Jeffrey Jackson

In North Carolina, Republicans managed to flip three congressional seats from Democrat to Republican. This success was partly due to redrawn district maps.

Across the country on Tuesday, November 5, Americans cast their ballots in one of the most closely contested elections in recent history.In the Old North State, voters came out in droves beginning with the early voting period, and by early Wednesday morning, it had become clear that the turnout record of 2020 would be bested in 2024.At the top of the ticket, former President Donald Trump once again won North Carolina, his third time in as many election cycles, while once again, North Carolinians split their ballots and elected a Democratic Governor in current Attorney General Josh Stein.Stein was the highest vote-getter on the ballot as of Wednesday, garnering over three million votes of the 5.6 million votes cast, although final totals will not be available until after the ten-day canvass period. Stein's 15-percentage point win over Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is the widest margin in a North Carolina Governor's race in recent history.Ticket-splitting the North Carolina... Read the complete article here...© 2024 Ward and Smith, P.A.. All Rights Reserved.

The Los Angeles County registrar's office released updated election results on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump's team stopped by Glenmoore, Broomall and Lansdale over the weekend, with a planned rally in Lancaster County on Sunday.

With their Week 9 win over LSU the Texas A&M Aggies are in command of the SEC, but is there a potential nightmare scenario for the league lurking?

After RFK was assassinated in 1968, she raised their 11 children and remained dedicated to social causes and the family’s legacy for decades thereafter.

Ethel Kennedy, who lost her husband Sen. Robert Kennedy to assassination, has died. She was 96.

William "Will" Davis, 56, D-Homewood, and Republican Patricia Bonk, 67, of Midlothian, say property taxes and economic development are top concerns.

Five states redrew their district lines and the changes could impact who wins the House in the 2024 election.

Colorado Counties, Inc., has weighed in on the side of ranchers and agricultural organizations seeking a delay in the arrival of the next batch of wolves in Colorado.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.

Diego Pavia and Max Brosmer headline top transfer performances from Week 6

While Adam Gregg will become the head of the Iowa Bankers Association, he will not directly lobby on behalf of the organization.

Monken discusses how he's thrived at Army during his 11-season tenure, the triple-option offense, playing OU in 2018 and why joining the American conference was a good move for Army.

Reagan's nine most "terrifying" words in the English language: "I’m from the government, and I’m here to help"

Regardless of their political stripes, voters on the Western Slope worry most about the cost of living.

Tennessee gets a big conference win on the road while Arkansas is the story of the conference so far this year.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not appear at former President Donald Trump’s rally in the eastern part of his state after a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board. That's according to two...

Donald Trump plans on addressing the disastrous scandal engulfing North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson “in passing," as he campaigns in the Tar Heel state this weekend. The New York Times reports that, while the Trump campaign is still hoping Robinson will withdraw from the race, aides believe Trump “will deliver a version of a comment he has made about countless supporters or former aides: that he hardly knows the guy." Quite the stretch for Trump, who told a rally in North Carolina back in March that Robinson was "Martin Luther King on steroids," and "better than Martin Luther King," and “Martin Luther King times two.”The explosive report detailing Robinson's morally hypocritical, bigoted, and unsavory comments on a porn forum between 2008-2012 came out on Thursday. It was bad, and that’s saying something about someone who has publicly lamented women getting the right to vote and calling the LGBTQ+ community “filth.” It included Robinson identifying himself as a “Black Nazi,” as well as disparaging and offensive statements about the late civil rights leader who Trump so glowingly compared him to.

This comes after a bombshell report said that the North Carolina Republican published a series of racist and lewd comments on a porn forum years ago.

The Tar Heel State, where the GOP gubernatorial candidate is steeped in controversy, is a critical battleground in the presidential race.

“Classic haircuts for the modern gentleman” is a new business model that Vintage Barbershop Co. brings to the Owasso community.

Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, vowed Thursday to remain in the race following a report revealing that he made dozens of lewd and inflammatory comments more than 10 years ago on the message board of a pornography website.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife reported Thursday that another wolf has been found dead in Grand County.

Damage assessments were underway early Thursday across roughly a third of the state.

The picture is starting to become clearer in the SEC's pecking order. Who rose and who dropped after Week 2?

Amazon and Blue Origin have donated to VP Harris’ campaign, with $1M from Amazon and $27K from Blue Origin.

