Morning Digest: Two candidates from opposite parties team up on Utah's GOP governor

And they're both dunking on his "Disagree Better" mantra

Utah gubernatorial candidates Brian King, a Democrat, and Phil Lyman, a Republican running as a write-in, in a campaign video together.

Leading Off

● UT-Gov: Utah's three-way race for governor took another unexpected turn on Thursday when Democratic state Rep. Brian King debuted a campaign video co-starring far-right state Rep. Phil Lyman, the election conspiracy theorist who is waging a write-in campaign months after losing the GOP primary to Gov. Spencer Cox. But Cox is exactly what is uniting the two legislators in a piece parodying the governor's "Disagree Better" campaign.

"Now, Phil and I disagree better about most issues," King tells the audience with a wink after the on-screen text identifies him as the "Democratic candidate for Utah governor" and Lyman as "Former (or current depending on who you ask) GOP candidate for Utah governor *litigation pending*)." The two, though, respond in unison that they are united in the belief that "Spencer Cox should not be our next governor." The state representatives go on to politely argue whether voters should write in Lyman's name or cast their ballot for King.

Cox generated national attention with a commercial four years ago where he and his Democratic rival, Chris Peterson, agreed they were "both equally dedicated to the American values of democracy, liberty, and justice for all people," and would accept the results of the 2020 presidential race. Cox, who went on to easily win his general election in this dark red state, has continued to attract national attention by calling for more civility in politics, and he used his year as chair of the National Governors Association to launch his "Disagree Better" initiative.

The governor's critics, though, have argued that Cox himself is the one who needs to be persuaded by these messages. Cox, who touts himself as "an ally to the LGBTQ community," signed a bill to ban gender-affirming care, which he denounced as "genital-mutilation surgery" at a February “Disagree Better” event.

Skeptics have also highlighted how the governor signed off on a GOP-drawn congressional redistricting plan that even Cox acknowledged was a gerrymander. "You signed off on gerrymandered maps without an ounce of remorse," Democratic state Sen. Nate Blouin tweeted last year upon seeing another news story where Cox called for saving American democracy. "This is the problem with 'disagree better.' You shouldn’t get credit for saying nice things if you consistently do the wrong thing."

Democrats took notice again last month when, days after saying he'd be casting a write-in vote for president, Cox responded to the attempted assassination attempt against Donald Trump by declaring his support for his party's leader. "I fear that America is on the precipice of unmitigated disaster," Cox wrote to Trump, whom he'd previously told to resign following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. "We need to turn down the temperature and find ways to come together again before it’s too late." The governor remains in Trump's corner even after it became clear once again that he had zero interest in lowering the temperature.

Lyman also is no fan of the governor's project, though for very different reasons. "Our state is slowly slipping away towards becoming something most Utahns don’t recognize," wrote Lyman. "We don’t need to 'disagree better,' we need to Stand for Something!"

Lyman himself demonstrated during that campaign that he stood for far-right talking points, which included his responding to the collapse of Maryland’s Francis Scott Key Bridge by retweeted a post claiming that a Black woman on the state’s Port Commission was a "diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) auditor and consultant."

The state representative went on to hold Cox to an unimpressive 54-46 margin, and he's spent the ensuing seven weeks refusing to accept that defeat. Lyman launched his write-in campaign on Monday, shortly before the Utah Supreme Court rejected his lawsuit insisting that because he decisively beat Cox at the state party convention before losing the primary, the governor and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson should be removed from office and replaced by state Senate President Stuart Adams. The justices found that Lyman "offered no viable factual or legal basis for the remedy he requests."

And even before he appeared in this video with King, Lyman acknowledged he'd prefer to see the Democrat lead Utah instead of Cox. Hard-line U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, though, quickly made it clear he did not see this as an acceptable outcome when he declared his support for the incumbent.

