he did not identify had sought to weaponize images of him and his boyfriend, according to journalist Brandon Jarvis. He called Friday's news "the second overt attempt to try to force me from the race."

Reid became the GOP's presumptive nominee just days before Youngkin's intervention, when Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity dropped out of the June 17 primary because of his health. However, the Virginia Mercury says if Reid were to also leave the contest, the state party's central committee would pick a new nominee.

Six Democrats are competing in the primary to replace Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is the GOP's sole candidate to replace the termed-out Youngkin.

Morning Digest: Don't sleep on these two major races happening in Virginia this year

The race for lieutenant governor is of particular importance because the holder of that office is charged with breaking ties in the state Senate. Democrats currently hold a small 21-19 majority in the chamber, and vacancies and special elections could change the math before the Senate holds elections again in 2027.

The turmoil around Reid comes 12 years after Republicans made pastor E.W. Jackson their nominee for the same office—with disastrous results. Jackson spent the 2013 general election explaining and defending his long history of statements both offensive and bizarre, including his suggestion that yoga leads to Satan.

Democrat Ralph Northam ultimately blew past Jackson in a 55-45 rout even as Republicans fared much better further down the ticket that year. Northam would later use his high-profile office as a springboard to the governorship in 2017.

Our must-have new data set is here!

Senate

IL-Sen

Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker endorsed his No. 2, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, in her newly launched bid for Illinois' open Senate seat on Friday. Given their longtime alliance, the move is no surprise, but just how far Pritzker plans to go to help Stratton remains an open question. Last month, Politico reported that Stratton had told supporters that she expects the billionaire governor to be "heavily involved financially" in boosting her campaign.

Morning Digest: First major Democrat launches Illinois Senate bid, attacking Washington's 'old playbook'

KY-Sen

Scott Jennings, a longtime advisor to Mitch McConnell who's been a commentator on CNN since 2018, is considering a bid to succeed McConnell in the Senate, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Jennings did not respond to the paper's requests for comment, but reporter Austin Horn says that he's "being lobbied by Washington power brokers" to join the Republican primary, which already features two major candidates: former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Rep. Andy Barr.

ME-Sen

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who's lately been the subject of renewed chatter about a possible challenge to Republican Sen. Susan Collins, tells the Maine Trust for Local News in a new interview that she's "not planning to run for anything."

However, the 77-year-old Mills, who is barred by term limits from seeking reelection, added, "Things change week to week and month to month," though she reiterated, "I'm not at this moment planning to run for another office."

Governors

AL-Gov

Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate, who hadn't entirely ruled out a bid for Alabama's open governorship, now tells AL.com that he's "convinced enough" by new reports that Sen. Tommy Tuberville will join the race that he's informed supporters he'll run for lieutenant governor instead.

That office is held by termed-out Republican Will Ainsworth, a prospective gubernatorial candidate who said in March he wouldn't let Tuberville deter him.

Pate, though, is one of the many Alabama Republicans whose designs on the governorship have been frozen or derailed by Tuberville's interest. The senator has yet to publicly announce his intentions, but he did not directly dispute a recent article in Yellowhammer News saying he'd enter the race for governor.

Instead, in a post on social media, Tuberville said he was "still praying about how to best serve the people of Alabama" and promised that when he's ready to share his plans, "you'll hear it directly from me."

NJ-Gov

Despite getting outspent on the airwaves, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill continues to lead in every poll of the Democratic primary, including those of her rivals. Sherrill herself recently went up on TV, giving her the chance to consolidate her edge, but the contest remains very close, with a sizable proportion of voters still undecided.

Newly released surveys from Rutgers University and one of Sherrill's rivals, fellow Rep. Josh Gottheimer, show just how bunched up the race is.

Rutgers finds Sherrill leading Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop 17-12, with teachers union leader Sean Spiller at 10, Gottheimer and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka tied at 9, and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney at 7. Twenty-two percent of respondents have not made up their minds.

Gottheimer's poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group, agrees that Sherrill is in front with 19% of the vote but puts the congressman in second at 14%. The rest of the field is still a jumble, though, with Fulop at 13, Baraka and Spiller at 11, and Sweeney at 5, leaving around a quarter undecided.

Unusually, GSG is also Sherrill's pollster and completed a survey for her a few days after a presumably firewalled team carried out its research for Gottheimer April 1-3. Sherrill, though, released her poll (which was in the field April 6-8) two weeks ago, and it found her with a wider 25-15 advantage over Gottheimer.

Sherrill has maintained her lead despite heavy super PAC spending for three of her opponents. A new report from AdImpact, which says the primary is already "the most expensive New Jersey gubernatorial race on record," finds that Gottheimer and his allies have shelled out more than $18 million on the airwaves, while Fulop's gotten $14.5 million in support and Spiller has benefited from $8.5 million.

The other three major Democrats have all seen less than $2 million apiece, though the well-funded Sherrill only began advertising earlier this month and does not yet have any deep-pocketed super PACs spending on her behalf.

Spending on the Republican side is a small fraction of the outlay in the Democratic primary, though former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli sits at the front of the pack with $3 million boosting his campaign. Ciattarelli has enjoyed wide leads in all public polling, though Rutgers' survey only queried 258 respondents, which is below the minimum of 300 we require for inclusion in the Morning Digest.

House

NE-02

Rep. Don Bacon, one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress, told NOTUS on Friday that he has not yet decided whether to seek reelection in Nebraska's blue-tilting 2nd District next year.

"I'll make any final decisions in late summer," Bacon told the publication. "It is a family decision." According to three unnamed sources who spoke with NOTUS, the congressman "has been seriously thinking about retiring."

A Bacon exit would overjoy Democrats, who have repeatedly targeted his seat ever since he first won office in 2016 but keep coming up short. According to newly released calculations from The Downballot, Bacon's district, which voted for Kamala Harris by a 52-47 margin last year, is the bluest held by any Republican in the House.

Mayors & County Leaders

New York, NY Mayor

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo picked up an endorsement Friday from 1199SEIU, a prominent union that represents healthcare workers, ahead of the June 24 Democratic primary. Cuomo has received the lion's share of endorsements from organized labor in the contest for mayor of New York, though City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has the backing of the municipal workers' union District Council 37 and two other labor groups.

Grab Bag

Where Are They Now?

Headed to prison. On Friday, a federal judge sentenced disgraced former New York Rep. George Santos to 87 months behind bars following his guilty plea last year on fraud charges. The seven-year sentence had been requested by prosecutors.

Santos made history in the worst possible way in December of 2023 when he became the first Republican ever expelled from Congress due to his endless series of lies. Democrat Tom Suozzi, who had previously represented the 3rd Congressional District, reclaimed the seat in a special election a few months later.