Jayden Daniels recently went on LSU women's basketball star Flau'jae Johnson's podcast, "Best of Both Worlds", where he revealed all the jersey swaps he has planned out for his rookie season with the Washington Commanders.

Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. From concerts to campaign cash, 2024 is shaping up as a test of the crypto industry’s political strength. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Charles [...]The post At the Races: Crypto campaigning appeared first on Roll Call.

Follow live updates from the rally, which is expected to begin at 8 p.m. at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse on MSU's campus. Doors open at 4pm.

Welcome to the Daily Kos Elections Live Digest, your liveblog of all of today's campaign news. You can find our collection of public data at dailykosdata.com.Please note: The Live Digest is a Democratic presidential primary-free space. It’s also a place to discuss elections, not policy.Subscribe to our podcast, The Downballot! New episodes every Thursday morning. Embedded Content UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 6, 2024 · 10:26:12 PM +00:00 · Stephen Wolf • TN-05: NewsChanel 5's Phil Williams reports that the FBI executed a search warrant on Republican Rep. Andy Ogles last week, though neither the FBI nor Ogles' attorney would confirm or deny the search and what it involved. Williams, whose previous reporting revealed how Ogles seemingly had fabricated large parts of his life story and submitted fraudulent campaign finance reports, relays that the search may have been related to the latter issue and involved the congressman's electronic devices.Williams notes that the Department of Justice generally avoids openly investigating candidates within 60 days of Election Day so as not to influence the results, and the search happened the very next day after Ogles won Thursday's primary by 57-43 over Metro Nashville Councilmember Courtney Johnston.Back in May, Ogles drew unwelcome attention after he dramatically amended his 2022 campaign finance reports to say he loaned his effort $20,000, rather than the $320,000 he'd previously claimed. Williams previously pointed out that the congressman's personal financial disclosures showed he lacked the wealth to make a loan of that size. (On those forms, Ogles did not even list any bank accounts.)Those inflated figures allowed Ogles to claim he had considerably more money available three weeks before the primary than the paltry $2,000 he now says he had in the bank, and that exaggerated war chest may have convinced outside group allies like the Club for Growth that he was in stronger shape than he was. While Ogles would likely still be favored to win this fall in a heavily gerrymandered district that backed Trump 55-43 in 2020, it remains to be seen how much legal jeopardy he may be in. UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 6, 2024 · 9:05:48 PM +00:00 · Stephen Wolf • DE-Gov: A group called Change Can't Wait PAC has launched a new TV ad ahead of the Sept. 10 Democratic primary that praises New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer's healthcare plan and his support for abortion rights. While federal law prevents this type of organization from running ads directly telling viewers to vote for or against a candidate, Delaware Spotlight's Karl Baker reports that some of Meyer's supporters are behind it.• CA-16: Assemblyman Evan Low has publicized a Tulchin Research survey that finds former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a fellow Democrat, leading him just 30-29 with a 41% plurality of voters undecided in this dark blue open seat. Last month, Liccardo's campaign shared a late-June internal from Lake Research Partners that showed him ahead 39-28, and no other polls have recently surfaced here.• FL-13: EMILYs List has endorsed former Pinellas County transportation official Whitney Fox with just two weeks left until the Aug. 20 primary for the Democratic nomination to take on freshman Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. This seat in the St. Petersburg area, which Republicans gerrymandered following the 2020 census, favored Donald Trump by a 53-46 margin four years ago.• MN-02: Despite saying last month that he was suspending his House campaign to serve as an adviser to Donald Trump's campaign, attorney Tayler Rahm has still been sending campaign mailers. The Star Tribune's Sydney Kashiwagi reports that Rahm appears to be engaged in a "shadow primary" campaign against former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab, who has the support of Donald Trump and House GOP leadership in the Aug. 13 GOP primary.While Rahm himself again declared last week that he had suspended his effort, 2nd District GOP chair Joe Ditto told Kashiwagi he believed that Rahm still could pull off an upset next week. "It sounds like if [Rahm’s] victorious in the primary, he will unsuspend his campaign and run against Angie in the general," said Ditto. • NV-02: Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen has endorsed wealthy investor Greg Kidd, a self-funding independent who is challenging Republican Rep. Mark Amodei in a race where Democrats did not field a candidate. Trump won this northern Nevada district 54-43, and while Democrats have not seriously contested it since Amodei's initial landslide in a 2011 special election, Kidd's lack of a party label could give him more of an opening.