Of the five GOP reps who got drawn out by Prop 50:
Valadao: Staying and fighting
Kiley: Moving to another district that he’ll probably still lose (as an independent???)
Calvert: Trying to backstab Young Kim
Issa: Retiring
LaMalfa: Dead
Current GOP Rep Kevin Kiley will run as an Independent lol
Again, he files in San Diego. elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/statewide-el...
In California, candidates file to run for office in the county they live in, so for Darrell Issa, that's San Diego County. If you wanna keep clicking refresh, it'll be here: www.sdvote.com/content/rov/...
Background. When Fiechter first bailed, he told WANE 15:
“I felt like I was on a raft alone trying to navigate."
Indiana Republican Blake Fiechter, who was running against a GOP senator who opposed redistricting but dropped out after less than a month, now says he's back in the race after a meeting with Trump at the White House www.facebook.com/blake.fiecht...
NEW: Believe it or not, it’s that time of year: the Wisconsin Supreme Court election is next month.
Liberals have a huge opportunity: if they win, they can lock down the majority of this court thru 2030.
That means they’d have it in the next presidential race, a big democracy guardrail.
Share:
Provisional ballots have now increased Sheriff Sam Page's lead on NC Senate President Phil Berger from 2 votes to 23 votes. Half a dozen later-arriving military/overseas ballots remain to be counted, though, and a recount is certain.
NEW: Rep. Darrell Issa is expected to announce his retirement ahead of California's filing deadline today, two sources familiar w/ the matter tell @axios.com
Another R just filed to run for his seat and he changed his website to display his PACs logo. www.axios.com/2026/03/06/d...
With a sudden surge of open House sets on the GOP side, we're once again in record territory. Democrats have slowed the pace recently.
Former Hawaii Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who narrowly lost a memorable 2014 Senate primary against Brian Schatz, has died.
House retirements, especially on the GOP side, have been a bit of a firehose lately! Keep tabs on every open seat with our bookmark-worthy tracker:
Also in today's newsletter:
• What will happen to Markwayne Mullin's Senate seat in Oklahoma now that he's been tapped to replace Noem
• Looking back at Tony Gonzales career following his decision late last night to quit his reelection campaign
• The already-crazy ad spending in #GAGov
And more!
Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy has never had an easy primary during her short career, but she finally got some good news on Wednesday.
Any celebrations were very brief, though. We explain the tumultuous few days the Utah congresswoman just experienced.
Our Founder @markpoloncarz.bsky.social joined @the-downballot.com podcast to discuss our effort to elect democrats at the county level, including winning key races like county executive or election officials. Listen in to find out what we are doing and the impact it will have.
Rep. Tony Gonzales R-TX will not seek reelection
Wrote about the past few times US Senators were pulled into party primary runoff elections: news.bgov.com/bloomberg-go...
We really appreciate the mention, but Seth Abramson is a conspiracy theorist and should be disregarded
Oh wow. North Carolina Republican Bob Rucho—whose name is on the caption of the infamous 2019 SCOTUS case that greenlighted partisan gerrymandering, Rucho v. Common Cause—has resigned from the state Board of Elections after violating a ban on board members donating to political candidates.
"yeah I rigged my race, fuck you" is a fascinating message to go with
The effectively treats public office as a property to be inherited or transferred. Hope it becomes enough of an issue to make the race competitive.
Yesterday, I joined David Nir and David Beard of @the-downballot.com podcast to discuss the important of county races and how @boostingleaders.bsky.social will help elect great new leaders nationwide. Listen to the podcast here:
Just last fall, when Dem Rep. Chuy Garcia engineered something similar in Illinois, the House formally voted to rebuke him.
So, will the Senate do the same to Daines? If anything, his offense is worse. Garcia schemed over one of 435 House seats. Daines did this for one of just 100 Senate seats.
*County* offices are very powerful but get almost no attention. On The Downballot podcast this week, we aim to remedy that by talking to Erie County Executive @markpoloncarz.bsky.social, whose new group, @boostingleaders.bsky.social, is helping elect Dems to these posts nationwide. Listen here! →
Several Democratic states are moving to bar federal immigration agents from being near polling places and other election sites, Jonathan Shorman reports.
https://stateline.org/2026/03/05/blue-states-push-to-ban-ice-at-the-polls-amid-federal-voter-intimidation-fears/
Former Utah state Rep. Phil Lyman, a far-right Republican who took 14% of the vote as a write-in candidate for governor after losing the primary, is challenging Rep. Celeste Maloy for renomination.
Maloy, who barely won her last primary before redistricting, is running for the new 3rd District.
Former Sen. Jon Tester argued in January that Montana Democrats need to consolidate behind Bodnar's independent candidacy rather than field their own Senate nominee in this red state. But five candidates are running to seek the Democratic nod.
A truly crazy day in Montana politics began with former University of Montana President Seth Bodnar announcing he'll run as an independent and ended with Republican Sen. Steve Daines suddenly taking his name off the ballot so his chosen replacement could run with minimal primary opposition.
*Quite* the piece from NOTUS about GOP angst with NRSC chair Tim Scott and his top aide! www.notus.org/2026-electio...
I don't have a problem with Tim. But I do think it is deleterious that so many smart people spend so much time on X, which has essentially become an algorithmically and AI-optimized far-right MAGA message testing and propaganda machine. People assume X posts represent the masses, but they don't!
