| | | | |  | | By Zach Montellaro and Madison Fernandez | | | | JUST AROUND THE BEND —The nation’s chief election officials were gathered in Washington, D.C., last week for the winter meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Score had a ticket to the hottest game in town — at least for election nerds. And while it is still the beginning of an off-year, preparing for the 2024 cycle is definitely top of mind. Score talked to 16 secretaries of state — along with senior staffers, election vendors and other attendees at the conference — to get a sense of what’s on the minds of the officials who are going to be overseeing elections across the country. We sought to get a good cross-section from those who will be in charge, from the biggest swing states to those running elections in smaller states that may not necessarily be on everyone’s radar. Here’s what they told us: The midterms were quieter than 2020: Officials largely thought that the charged atmosphere around elections that the country faced in the run-up to, and aftermath of, the 2020 elections didn’t replicate itself after last year’s midterms. That’s not to say that officials — especially local ones, who have the most day-to-day interactions with voters — didn’t face harassment, and sometimes outright threats, last year. (Several mentioned that a dramatic increase in onerous public records requests from election deniers made election workers’ jobs harder.) But it wasn’t as bad as 2020. “We’re all catching our breath,” said Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican. “Coming out of this election, obviously, it's a lot quieter, a lot more normal,” he added, noting that the country not being in the throes of a Covid-19 pandemic was also a big relief for election officials as well. “We're not seeing those same physical threats that we saw post-2020,” echoed Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state of Georgia. But they’re preparing for it to kick back up again: Some of the secretaries who spoke with Score said they anticipated an environment closer to 2020 than 2022 for next year’s elections, with the added attention that always comes along with a presidential election — and former President Donald Trump, who directly and indirectly drove much of the harassment officials faced over the last three years, back on the ballot. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said that one of her top priorities this year would be pushing her state legislature to pass a law that would make it a felony to threaten an election worker. “Protecting the people who protect democracy requires us to both create and instill greater penalties,” she said. “And really emphasize that these crimes have a heightened impact not just on the worker who's threatened, but on democracy itself.” Election officials, however, were unsure of what contours the threats and the conspiracy theories that drive them would take. “Every election has its own flavor,” said New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat. “We don't really know what is going to be the hot topic or whatever, until we wake up one day, and we're in the thick of it.” Anticipate a lot of new faces: From statewide officials down to poll workers, there will be a lot of people overseeing the 2024 elections who weren’t there in 2020 or even 2022. There are fifteen new chief election officials starting the job this year, which Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat and long-time secretary, said was “more than I can ever remember.” It trickles down from there. Several secretaries said there has been a wave of retirements at the local official level. For example: Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who is her state’s chief election official, said ahead of the conference that almost two-thirds of her state’s county clerks will be new for 2024, and that her office was stepping up training to accommodate that. And while many others weren’t facing the same extreme that Henderson is, others said there has been a notable number of retirements. And while the harassment that local officials face definitely plays a part, the secretaries also noted that election administration, especially at the local level, has skewed older and many people are just reaching a natural retirement age. Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican who is incidentally one of the few election officials on the ballot themselves this year, also flagged a lot of turnover among poll workers in his state. “We have not seen a lot of young people reenlist. We got [them] to enlist in 2020 to help save the day. They really haven't come back,” he said. Happy Tuesday. Thanks to Zach for today’s top line. Reach me at mfernandez@politico.com and @madfernandez616. Days until the VA-04 special election and Wisconsin Supreme Court primary: TODAY Days until the Chicago mayoral election: 7 Days until the Kentucky primary: 84 Days until the Mississippi primary: 168 Days until the Louisiana primary: 235 Days until the 2023 election: 259 Days until the 2024 election: 623
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| | | IT’S ELECTION DAY — Two elections are on our radar for today: … Wisconsin is holding its primary for state Supreme Court. The race will determine control of the court, currently with conservatives in the majority, as conservative Justice Patience Roggensack retires. The top two candidates in the nonpartisan primary will move on to the general election on April 4. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz, one of the liberal candidates, has been leading the pack in terms of fundraising, bringing in more than $725,000 from the beginning of the year through Feb. 6. She’s up against conservative Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow, conservative former state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly and liberal Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell. Ad spending has hit over $9 million from the beginning of the year through today’s primary, per AdImpact. … There’s a special election in VA-04 to replace late Democratic Rep. Don McEachin. Democratic state Sen. Jennifer McClellan is running against Republican Leon Benjamin. McClellan is the favorite in the heavily blue district and has a large fundraising gap over Benjamin, who is running for the seat for the third time. Should McClellan win later today, she’ll be Virginia’s first Black woman in Congress. “I think part of it was an imagination gap that only saw certain types of people as members of Congress,” she told Score after her primary win in December. “Part of it is that Black women tended to get involved in politics later in life. But it's past time that we have one.” IN THE STATES — Kristina Karamo, who lost her bid for secretary of state last year, was chosen as chair of the Michigan Republican Party. The crowded race for chair saw three rounds of voting, in which she beat Matt DePerno, who lost his bid for attorney general in 2022, 58-42, The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger and Beth LeBlanc report. Both Karamo and DePerno have denied the results of the 2020 election, and Karamo still has not conceded her loss in last year’s election. Karamo’s win also brings a first for the party and state: She’s the first Black person to lead MIGOP, and it’s the first time in Michigan that both state parties are chaired by Black women. … Speaking of election deniers, former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters announced her candidacy for chair of the Colorado Republican Party, Colorado Politics’ Ernest Luning reports. Peters lost her bid for secretary of state in the primary last year, and faces a trial later this year for allegedly helping orchestrate a breach of election equipment in Mesa County. She joins a crowded field for chair, and the election is set for March 11. … Christian Ziegler was elected chair of the Republican Party of Florida. The race between Ziegler and Evan Power, who was picked to serve as vice chair, “was viewed as a minor proxy war” between supporters of former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, POLITICO’s Matt Dixon writes. 2024 WATCH — Republican Arizona state Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope is considering a bid for Senate. “Hasn’t frozen me… we need somebody who can actually win in November,” he said in response to a report of defeated gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake mulling a Senate bid and impacting the field of potential candidates. AD CORNER — Twitter released its guidelines for political ads. Advertisers have to get pre-approved before they start running such ads. The rules also state that ads “may not promote false or misleading content” regarding how to participate in an election or dissuading people to take part in an election. And if you, as a user, want a disclosure report, you’ll have to request one. MEANWHILE IN ARIZONA — “The bipartisan odd couple banding together to fight election deniers in Arizona,” by POLITICO’s Zach Montellaro.