• TX-18: Former Houston Councilmember Dwight Boykins has ended his campaign for the Democratic nomination to replace the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee after her children endorsed former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, with Boykins saying, "I respect their decision." Local party precinct chairs are set to meet on Aug. 13 to choose a replacement nominee for November's ballot in this dark blue seat. UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 6, 2024 · 8:24:55 PM +00:00 · Stephen Wolf Poll Pile:AZ-Sen: Redfield & Wilton Strategies for The Telegraph: Ruben Gallego (D): 42, Kari Lake (R): 36 (44-43 Harris with third-party candidates)NM-Sen: Redfield & Wilton Strategies for The Telegraph: Martin Heinrich (D-inc): 40, Nella Domenici (R): 34 (44-37 Harris with third-party candidates)NV-Sen: Redfield & Wilton Strategies for The Telegraph: Jacky Rosen (D-inc): 41, Sam Brown (R): 38 (40-40 presidential tie with third-party candidates) (July: 45-40 Rosen)PA-Sen: Redfield & Wilton Strategies for The Telegraph: Bob Casey (D-inc): 45, Dave McCormick (R): 40 (46-44 Trump with third-party candidates) (July: 46-39 Casey)NC-Gov: Redfield & Wilton Strategies for The Telegraph: Josh Stein (D): 43, Mark Robinson (R): 38 (44-41 Trump with third-party candidates) (July: 38-34 Stein)Ad Roundup:MT-Sen: Tim Sheehy (R); Last Best Place - anti-SheehyOH-Sen: Sherrod Brown (D-inc)PA-Sen: Dave McCormick (R) - anti-Bob Casey (D-inc); One Nation - anti-CaseyNH-Gov: Kelly Ayotte (R)CO-08: House Majority Forward - pro-Yadira Caraveo (D-inc) (in English and Spanish)IA-01: Christina Bohannan (D) - anti-Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-inc)ME-02: House Majority Forward - pro-Jared Golden (D-inc)NY-04: House Majority Forward - anti-Anthony D’Esposito (R-inc)NY-18: Pat Ryan (D-inc) - anti-Alison Esposito (R)WI-08: Roger Roth (R) UPDATE: Tuesday, Aug 6, 2024 · 4:30:38 PM +00:00 · Jeff Singer • MN-Gov: Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, a decision that could usher in a new era of leadership in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan would become Minnesota's new chief executive should the Harris-Walz ticket prevail in November, an ascension that would make her the first woman to lead the state. Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, would also be the first Native American woman to serve as governor of any state. No matter what, though, this office will next be on the ballot in 2026 for a full four-year term.Walz, writes KARE 11's Jeremiah Jacobsen, would be the state's first governor to resign since 1976, when Sen. Walter Mondale's election as Jimmy Carter's vice president set off a volatile chain of events back home that proved disastrous for Democrats.Following Mondale's departure for Washington, Democratic Gov. Wendell Anderson stepped down from his post and arranged for his lieutenant governor, Rudy Perpich, to appoint him to Mondale's Senate seat. These insider dealings, however, backfired with voters, leading to the "Minnesota massacre" of 1978: Republican Rudy Boschwitz trounced Anderson in the race for Senate while Republican Al Quie unseated Perpich as governor.Walz's succession would be a far simpler affair, but there's also the matter of who would replace Flanagan in her current role. State constitutional law expert Quinn Yeargain explains in Guaranteed Republics that the next person in line to become lieutenant governor is the president of the state Senate, a post that's held by Democrat Bobby Joe Champion. Should Champion succeed Flanagan, he, too, would make history, as the first Black person to serve as Minnesota's lieutenant governor.There's a potential hitch, though. The 67-member Senate is currently tied because Democratic state Sen. Kelly Morrison, who is the favorite to replace retiring Rep. Dean Phillips in Congress, resigned in July so that a special election could be held simultaneously with the November general election. The rest of the Senate, however, isn't up for election again until 2026, so this one race will determine who controls the upper chamber next year.Fortunately for Democrats, Morrison's 45th District, which is based in the Minneapolis suburbs, will be tough for the GOP to flip, especially now that Walz is on the national ticket. This constituency supported Joe Biden by a 57-41 margin in 2020, according to VEST data from Dave's Redistricting App, while the Walz-Flanagan team scored an identical win two years later. Three Democrats are competing in the Aug. 13 primary; the winner will face Republican Kathleen Fowke, who lost to Morrison 56-44 in 2022.But even if Republicans were to pull off an upset in this special election at the same time Harris and Walz prevail in the Electoral College, Yeargain writes that it's possible that Walz could time his resignation to ensure that Champion still becomes lieutenant governor.That would be a far better outcome for Democrats than the last time the number two slot became vacant. When then-Gov. Mark Dayton selected Lt. Gov Tina Smith to fill Al Franken's Senate seat after he resigned in early 2018, the GOP had control of the state Senate. As a result, Republican Michelle Fischbach was elevated to the lieutenant governorship and served for a year before waging a successful bid for Congress in 2020.Looking ahead, because Minnesota does not have term limits, whoever is governor—whether that's Walz or Flanagan—will be able to run in 2026. Voters, however, have never awarded an incumbent three consecutive terms. The last to try was Perpich, who staged a successful comeback in 1982 and won two full terms. But when he sought a third straight in 1990, he lost a close and chaotic battle to Republican Arne Carlson.Republican Tim Pawlenty tried to win a third non-consecutive term in 2018, nearly a decade after retiring to prepare for what would be a doomed presidential campaign. But primary voters passed him over in favor of Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson, who went on to badly lose the general election to none other than Walz.

