FL-Turnout: Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, who is probably the best political reporter in Florida, is skeptical of a lot of things. His specific skepticism in this article, though, is of any rise in turnout among younger voters and Puerto Ricans. Democrats in the Sunshine State are hoping that elevated turnout among these groups will carry them to victory in November. Though that might happen for other reasons, both Smith and I doubt that these will be the reasons for it.
President
McAuliffe: It’s Monday, so of course we have another piece of news about ANOTHER stupid presidential vanity campaign. This time it’s former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D). He spoke at whatever that rally over the weekend was (seriously, there have been so many marches that I’ve started tuning them out, and so has the rest of America, hopefully). Seriously, though, if you’re sharing a headline with a state delegate, you’re not well-known enough to win a presidential primary two years hence.
Congress
KY-Sen: This is just getting sad. Why do Democrats (especially journalists) keep getting their hopes up that they can stop Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) from being reelected? Yes, he has high disapprovals. However, he’s repeatedly smashed well-funded and high-profile Democratic challengers despite those numbers. This time, the hope seems to be that well-known sports talk host Matt Jones (D) will be able to use his notoriety as a radio commentator to get the crossover votes required to beat McConnell in 2020. This is a pipe dream. But hey, it gets #resistance clicks, so of course Politico is going to write about it….