INSIDE D.C. WITH JOHN GIZZI NEWSMAX WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT
Cassidy Challenge • No sooner had Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., announced he was retiring this year because of unfavorable redistricting than he made a tentative decision to challenge a fellow Louisiana Republican, Sen. Bill Cassidy, in 2026. One of seven Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 controversy, two-termer Cassidy was promptly censured by the state GOP. Graves, a strong Trump supporter and close ally of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, may have some intra- party problems. When McCarthy was dethroned as speaker last year, Graves worked behind the scenes to thwart the speakership campaign of his fellow Louisianan, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Scalise was unable to muster the votes of the full GOP Conference to win the speakership, which eventually went to another Pelican State congressman, Mike Johnson. It is very likely that Scalise, Johnson, and other Louisiana GOP lawmakers would prefer a different conservative — notably Rep. Clay Higgins — to take on Cassidy.
Minnesota in Play • Although Minnesota has not gone for a Republican presidential
candidate since 1972, Team Trump and the Republican National Committee have placed the Gopher State on their target list for November. A McLaughlin Poll conducted in June for the Trump campaign showed the presumptive GOP nominee leading Joe Biden by 47%- 45%, and an Emerson College poll conducted independently the same month showed Donald Trump edging Biden by 42%–41%. One factor in Trump’s surprising strength is larger-than- normal support from the historically Democrat Iron Range, which has a large Roman Catholic population that backs the former president because of his stand on cultural issues such as abortion. Leading the charge for an all-out strike in Minnesota is state GOP chairman Dave Hann, a former state Senate minority leader who oversaw the GOP’s capture of a Senate majority in 2016.
Robinson Stays Strong • Almost immediately after his big win in the Republican primary for governor of North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson came under fire for past statements critical of Jews and the LGBTQ community. There were
even whispers that the GOP’s donor class might just abandon the man who could be the Tarheel State’s first Black governor in order to save attorney general nominee Dan Bishop. But Robinson, who dismissed his incendiary remarks as things he said before entering politics (he was a furniture factory laborer whose pro-Second Amendment statements went viral on the internet) isn’t going anywhere and
there are no signs of the party abandoning him. A June Spry Strategies poll showed him leading Democrat Josh Stein by 43%–39% statewide, and an East Carolina University poll showed them in a virtual tie, with Stein edging Robinson 44%–43%. Several North Carolina pundits now say Donald Trump will win by such a large margin he will pull in both Robinson and Bishop.
BESHEAR Beshear’s Chance?
• Talk still lingers about Joe Biden relinquishing the Democratic nomination to give a younger candidate a better chance of defeating Donald Trump. While Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania are mentioned increasingly, there was also talk of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Considered more middle-of-the-road than Whitmer or Shapiro, Beshear was reelected with ease in ’23 and has a following among fellow Democrats. Any presidential campaign is sure to be quarterbacked by outgoing deputy chief of staff Jonathan Smith and Louisville entrepreneur J.P. Davis.
AUGUST 2024 | NEWSMAX 47
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