RandySF
RandySF's JournalHouse money race dotted by challengers who outraised incumbents
Many of the House incumbents in the most competitive races opened the election year in a strong financial position, according to new federal filings, although a handful of vulnerable lawmakers in both parties were outraised by potential opponents in the final months of 2025.
Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission at the end of January show how much money candidates brought in between October and December, and how much they had available at the beginning of 2026. Several Senate Democratic candidates in battleground states raised big sums during the fourth quarter, but the party faces a tough map this November, with Republicans favored to hold the chamber.
In contrast, the House, where Republicans are defending a slim majority, is up for grabs this November. And with just a month to go before primary season begins, both parties claim to have the wind at their backs.
Republicans pointed to their incumbents in swing seats besting their Democratic counterparts in fourth-quarter fundraising.
https://rollcall.com/2026/02/02/house-fundraising-fourth-quarter-midterm-elections/
SPOTLIGHT RACE: Alex Holladay for AR-HD70 (Special Election)
I’m running for State Representative for one simple reason: We Need More Honesty at the State Capitol.
Honesty is a principle deeply ingrained, not just by personal conviction, but by the lessons of family and history. My dad, a lifelong admirer of Mark Twain would always quote his famous quip, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."
In my job at UAMS - where I recruit pharmacists, clinicians, and doctors to make their home in Arkansas, to serve and heal Arkansans - I often talk to families and young students about how UAMS and Arkansas can change their lives. My honesty is the most important selling point. My job isn’t to sell them by all means necessary. My job is to make sure they are confident that UAMS and our state will provide them the pathway to become the professional they always imagined.
I’ll carry that commitment to integrity with me into policymaking
https://www.alexforarkansas.com/
RELEASE: DLCC Spotlights Arkansas Special Election as a Flip Opportunity Amid the GOP's Unpopular Agenda
WASHINGTON — Today, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) announced Alex Holladay as a Spotlight candidate ahead of his special election for the Arkansas House on March 3rd. Though this is a Republican-held seat in a red state, this special election is an opportunity to gradually build Democratic power amid the GOP’s dangerous agenda of slashing health care and raising prices.
In 2026, state Democrats have the chance to flip 650 seats nationwide, and the DLCC’s 2026 target map outlines our proven strategy to capitalize on the historic opportunity to build state legislative power.
“On the heels of an upset win in Texas, we’re on a mission to unseat as many state Republicans as possible. We’re moving next to Arkansas, where Alex Holladay is running to represent working families in Little Rock. As voters suffer under the impact of Trump and federal Republicans’ dangerous cuts and soaring prices, Arkansas Republicans are only making life more expensive. We’re ready to flip another seat this year and compete in red territory all year long. Every special election is an opportunity to gradually turn the tides against MAGA extremism, and we aren’t missing a moment.”
Alex Holladay (HD-70), a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences recruiter and father of three, is running for the Arkansas House in March to flip his North Little Rock district blue. Arkansas Republicans have undermined their constituents’ trust in their state government time and time again, and Alex is ready to take a stand and give Democrats an important foothold in one of the deepest red chambers in the country. If he wins, Alex will be a strong voice for hard-working families while sending a powerful message that Arkansas is ready for Democratic leadership.
https://www.dlcc.org/press/release-dlcc-spotlights-arkansas-special-election-as-a-flip-opportunity-amid-the-gops-unpopular-agenda/
North Carolina election board flags hundreds of thousands of voters for potential disenfranchisement
North Carolina’s GOP-controlled election board announced Tuesday it’s sending letters to hundreds of thousands of voters whose registrations were flagged in a database review — a move that puts them at risk of disenfranchisement.
The letters are going to more than 241,000 North Carolina voters whose driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers did not match when checked against government databases, according to the state board.
“This is just another way we are working to have the most accurate voter rolls in North Carolina history,” Sam Hayes, the board’s executive director, said. “This effort does not affect the eligibility of any of these voters to cast ballots in our elections.”
The letters are being sent under a newly GOP-controlled elections board, reshaped by a law stripping appointment power from the Democratic governor and handing it to the Republican state auditor. Hayes, a GOP operative and former top lawyer for the Republican speaker of the state House, was appointed executive director last year after the board removed a longtime nonpartisan administrator.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/north-carolina-flags-hundreds-of-thousands-of-voters/
Florida court tosses GOP suit attempting to influence elections by challenging U.S. census
A Florida court dismissed a lawsuit* Tuesday that challenged some of the U.S. Census Bureau’s methods for estimating the population, a critically important process that determines how many votes each state receives in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the electoral college during presidential elections.
The case was part of a broader Republican effort to increase the power of GOP-controlled states by changing how the U.S. population is counted.
Two Young Republican groups filed the lawsuit in September, asking a federal court to order the bureau to “create a new 2020 Census report that does not use statistical methods” and prohibit those methods in the next census in 2030. They argued that the methods in question led to an undercount of the population in Florida that reduced the state’s electoral power.
