RandySF
RandySF's JournalWhat is happening in Montana?
Steve Daines and Ryan Zinke just dropped out within a few days of each other. Is something happening in Montana that I haven't heard about?
MT-SEN: Steve Daines Won't Run Again
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) will not seek reelection, adding to a wave of retirements in the GOP ranks, Politico reports
https://politicalwire.com/2026/03/04/steve-daines-wont-run-again/
UT-04: Yet Another House Republican Calls It Quits
Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) is the latest House Republican to announce his retirement from Congress, the Deseret News reports.
https://politicalwire.com/2026/03/04/yet-another-house-republican-calls-it-quits/
Texas Latinos turned out in massive numbers for Democrats
Latino voters flocked to Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Texas in droves, reversing a long-running erosion for the party ahead of this year’s pivotal midterms.
The numbers were dramatic: In five different rural majority-Latino counties, more votes were cast in Tuesday’s Democratic primary than for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
These very Hispanic counties are amongst the swingiest in the country, and they’re really telling us something,” said Mike Madrid, an anti-Trump GOP strategist who wrote a book about Latino voters.
The results provide some much-needed hope for Democrats that they can compete not only in Texas as they have long dreamed, but in Latino districts across the country that could determine control of the House in November. Few groups of voters have vexed Democrats in recent cycles as much as Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/04/texas-latinos-turned-out-in-massive-numbers-for-democrats-talarico-00812807
TX-SEN: Cruz staying neutral in Cornyn, Paxton runoff
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Wednesday that he plans to stay neutral in the heated GOP primary for Senate in Texas after the race was projected to head to a May runoff.
Cruz’s Texas colleague, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), advanced alongside Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in Tuesday’s primary after neither candidate got over the threshold needed to avoid a runoff.
Cruz’s decision to stay neutral comes amid the looming possibility of an endorsement from President Trump, who won Texas by double digits in 2024 and has so far stayed out of the contest, despite endorsing in a slate of other Lone Star State contests.
Trump on Wednesday teased that he would endorse in the GOP Senate race “soon” and said he plans to ask the rival candidate to then drop out.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5767670-ted-cruz-neutral-texas-senate/
Judge revises ballot language for plan to make it harder to amend Missouri Constitution
A ballot measure pushed by Republicans to change how majorities are calculated in Missouri for constitutional amendments proposed by initiative must clearly alert voters that is its intent, a Cole County judge ruled Wednesday.
The decision from Circuit Judge Daniel Green is the written version of his oral ruling from Feb. 19 that provisions critics decry as “ballot candy” must be removed from the language prepared by lawmakers.
Those provisions — penalties for campaigns that accept donations from foreign sources, for committing fraud in the signature process and requiring public hearings on initiatives — don’t change anything, Green wrote. He removed the first two lines of the ballot title, which point to those provisions, because they are “restatements of current law and do not reveal to voters what the measure would achieve if passed and must be removed from the summary statement.”
Passed by lawmakers last year, the proposal will be Amendment 4 on the November ballot.
https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/judge-revises-ballot-language-for-plan-to-make-it-harder-to-amend-missouri-constitution/
Citizens-only voting ballot group to turn in 750k signatures to state, well ahead of deadline
The group behind a ballot measure to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in future elections says they turned in 750,000 petition signatures on Wednesday. The group only needs 446,198 valid petition signatures, or 10% of the total votes cast for governor in the previous election cycle — for the measure to appear before voters in 2026.
Americans for Citizens Voting, spearheaded by Republican operatives Paul Jacob and Kurt O’Keefe and legislative allies like state Sen. Ruth Johnson (R-Holly) and state Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Township), held a news conference to announce their progress in moving the initiative forward.
The group said it would deliver its signatures to the Michigan Department of State later on Wednesday afternoon, and well ahead of the state’s July 6 deadline.
Jacob said the early delivery and the fact that the group collected nearly 300,000 more signatures than it needs to potentially hit the much lower valid signature threshold, was a show of confidence for the initiative. It also served as a sign that Michigan voters were ready to make things like citizen-only voting and a voter identification requirement an inalienable part of the state constitution.
https://michiganadvance.com/2026/03/04/citizens-only-voting-ballot-group-to-turn-in-750k-signatures-to-state-well-ahead-of-deadline/
NC-04: PAC spending tops $4.5M as Dem primary moves toward likely recount
Outsider spending in North Carolina’s most expensive congressional primary in state history has exceeded $4.5 million as of Wednesday, while the race heads to a likely recount.
Reports to the Federal Election Commission show independent expenditure groups have added about $49,829 to the contest since NC Newsline’s last update on Monday. The new spending brings the total to $4,518,411 between two-term incumbent Democrat Rep. Valerie Foushee and challenger Nida Allam.
The previous record for outside spending in a congressional primary was set in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District in 2022, in a matchup between the same two candidates.
Most of the additional funding was spent on Allam’s behalf. Justice Democrats spent an additional $10,000, Working Families Party spent another $15,000, and a group called Citizens against AIPAC contributed another $10,000 since NC Newsline’s Monday report.
https://ncnewsline.com/2026/03/04/pac-spending-tops-4-5m-in-nc-04-as-dem-primary-moves-toward-likely-recount/
VA: Bedford County supervisor files suit challenging reproductive rights constitutional amendment
Later this year, Virginians are expected to formally approve or reject a measure to enshrine reproductive rights into the state’s constitution. But a new lawsuit filed this week in Bedford County seeks to upend the ballot referendum, arguing that state lawmakers didn’t follow the correct process in advancing it so far.
The plaintiff, Bedford County supervisor Charla Bansley, said in the legal complaint filed March 2 that the ballot initiative is invalid because Virginia’s House of Delegates did not distribute the amendment to all circuit court clerks and post it for public inspection three months prior to the 2025 House of Delegates election.
Bansley, who is represented by Liberty Counsel, claims that Bedford County, Campbell County and the city of Lynchburg told her attorney that the amendment was not sent to their circuit court clerks for public posting. The jurisdictions are not named as plaintiffs in the case.
To amend the state constitution, resolutions must pass the legislature two years in a row with a House of Delegates election in between. Lawmakers successfully passed the resolution to send a ballot referendum to voters statewide this coming November in both the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions.
https://virginiamercury.com/2026/03/04/bedford-county-supervisor-files-suit-challenging-reproductive-rights-constitutional-amendment/
Arkansas man awaiting murder trial wins GOP primary for county sheriff
An Arkansas man awaiting trial for charges that he killed his daughter’s accused sexual abuser has won the Republican nomination for county sheriff, in a race that’s garnered national attention.
Aaron Spencer won more than 53% of the vote in Tuesday’s three-person primary for Lonoke County sheriff. Spencer will face Democratic nominee Brian Mitchell Sr. this fall.
“Tonight, the people of Lonoke County stood up and chose transparency and accountability,” Spencer said in a release from his campaign. “This wasn’t a campaign about me. It was about every family who called for help and got nothing. That betrayal ends tonight.”
Spencer, 37, was charged with second degree murder in the 2024 death of a man accused of sexually abusing Spencer’s teenage daughter. Spencer’s trial was originally scheduled for January but had been postponed. If Spencer is convicted of the felony charge, he’d be unable to serve as sheriff.
https://arkansasadvocate.com/2026/03/04/arkansas-man-awaiting-murder-trial-wins-gop-primary-for-county-sheriff/
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