Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Virginia’s Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, added her signature to a plan to overhaul the commonwealth’s district map and give her party four additional U.S. House seats. It still needs to overcome legal challenges, however, as well as a statewide referendum in April.
* In related news, Utah’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the state’s Republican-led legislature and cleared the way for a new congressional map that will likely lead to a Democratic victory.
* As for the redistricting effort in Maryland, state Senate President Bill Ferguson still refuses to consider his own party’s initiative, likely dooming the broader endeavor, to the relief of President Donald Trump and Republican officials.
* With early voting underway in Texas’ primary races, Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales’ troubles continue to generate headlines. NBC News reported Friday that the Office of Congressional Conduct examined allegations of an affair between the GOP congressman and a former staffer who died by suicide in September. The results of the investigation will reportedly be shared with the full House Ethics Committee after next week’s primary.
* Speaking of the Lone Star State, Rep. Wesley Hunt’s Senate candidacy was largely overlooked, but he’s drawn enough statewide support lately that he is now facing millions of dollars’ worth of attack ads.
* In still more Texas-related news, Trump has now endorsed every incumbent House Republican except one: Rep. Dan Crenshaw. The congressman is facing a competitive primary in his Houston-area district.
* Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who’s running for governor in Minnesota, will be in a position to name her own successor on Capitol Hill if she prevails. Any chance incumbent Gov. Tim Walz would want the gig? “I would rather eat glass than do that,” he said last week.
* And in Georgia, where a variety of GOP contenders are vying to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump said last week that he’d have to choose which of the candidates he’d prefer to win the Republican primary. What the president apparently forgot was that he’d already endorsed Clay Fuller to fill the vacancy.
