From NBC's Chuck Todd, Bridget Bowman and Alexandra Marquez
|
FIRST READ: Trump puts (some of) his campaign cash into GOP primary in Georgia
|
If it’s Thursday … President Biden travels to North Carolina and gives remarks on the economy at 2:15 pm ET... The U.S. sends $800 million in weapons and aid to Ukraine… Police arrest the NYC subway shooting suspect … The DNC moves toward a primary calendar shakeup…and the CDC extends the travel mask mandate.
But FIRST … Former President Donald Trump is finally spending some campaign money to help one of his endorsed candidates. But it might not go very far.
Trump’s Save America PAC is transferring $500,000 to a super PAC taking aim at Georgia Gov. Brain Kemp, and boosting former GOP Sen. David Perdue ahead of the May 24 primary, Politico reported Wednesday.
That’s a fraction of the millions expected to be spent on the race (and a fraction of Trump’s own campaign money. Save America had $110 million in the bank as of Feb. 28). Georgia GOP strategist Chip Lake estimated that money could fund a TV ad on the airwaves for about one week in the pricey Atlanta media market.
“Any candidate’s going to welcome any help,” said Lake, who is not working with Kemp or Perdue. “Certainly you wish a half-million was a million.”
Lake said Perdue’s “only hope” of taking down Kemp is siphoning off enough votes so Kemp doesn’t win more than 50 percent of the primary vote, forcing the governor to a June 21 primary runoff.
|
And Georgia isn’t the only state with potentially prolonged primaries. Here’s a quick refresher:
- Alabama: Majority vote needed to avoid a runoff (May 24 primary, June 21 runoff)
- Arkansas: Majority vote threshold (May 24 primary, June 21 runoff)
- Georgia: Majority vote threshold (May 24 primary, June 21 runoff)
- Iowa: If no candidate for statewide office, Congress, or the state legislature wins 35 percent of the primary vote, party delegates decide their nominee at a convention (June 7 primary)
- Louisiana: Majority vote threshold (Nov. 8 election, Dec. 10 runoff)
- Mississippi: Majority vote threshold (June 7 primary, June 28 runoff)
- North Carolina: More than 30 percent of vote is needed to avoid a runoff (May 17 primary, July 26 runoff)
- Oklahoma: Majority vote threshold (June 28 primary, Aug. 23 runoff)
- South Carolina: Majority vote threshold (June 14 primary, June 28 runoff)
- South Dakota: 35 percent of the vote is needed to avoid a runoff (June 7 primary, Aug. 16 runoff)
- Texas: Majority vote threshold (March 1 primary, May 24 runoff)
Aside from Georgia, Alabama will be the state to watch with potential runoffs in the GOP primaries for governor and Senate. Multiple Republicans are also competing for the GOP nomination in North Carolina’s Senate race, but a prolonged primary there appears less likely given the lower threshold to avoid a runoff.
Runoffs can inject uncertainty into a competitive race, Lake said. “It becomes the Wild Wild West.”
|
Tweet of the Day: Klain talks Ukraine
|
Data Download: The number of the day is … 15.
|
That’s how many days the federal mask mandate for transit has been extended by the CDC. Originally, the mandate was set to expire on April 18, but it has now been extended to May 3.
In a statement, the CDC cited the fact that the seven-day moving average of Covid cases in the U.S. has been rising since earlier this month. "In order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity, the CDC Order will remain in place at this time,” the statement added.
“We’re seeing an increase throughout the country. We’re seeing it more so in certain cities, in certain regions than others and until we get a really good handle on it, I think it’s prudent,” to extend the mandate on public transit, White House Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci told Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday.
|
Other numbers you need to know today
|
2: The number of ballots two Florida men each filed in the 2020 presidential election. Both men confessed to voter fraud charges and admitted to submitting multiple ballots, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
$4.11: That’s how much it would cost you to buy one dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme this week. For three weeks, the company will charge customers the same amount for a dozen donuts as the average cost of a gallon of gas nationally.
30 hours: That’s how long some truckers waited in traffic at the U.S.-Mexico border this week, according to the Washington Post, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s new rules requiring secondary inspection of trucks crossing the border went into effect.
80,710,705: The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent datafrom NBC News and health officials.
992,280: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far.
|
CO-SEN: Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet raised nearly $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2020, ending the quarter with $6.1 million on hand, per Colorado Politics.
OK-SEN: Former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon, one of several Republicans running in Oklahoma’s special Senate election, placed his first TV ad buy of the race, spending $200,000 on the airwaves, per AdImpact.
PA-SEN: GOP Rep. Lloyd Smucker endorsed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate primary.
WI-SEN: Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., is out with another TV ad touting his “right to try” legislation, featuring a man who battled Covid.
GA-GOV: New reporting in Bloomberg finds that in Georgia, evangelical voters are largely siding with Gov. Brian Kemp in the Republican primary contest, despite the fact that Trump has endorsed former Sen. David Perdue for governor.
TX-28: Rep. Henry Cuellar’s attorney told Fox News the Texas Democrat is “not a target” in the FBI investigation that prompted authorities to search Cuellar’s home and campaign office. Cuellar faces attorney Jessica Cisneros in a May 24 primary runoff.
FL redistricting: Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., proposed a new congressional map that would carve up a majority-Black district in the state and create four new Republican-leaning districts, NBC News’ Jane C. Timm and Marc Caputo report.
|
Ad watch: American-made chips
|
In a new ad out on Wednesday, vulnerable Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., touted her bipartisan work to bring semiconductor chip manufacturing to the U.S.
“Because 75% of computer chips are made overseas, foreign companies have control over their supply and costs. That's why I work with Republicans and Democrats to invest in manufacturing in America, creating jobs and cracking down on prices,” Cortez-Masto says in the ad.
She echoed an agenda item White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain promoted in the latest episode of the Chuck Toddcast, where he mentioned that a bipartisan innovation bill is a piece of President Biden’s legislative agenda he hopes to get done before November’s midterm elections.
|
|
|
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world
|
Kentucky’s state legislature overrode the governor’s veto of a restrictive abortion bill, which bans the practice after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The Democratic National Committee is allowing all states to apply for a first-in-the-nation presidential primary spot.
Finland and Sweden are moving closer to joining NATO.
A new project from ProPublica explores just how much – or little – the richest people in the U.S. pay in federal taxes.
The suspect in Tuesday’s New York City shooting who wounded 10 people is now in custody.
|
Thanks for reading.
If you're a fan, please forward this to a friend. They can sign up here.
We love hearing from our readers, so shoot us a line here with your comments and suggestions.
Thanks,
Chuck, Bridget and Alexandra
|
|
|
Download the NBC News Mobile App
|
|
|
|