| | | THE GREAT DEBATES — Republican presidential contenders may be required to sign a loyalty pledge to support the GOP’s presidential nominee if they want to appear on the debate stage this cycle, the AP’s Steve Peoples reports. Representatives from the media companies looking to host a debate will make their pitches to the RNC this week. The committee is “considering between 10 and 12 debates to begin in late July at the Reagan Library in California or at the RNC’s summer meeting in Milwaukee.” … Fox News is expected to hold the first debate the week of July 15, per Semafor’s Ben Smith. … The RNC is also considering requiring candidates “to prove they have a certain number of grass-roots donors and meet a threshold of polling support to get on the stage,” The Washington Post’s Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey write. “Party leaders have also discussed, but not decided on, randomly placing candidates on the debate stage, instead of ranking them by public polling as Republicans did in the 2016 cycle. If more candidates qualify for the debates than can fit on one stage, the party could also ask media organizations to host two consecutive nights of debate, as Democrats did in 2019, with randomly sorted groups of candidates.” EYES ON IOWA — The Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition is hosting its spring kick-off on April 22, and there’s a stacked guest list. Among the invitees: Trump, Nikki Haley, DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (who said he’s going to make a ’24 decision in the spring), former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Mike Pompeo, Vivek Ramaswamy, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, former Texas Rep. Will Hurd and Michigan presidential candidate Perry Johnson. … Trump may not be in Iowa much himself lately, but he announced his senior campaign staff in the state: Marshall Moreau, former campaign manager for Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, is state director. State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann is a senior adviser, as is Eric Branstad, who led Trump’s campaigns in Iowa in 2016 and 2020. Alex Latcham is early states director. DONOR DUEL — Both Trump and DeSantis are both holding donor events this week, as is former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, whose event will feature a handful of other prospective Republican presidential candidates. The slate of donor events illustrates the current state of the nascent Republican primary: Trump and DeSantis are in a class of their own, while the rest of the burgeoning field is jostling to enter the top tier, POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt reports. … DeSantis was on the move yesterday in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, speaking before law enforcement officers. A newly launched nonprofit group, called “And to the Republic,” hosted the events — a major sign of the growing political apparatus around the Florida governor as he moves toward a 2024 presidential bid, Alex reports. RUNNING IT BACK? — Democrat Marianne Williamson has an announcement, likely of the presidential type. “As America gears up for the 2024 presidential election, I’m preparing an important announcement on March 4th in Washington DC,” Williamson said in a statement that listed factors that “propelled me to explore the possibility of running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2024.”
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 3/1 TO DISCUSS AMERICAN PRIVACY LAWS: Americans have fewer privacy rights than Europeans, and companies continue to face a minefield of competing state and foreign legislation. There is strong bipartisan support for a federal privacy bill, but it has yet to materialize. Join POLITICO on 3/1 to discuss what it will take to get a federal privacy law on the books, potential designs for how this type of legislation could protect consumers and innovators, and more. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | — Here’s how the party committees fared in the first month of the year. … DCCC raised $8 million in January, noteworthy for January of an off-year. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries brought in $5.2 million of that, per Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan. The committee had $17.2 million cash on hand as of the end of the month. … NRCC brought in $4.5 million, as Score reported on Friday. The committee has $17.5 million in the bank. … DSCC saw $4.7 million come in last month, and started February with $7.9 million. … NRSC raised $4.5 million and has $8.9 million on hand. … DNC brought in $8.2 million and has $30.3 million in the bank. … RNC raised $4.8 million. The committee has $10.7 million on hand.
| | | — David Johnston is political vice president at Poolhouse. He’s an NRCC alum. CODA — HEADLINE OF THE DAY: “Trump: I won’t call DeSantis ‘Meatball Ron’” (POLITICO) | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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