But the court concluded that the four-year statute of limitations to challenge the methods used in the 2020 census had run out by the time the lawsuit was filed. The case was dismissed without prejudice, and plaintiffs have 14 days to amend and refile their complaint.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/florida-court-tosses-gop-suit-attempting-to-influence-elections-by-challenging-u-s-census/
Half of Western U.S. counties have lost top election officials since 2020, report finds
A new analysis from Issue One finds that half of all counties in 11 Western states have lost their chief election official since the 2020 election, underscoring a deepening workforce crisis driven largely by stress, threats, and burnout — not electoral defeat or term limits.
“This isn’t just normal turnover,” the report’s authors wrote in the report, released in advance to Votebeat. “Veteran officials are opting to head for the exits,” taking with them institutional knowledge that can be difficult and costly for local governments to replace.
The study by Issue One, a nonprofit group that works on election and democracy issues, examined post-2020 trends in local election administration in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and found widespread turnover among top local election officials.
The findings build on earlier research showing elevated departures after the 2020 election but suggest the trend has not eased even after the 2024 presidential race. In 2025 alone, 53 chief local election officials in Western states left their jobs, nearly matching the 55 who departed in the year after the 2020 election.
https://www.votebeat.org/2026/02/03/western-election-official-turnover-since-2020-issue-one-report/
MN-GOV: Mike Lindell's campaign for governor is buying boatloads of Mike Lindell autobiographies
Mike Lindell’s memoir, “What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO,” has enjoyed a new surge of sales since he announced a run for governor late last year.
Who’s buying the book, which details his addictions and his rise to fame?
His campaign for Minnesota governor.
Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, spent more than half the money he raised for his campaign last year buying copies of his book, according to Minnesota Campaign Finance Board data released Tuesday.
https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/02/03/mike-lindells-campaign-for-governor-is-buying-boatloads-of-mike-lindell-autobiographies/
MI-SOS: Adam Hollier (D) out of secretary of state race, aims to rejoin Michigan Senate in 2026
Adam Hollier, who once served in the Michigan Senate representing Detroit, is exiting the race for secretary of state and announced his plan to try and rejoin the upper chamber of the Legislature.
Hollier officially suspended his campaign for Michigan’s top elections and state administration official on Tuesday. His announcement came after the powerful Michigan AFL-CIO labor federation backed one of his key opponents, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist.
“This race was never about me, it was about ensuring strong Black leadership at every level in our state,” Hollier said in a statement. “It is with that higher purpose that I am stepping aside in my race for secretary of state and running for re-election to the state Senate, in the hopes that our community will be able to come together and ensure we have real representation up and down the ballot in November.”
Hollier said he is seeking reelection to Michigan’s 3rd State Senate District because it is “where I know I can best serve.”
https://michiganadvance.com/2026/02/03/adam-hollier-out-of-secretary-of-state-race-aims-to-rejoin-michigan-senate-in-2026/
MI-SOS, MI-AG: Gilchrist (D), McDonald (D) nab endorsement from one of Michigan's largest unions in respective bids
The AFL-CIO, which hails its Michigan branch as one of the mightiest state labor federations with more than 1 million members and associates, is endorsing Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist in his hunt for the secretary of state’s office and Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald in her bid for attorney general.
Gilchrist, who just joined the Democratic nomination battle for the seat, earned the endorsement on Tuesday. The union said in a statement that Gilchrist championed the repeal of Right to Work laws, which helped solidify collective bargaining rights for working people after Republicans created a statutory scheme that stymied union membership.
AFL-CIO leaders also noted that Gilchrist, as the former deputy director of innovation with the city of Detroit, helped launch the “Improve Detroit” app, which gave city residents a way to flag infrastructure issues. That app, the union said, made city government more transparent, efficient and accessible.
“Garlin is a proven fighter for workers,” said Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL‐CIO, in a statement “He’s spent his career standing up to corporate greed, fighting for transparent government and making sure every voter’s voice matters in Michigan elections. As Secretary of State, he will do what it takes to protect workers’ rights, ensure fair voting access, and hold anti‐worker forces accountable. Union members across Michigan are excited to support Garlin Gilchrist II for Secretary of State.”
https://michiganadvance.com/2026/02/03/gilchrist-mcdonald-nab-endorsement-from-one-of-michigans-largest-unions-in-respective-bids/
Utah Reps. Maloy, Owens ask federal court to block new court-ordered congressional map
Another wrinkle has surfaced in Utah’s ongoing redistricting legal battle.
Two members of Utah’s all-Republican congressional delegation — Reps. Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens — along with nearly a dozen local leaders and sheriffs have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to throw out the state’s court-ordered congressional map that created one Democratic and three Republican districts.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah names the state’s top election official, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, as a defendant. It asks for a three-judge panel to declare the state’s court-ordered map as “unconstitutionally imposed and agreed to by state actors — specifically a state district judge and the Lieutenant Governor — with no authority” under federal or state law to impose a map “other than one adopted by the Legislature.”
Owens and Maloy did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday morning. But they and the suit’s other plaintiffs announced its filing in an op-ed for the Deseret News published Monday evening, in which they wrote they don’t allege “malice, bad faith or improper motive” on Henderson’s part.
https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2026/02/03/utah-maloy-owens-law-to-block-new-congressional-map/
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