Welcome to the Daily Kos Elections Live Digest, your liveblog of all of today's campaign news. You can find our collection of public data at dailykosdata.com.Please note: The Live Digest is a Democratic presidential primary-free space. It’s also a place to discuss elections, not policy.Subscribe to our podcast, The Downballot! New episodes every Thursday morning. Embedded Content UPDATE: Monday, Aug 5, 2024 · 10:03:44 PM +00:00 · Jeff Singer Ad RoundupAZ-Sen: VoteVets - pro-Ruben Gallego (D)MT-Sen: Tim Sheehy (R) - anti-Jon Tester (D-inc) (here, here, and here)NM-Sen: Nella Domenici (R) - anti-Martin Heinrich (D-inc)PA-Sen: Keystone Renewal PAC - anti-Bob Casey (D-inc) WI-Sen: Tammy Baldwin (D-inc) - anti-Eric Hovde (R)DE-Gov: Bethany Hall-Long (D); Matt Meyer (D)AK-AL: Mary Peltola (D-inc) (here, here, here, and here)AZ-06: Kirsten Engel (D)MO-01: Mainstream Democrats PAC - anti-Cori Bush (D-inc); United Democracy Project - anti-Bush and pro-Wesley Bell (D); Working Families Party - anti-BellNY-19: Josh Riley (D) (here and here)WA-03: Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-inc)WI-08: Tony Wied (R); Speak Free or Die PAC - anti-Wied UPDATE: Monday, Aug 5, 2024 · 10:02:26 PM +00:00 · Jeff Singer Poll Pile:PA Auditor: GQR (D) for Malcolm Kenyatta: Malcolm Kenyatta (D): 47, Tim DeFoor (R-inc): 43 (50-46 Harris with third-party candidates) UPDATE: Monday, Aug 5, 2024 · 9:58:55 PM +00:00 · Jeff Singer • Primary Night: Tuesday brings us one of the biggest primary nights of the cycle, and as always, Jeff Singer previews the big contests to watch—including the eight races where Donald Trump is supporting a total of 12 different candidates.Trump issued yet another dual endorsement over the weekend when he wrote that he was now supporting motivational speaker Tiffany Smiley's intraparty bid against Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse, who is one of the two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 riot. Trump, though, made it clear he was also sticking with the man he backed back in April, former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler, ahead of the top-two primary for this conservative seat.But while Trump offered up his "complete and total endorsement" to both Smiley and Sessler's efforts to beat Newhouse, whom MAGA's master called "a weak and pathetic RINO" that "stupidly voted to impeach me for absolutely no reason," the two challengers are anything but friends. Sessler has accused Smiley, who ran a well-funded but ill-fated 2022 campaign against Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, of getting into the race in order to help Newhouse. Smiley, for her part, has run ads calling Sessler a vegan who "wants to tax our beef," allegations Sessler has ardently denied.Meanwhile, the other Evergreen State Republican who voted to oust Trump in 2021 may be about to cost Democrats control of a statewide office months before the general election. Former Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler is one of two Republicans campaigning to succeed Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, a Democrat who is running for a House seat around Tacoma, in a race that includes five members of Franz's party.Democrats lost control of the state treasurer's office in 2016 after a pair of Republicans advanced out of the top-two primary, and a late July survey from Public Policy Polling for the Northwest Progressive Institute gave them reason to fret about a repeat in the public lands race. That poll showed Herrera Beutler in front with 18% as Sue Kuehl Pederson, a Republican who badly lost to Franz in 2020, leads Democratic King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove 12-6 for second. A massive 48% remain undecided, but it remains to be seen if these voters would break for one of the five Democrats on the ballot.It's possible, though, that a top-two disaster won't end Democratic hopes to keep this office. NPI head Andrew Villeneuve tells KUOW that his party would likely run a write-in campaign in the general election. Democrats, however, would prefer to avoid the financial and logistical obstacles of such an undertaking.There's far more to watch in both Washington and three other states on Tuesday. A prominent progressive congresswoman in St. Louis is trying to overcome an onslaught in outside spending, while a challenger in Detroit is hoping that demographics will matter much more than money in her own battle against an incumbent. We'll also find out if Republicans in Kansas' largest county are willing to do what their compatriots across the nation won't and oust a prominent incumbent who has spread election conspiracies. Check out Singer's preview for more―including why Darth Vader is playing a role in the contest to lead Missouri.We'll be liveblogging the results at Daily Kos Elections on Tuesday night, starting when the first polls close at 8 PM ET. Join us for our complete coverage!• TX-18: The Harris County Democratic Party said Friday that its 88 precinct chairs will meet on Aug. 13 to replace Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who died last month, on the general election ballot in this safely blue seat. The party says that no filing form or fee is required, though it will begin interviewing candidates on Aug. 6.GOP Gov. Greg Abbott last week also scheduled the special election for the remainder of Jackson Lee's term to coincide with the Nov. 5 general election. The filing deadline for that contest is Aug. 22.Several prominent Democrats launched bids last week to apply for the nomination to succeed Jackson Lee in the next Congress. One of them, former Mayor Sylvester Turner, announced Monday that he had the support of both of the congresswoman's children.• Los Angeles County, CA District Attorney: Political analyst Rob Pyers flags that former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, a Republican turned independent, ended June with a staggering $1.1 million to $47,000 cash on hand lead advantage over Democratic District Attorney George Gascón in the officially nonpartisan general election. Hochman also outraised Gascón $1.6 million to $166,000 from Feb. 18 to June 30.Gascón, who's called himself the "godfather of progressive prosecutors," has spent his term as the top prosecutor for America's largest county defending his reforms from critics who argue they've made crime worse. Gascón took first in the 12-person nonpartisan primary in March, though his 25% of the vote was far short of the majority he needed to win outright.Hochman, who took second with 16%, is running two years after he unsuccessfully challenged Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta in 2022 as a Republican. While Hochman lost Los Angeles County 67-33 in 2022, he's hoping that he'll have more luck now that he's shed his partisan label.