Governors

● DE-Gov: Newly released emails show that Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long's government office staff had regularly communicated with key staffers running her campaign for governor, reports Randall Chase at the Associated Press. Under state law, Hall-Long's employees are permitted to conduct campaign activities only outside of their regular work hours and cannot do so using public resources, but the emails indicate that some of them helped facilitate campaign activities and used campaign funds for certain expenditures.

Hall-Long's husband, Dana Long, previously served as her campaign treasurer, and the emails include instances where he seemingly coordinated with her office staff during regular work hours to schedule and pay for campaign activities, such as appearances at community events. Some correspondence involved Matthew Dougherty, the lieutenant governor's director of operations who recently stepped aside from that role to run her campaign after her previous campaign manager quit.

Campaign finance issues have dogged Hall-Long's campaign since shortly after she joined the race last year. Late last month, state officials released a report concluding that her campaign had violated state law by failing to disclose nearly $300,000 in payments to Long over several years. The couple claimed the payments were reimbursements for personal loans, though the documented sum of those loans was $33,000 less than the total payment amounts, according to the state's investigator.

The Sept. 10 Democratic primary is quickly approaching, but few polls have been released publicly, particularly in the weeks since the state published its report on Hall-Long's campaign finances. However, the few available polls in recent months have generally found Hall-Long running competitively with New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer, while National Wildlife Foundation leader Collin O'Mara is much further behind.

Senate

● NJ-Sen: Multiple media outlets report that Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy will appoint his former chief of staff, George Helmy, to fill the final months of the term of Sen. Bob Menendez, who is set to resign on Aug. 20. Rep. Andy Kim, who won the Democratic primary in June, is favored to defeat Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw in the fall general election for a full six-year term.

Menendez, a member of the Democratic caucus who was convicted on corruption charges last month, still has not said if he'll continue his campaign to keep his seat as an independent. The deadline for Mendendez to withdraw is Friday.

House

● AZ-01, MI-10, WI-03: The DCCC announced Thursday that it was adding three more nominees to its Red to Blue program for top candidates: Amish Shah in Arizona's 1st District, Carl Marlinga in Michigan's 10th, and Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin's 3rd. The trio are respectively challenging Republican incumbents David Schweikert, John James, and Derrick Van Orden.

Marlinga, who struggled to attract major financial support during his two bids against James, could have the most to gain from being included in the program. Marlinga held James to an unexpectedly tight 49-48 victory two years ago despite being massively outspent by the Republican, and he didn't raise much money ahead of his win in last week's primary. Marlinga's allies, however, hope this will change and give him the resources to flip a Macomb County seat that Donald Trump carried by a narrow 50-49 margin in 2020.

● NH-02: Hillary Clinton on Thursday endorsed former Biden administration official Maggie Goodlander in the Sept. 10 Democratic primary for New Hampshire's 2nd District. Goodlander's husband, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, was a longtime Clinton aide for both of her presidential bids and during her intervening time as secretary of state.

● NY-18: Republican nominee Alison Esposito's former career as a New York City police officer involved the city paying $120,000 to settle two misconduct lawsuits against her, reports City & State's Timmy Facciola. Additionally, Politico's Nick Reisman recently reported that Esposito had been reprimanded for failing to properly safeguard her off-duty handgun after a thief reportedly stole it, her police badge, and credit cards from her unlocked car in a separate incident from 2016.

One of the misconduct lawsuits was filed in 2005 by three Black women who alleged that Esposito and other officers engaged in racial discrimination and used excessive force when arresting them in 2003 on shoplifting charges, which were later dismissed.

The other involved a 2016 incident where a woman sued Esposito and a fellow officer, claiming they "did unlawfully stop, assault, frisk, handcuff, detain, arrest, and imprison" her infant daughter after entering her residence without a warrant or probable cause; that prosecution was dismissed later that year. The plaintiff alleged discrimination regarding her "ethnic background." (The complaint does not specify the plaintiff's ethnicity, but she and her daughter have Spanish surnames.)

Esposito denied the allegations in both lawsuits, and she has made crime one of the central focuses of her campaign against Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan in a light-blue district in the lower Hudson Valley located north of New York City.

