What Say Congressional Campaign Captains?: Ballots & Boundaries

So much to do. So much at stake.

With the future of their parties’ ability to govern — and the success of the next president’s agenda — determined by who’s in the congressional majority, the lawmakers who lead the House and Senate campaign arms have a lot on the line.

A few highlights from their Bloomberg Government interviews:

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Gary Peters (Mich.):
On abortion: “That issue’s not going to go away, and it’ll continue to be a very powerful issue in this upcoming election.” READ THE PETERS Q&A

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines (Mont.):
“The outcome in ‘24 will likely define the makeup of the United States Senate for the rest of the decade. If Republicans win the Senate in ‘24, there’s pretty good odds they can keep the majority through the end of the decade.” READ THE DAINES Q&A

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (N.C.):
“You’ll see the NRCC more involved in that, spending more resources on ground game, making sure we’re turning out the vote.” READ THE HUDSON Q&A

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Susan DelBene (Wash.):
“Generally, the DCCC isn’t the one who’s involved in primaries. Sometimes there have been places where we have unique scenarios and jungle primaries and things like that, that in terms of making sure that we have strong candidates that are coming through.” READ THE DELBENE Q&A

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BALLOT QUESTIONS

OHIO: Clock’s Ticking
It’s fish-or-cut-bait time in the Ohio Legislature, where Republicans have been trying to fast-track a special election in an effort to change the threshold for constitutional amendment votes.

Lawmakers were told they’d need to act by May 10 if they want an election on Aug. 8, and there’s some significant disagreement to work out. So far a bill to set the election has not made it out of committee and is not on next week’s schedule.

Read more from BGOV’s Eric Heisig and from the Columbus Dispatch, which broke the news that Illinois billionaire Richard Uilein gave about $1.1 million to a new PAC that’s urging lawmakers to schedule an August election.

FLORIDA: Close on Cannabis
A campaign supporting a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in Florida has collected 94% of the 891,523 valid signatures needed to be placed on the ballot in 2024. (Ballotpedia)

MARYLAND: Abortion Question
Voters will decide on a proposed constitutional amendment enshrining a right to reproductive freedom in 2024. (Baltimore Sun)

Election Law

KANSAS: Law Blocked
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil struck down part of a state mail-in ballot law. At issue: prepaid mail ballot application packets sent to about 500,000 Kansas voters in 2020. State Attorney General Kris Kobach said there’ll be an appeal. (Topeka Capital-Journal)

Redistricting

ON THE HORIZON
After last week’s court ruling in North Carolina, it’s more certain than ever that some of the district that produced the current Republican-majority House will be erased and redrawn before the 2024 election.

BGOV’s Greg Giroux took a look at the top tier of possibilities: Why Redistricting Is Still Happening in 2023 — And Where

NEW YORK: Zeldin?
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) doesn’t yet know what kind of candidate the opposition will line up for her in 2024 and the loser of last year’s gubernatorial election is fine leaving her to wonder.

“We’ll keep an eye on the race,” former US Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) told Politico this week. “If we did run, it would be an extremely competitive race.”

MARYLAND: He’s Mulling
Now that Rep. David Trone (D) has entered the race to succeed retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D), we’ll be watching to see who’s next.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D) told Time he’ll spend this month thinking about it.

Resources

• Our past coverage: BGOV Archive and BLAW Archive
• Tracking Departures in the US House and Senate
• Litigation Trackers: Loyola Law School and Brennan Center
• BGOV OnPoint: US Senate Elections
• BGOV OnPoint: Gubernatorial Elections

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To contact the reporters on this story: Greg Giroux in Washington at ggiroux@bgov.com; Emily Wilkins in Washington at ewilkins@bgov.com; Zach C. Cohen in Washington at zcohen@bloombergindustry.com; Eric Heisig in Ohio at eheisig@bloombergindustry.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Katherine Rizzo at krizzo@bgov.com; Bennett Roth at broth@bgov.com