A federal judge said that Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy has not been officially dismissed because the former New York City mayor has refused to pay administrative expenses — even though he seems to have the funds to do so.In July, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane said he would dismiss the bankruptcy case at the request of Giuliani and two former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Giuliani had initially declared bankruptcy after a court ordered him to pay Freeman and Moss $148 million for defamation.In a five-page order on Thursday, Lane noted that the order to dismiss the case had not been entered into the court record because Giuliani claimed he could not afford to pay related administrative expenses."The administrative expenses in question are the fees for the financial advisors retained by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors," the judge's Thursday order said. "What little we know about the Debtor's financial situation makes his stance here more troubling.""Even assuming that the Debtor does not have the funds on hand to immediately pay these bankruptcy expenses, he certainly has considerable assets upon which he can draw to pay such expenses," Lane continued. "It is undisputed that he owns two apartments of considerable value."Giuliani's New York apartment was said to be worth $5.6 million, and his Florida apartment was valued at approximately $3.5 million.EXCLUSIVE: Trump ‘secretary of retribution’ won't discuss his ‘target list’ at RNCLane explained that the "most obvious path forward" would be to hold hearings to determine Giuliani's financial conditions and possibly force him to testify."[T]here may come a point when dismissal is no longer an option because the Debtor is unwilling to pay these administrative expenses, a necessary requirement under the law for dismissal of the case," Thursday's order said. "Under such circumstances, the Court may be forced to reevaluate the alternative of a Chapter 11 trustee to supervise the administration of the Debtor's financial affairs and to promptly liquidate assets such as the New York apartment as appropriate."Lane gave Giuliani and his creditors until July 31 to submit proposals for a path forward.

