MIDTERM MADNESS: Ducey’s choice
The Trump era is prompting a new surge of Muslim-American candidates.
AZ-GOV:POLITICO reports on the balance that Doug Ducey must strike in picking McCain’s successor.
AZ-SEN:NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard reports on Kelli Ward’s comments on McCain.
The embrace of Trump by the GOP primary candidates may cost them the seat in November, writes the LA Times.
FL: Many Puerto Ricans won’t vote today. The Miami Herald explains why.
Democrats are getting more and more worried about Bill Nelson.
KS-GOV: A former Colyer campaign official is backing Orman over Kobach.
MT-SEN: Republicans are feeling better about the Montana Senate race, per some new internal polling from the NRSC.
NC: A panel of judges held yesterday that North Carolina’s congressional districts are unconstitutionally gerrymandered and may need to be redrawn before November.
TX-SEN: Ted Cruz is picking the campaign trail over votes, writes Roll Call.
And Cruz is going after O’Rourke’s comments on NFL protests in a new digital ad.
TRUMP AGENDA: The latest on Trump’s NAFTA move
NBC’s Jonathan Allen writes on the flag controversy.
The New York Times sums up yesterday’s NAFTA developments: “President Trump said on Monday that the United States and Mexico had reached an accord to revise key portions of the North American Free Trade Agreement and would finalize it within days, suggesting he was ready to jettison Canada from the trilateral trade pact if the country did not get on board quickly… “They used to call it Nafta,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re going to call it the United States-Mexico Trade Agreement,” adding that the term Nafta — which he has called the “worst” trade deal in history — had “a bad connotation” for the United States. Yet while Mr. Trump may try to change the name, the agreement reached with Mexico is simply a revised Nafta, with updates to provisions surrounding the digital economy, automobiles, agriculture and labor unions. The core of the trade pact — which allows American companies to operate in Mexico and Canada without tariffs — remains intact.”
And the Times also fact-checks the president’s claim that the preliminary agreement is “maybe the largest trade deal ever.”
Josh Rogin writes that Trump cancelled Pompeo’s trip the North Korea after a secret letter from a top North Korean official that convinced both men that the visit wasn’t likely to succeed.
Rudy Giuliani outlines his strategy for the Mueller probe, saying the “jury is the public.”
The Wall Street Journal writes that Manafort sought a deal in his next trial, but the talks broke down.