● TX-18: Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told the Texas Tribune's Renzo Downey on Wednesday that he would not run in the November special election for the remaining two months of the late Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's term and would instead support her daughter, Erica Lee Carter.

The leadership of the Harris County Democratic Party chose Turner on Tuesday to replace Jackson Lee's name on the ballot for a full two-year term in Texas' dark blue 18th District, but Turner, who will turn 70 next month, has made it clear he doesn't intend to be in Congress very long. Turner told the Houston Chronicle last week that he'd serve a maximum of two terms, saying he wants to function as "a bridge from where we are right now."

● House: The crypto-aligned super PAC Fairshake recently announced that it would spend over $25 million in ads to help nine House members from each party, and AdImpact reports how much money the group has booked in each of these 18 seats. The totals range from $600,000 to aid Democratic Rep. Nikki Budzinski in Illinois' 13th District to $2 million to back Democratic Rep. Don Davis in North Carolina's 1st.

Poll Pile

• AZ-Sen: Peak Insights (R) for the NRSC: Kari Lake (R): 46, Ruben Gallego (D): 46 (44-42 Trump with third-party candidates)

• MI-Sen: Fabrizio Ward (R) and Impact Research (D) for the AARP: Elissa Slotkin (D): 47, Mike Rogers (R): 44 (48-48 presidential tie in two-way, 45-43 Trump with third-party candidates)

• PA-Sen: Franklin & Marshall College: Bob Casey (D-inc): 48, Dave McCormick (R): 36 (46-43 Harris with third-party candidates) (March: 46-39 Casey)

The Cook Political Report also released several polls on Thursday, conducted by a Democratic firm, Benenson Strategy Group, and a Republican pollster, GS Strategy Group. Note that these polls were completed on Aug. 2.

• AZ-Sen: Ruben Gallego (D): 51, Kari Lake (R): 42 (48-46 Harris in two-way, 46-42 Harris with third-party candidates) (May: 46-41 Gallego)

• MI-Sen: Elissa Slotkin (D): 50, Mike Rogers (R): 42 (49-46 Harris in two-way, 46-44 Harris with third-party candidates)

• NV-Sen: Jacky Rosen (D-inc): 54, Sam Brown (R): 36 (48-45 Trump in two-way, 47-42 Trump with third-party candidates)

• PA-Sen: Bob Casey (D-inc): 53, Dave McCormick (R): 40 (49-48 Harris in two-way, 48-43 Harris with third-party candidates) (May: 49-41 Casey)

• WI-Sen: Tammy Baldwin (D-inc): 50, Eric Hovde (R): 43 (49-46 Harris in two-way, 48-43 Harris with third-party candidates) (May: 49-37 Baldwin)

• NC-Gov: Josh Stein (D): 48, Mark Robinson (R): 40 (48-47 Harris in two-way, 46-44 Harris with third-party candidates) (May: 37-37 gubernatorial tie)

Ad Roundup

• MO-Sen: Lucas Kunce (D) - anti-Josh Hawley (R-inc)

• NM-Sen: Nella Domenici (R) and the NRSC - anti-Martin Heinrich (D-inc)

• NV-Sen: Jacky Rosen (D-inc) - anti-Sam Brown (R)

• TX-Sen: Ted Cruz (R-inc) (in Spanish)

• WI-Sen: Eric Hovde (R) - anti-Tammy Baldwin (D-inc)

• CA-40: Winning for Women - pro-Young Kim (R-inc)

• CA-45: Winning for Women - pro-Michelle Steel (R-inc)

• CA-47: Dave Min (D)

• IA-03: Lanon Baccam (D) - anti-Zach Nunn (R-inc)

• MI-08: Kristen McDonald Rivet (D) - anti-Paul Junge (R)

• OH-09: Marcy Kaptur (D-inc) - anti-Derek Merrin (R) (here and here)

• VA-02: Winning for Women - Jen Kiggans (R-inc)