A GOP strategist unleashed an attack on Kamala Harris that was dripping in sarcasm Thursday after losing his cool over positive media coverage of the Democratic Party’s presumed presidential candidate.Doug Heye was on CNN as the vice president finished a rally speech in Houston. As his co-guest, Democratic Party strategist Maria Cordona, finished praising the candidate’s performance, Heye got flustered.Raising his voice, he said, “Everything we heard is 'Oh my god, Kamala Harris is the greatest thing ever. She's the greatest cook that we've ever had near the Oval Office. She knows more about wine than anybody other than maybe Thomas Jefferson. Everything she does is amazing.'“So we should just cancel the election because clearly she's going to win by 25 points?”He then tried to bring the CNN panel back from what he saw as rose-colored adoration.ALSO READ: ‘Creepy weirdos’: Senator fears Trump WH staff would destroy government from ‘inside’“The reality is, i'm not going to get in Donald Trump's head, don't want to be there, don't know what's in there. But he sees the same polling that we do," he said.“Kamala Harris is marginally less unpopular than Joe Biden. She's not winning in the polls. Maybe that changes in a week or two, or six or eight, but at this point, Donald Trump is still winning despite this barrage of nothing but positive press for Kamala Harris and has been marinated in the public's mind.”Cardona had set him off by suggesting that Trump was “going through a mental meltdown” because of his opponent's popularity.“Not just that she is incredibly accomplished as DA, AG, senator, VP,” she said, “but the fact that she is also very attractive. I mean, I have to say it.“...In addition to that, she's not only a woman, she's a woman of African American Asian descent, daughter of immigrants, Jamaican descent.I mean, it's it's this sort of cauldron of all of the things that Trump has nightmares about every single night.”Watch the video below or click the link here.

At least three of Vice President Kamala Harris' prospective running mates already have members of their state's congressional delegation pressing their cases from Capitol Hill.Why it matters: Several lawmakers, eager to see their states represented at the top of the ticket, told Axios they are privately making their argument to the Harris campaign or plan to do so.Pennsylvania Gov. Josh ShapiroRep. Matt Cartwright said he is "just getting started" in urging the Harris campaign to pick Shapiro, saying he has "mentioned it to a few people, I think, low down in the Harris campaign."Rep. Susan Wild said in a statement Shapiro would be a "phenomenal" choice, adding: "I have communicated this to the Harris campaign. I do not know if the Governor is interested in the role, but I hope he is for the sake of our country."And Rep. Madeleine Dean said she doesn't think it is appropriate to make an endorsement but said Shapiro has been a "superb leader" who often outperforms other Democrats on the same ballot.North Carolina Gov. Roy CooperRep. Kathy Manning said Cooper "would be a great choice," and that "if anybody [from the Harris campaign] asks me, I'm happy to tell them."Rep. Jeff Jackson said Cooper is "awesome" and that he is "planning on" making that view known to the Harris campaign.Rep. Wiley Nickel said Cooper is "absolutely the best choice that Vice President Harris could make, a very popular governor in a swing state," but suggested he is not actively pushing Cooper to the campaign.Arizona Sen. Mark KellyRep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) touted Kelly's record, popularity with independents and Republicans and his ability to raise money, but declined to say whether he would make that case privately to the Harris campaign."Obviously, Arizona is a critical battleground state, so if he were to be selected that would immediately put ... Arizona in a likely winning position," Stanton told Axios in a phone interview.Between the lines: One other prospective pick, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, is at a disadvantage on this front as his deep red state has just one Democrat, Rep. Morgan McGarvey, in its congressional delegation.McGarvey's spokesperson told Axios that the congressman, like his contemporaries in other states, has advocated for Beshear in local media interviewsThe other side: Several Republican lawmakers argued that VP picks from their states wouldn't help Democrats the way the party is hoping."I think, no matter what, Trump and Vance are going to win [Pennsylvania] no matter who Democrats put on the ticket, because at this point it's all about the platform," said Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.).Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) said of Cooper: "He's going to try and claim credit for bills that he vetoed for years. And once people learn that record, I think he'll be very unpopular."Go deeper: Where VP Kamala Harris stands on hot-button issues

A number of Democratic lawmakers, governors and past leaders were quick to rally behind Vice President Harris as she pursues the Democratic Party's presidential nomination following President Biden's withdrawal from the race. Shortly after dropping out of the presidential race, Biden endorsed Harris as his successor, stating it is "time to come together and beat" [...]