The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.

Leading Off

● OH-15: Candidate filing closed Monday for the special election to succeed Republican Rep. Steve Stivers, whose resignation from Ohio’s 15th Congressional District took effect the previous day, and the Columbus Dispatch has a list of contenders here.

The party primaries will take place Aug. 3, while the general election will be Nov. 2; those dates also coincide with the special election for the heavily blue 11th District. The Republican nominee will be the clear favorite in this 56-42 Trump seat, a heavily gerrymandered constituency that includes the southern Columbus area as well as Athens. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown did carry the 15th District 50-48 in 2018, but that victory came as he was winning statewide by 52-46, a relatively very strong margin for a Democrat in this 53-45 Trump state.

A total of 12 Republicans put their names forward for this special, including four sitting state legislators: state Sens. Stephanie Kunze and Bob Peterson, and state Reps. Jeff LaRe and Brian Stewart. The contest also includes another current elected official, Hilliard City Council member Omar Tarazi, as well as former Perry County Commissioner Thad Cooperrider and ex-state Rep. Ron Hood, who badly lost a race last year for the state Board of Education.

Campaign Action

Five other candidates are also running for Team Red: businessman John Adams; Mike Carey, who serves as an executive at American Consolidated Natural Resources; nurse Eric Clark; golf club owner Thomas Hwang; and Ruth Edmonds, who is a former staffer at the state social conservative group Center for Christian Virtue. Another Republican, Fairfield County Commissioner Jeff Fix, had previously announced a bid, but he dropped out just before the filing deadline and endorsed LaRe.

There is no obvious frontrunner at this point in the race for the GOP nomination. Stivers, who chaired the NRCC during the 2018 Democratic wave, has pledged to make an endorsement at some point, though, which could help his eventual choice stand out in this extremely crowded field.

The Democratic field is far smaller, with state Rep. Allison Russo only going up against an opponent named Greg Betts; Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano had filed paperwork with the FEC to run, but he didn’t go forward with a campaign.

Senate

● FL-Sen, FL-Gov: Politico reports that Democratic Rep. Val Demings will challenge Republican Sen. Marco Rubio next year, according to unnamed sources, adding that an announcement could come “as early as next month.” Demings has also been considering a bid for governor and recently promised a decision “very, very soon.”

● WA-Sen: Democratic Sen. Patty Murray kicked off her bid for a sixth term this week. As the third-ranking member of the Democratic caucus, Murray is the most senior woman in the Senate, and she should have little trouble winning re-election next year in solidly blue Washington, which voted for Joe Biden by a 58-39 margin.

Governors

● AZ-Gov, AZ-Sen: Arizona Board of Regents member Karrin Taylor Robson joined the GOP primary for governor on Monday, just hours after another prominent Republican, state Treasurer Kimberly Yee, became the first to do so.

Robson, a wealthy real estate developer and major Republican donor, hails from a prominent political family: Her father, Carl Kunasek, served as state Senate president in the 1980s and later on the Arizona Corporation Commission, while Andrew Kunasek, her brother, was a longtime member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The AZ Mirror reports that Robson “is widely expected to self-fund her campaign,” though in an interview last year, she suggested she would not do so exclusively.

Robson hasn’t run for office before, though in 2017, term-limited Republican Gov. Doug Ducey tapped her to fill a vacant spot on the board of regents (an unelected body), then re-appointed her to a full eight-year term in 2020. Her name came up as a potential successor to John McCain, both before and after Republican Jon Kyl’s brief return to the Senate (Ducey of course wound up choosing Martha McSally), and earlier this year she was mentioned as a possible challenger to Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.

● NH-Gov, NH-01: Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, acknowledging that Republicans are eager to target him in redistricting, wouldn’t rule out a statewide campaign in a recent interview with Politico but said he’s “really committed to continue to serve here another term,” referring to his post in Congress. In New Hampshire, the only positions elected on a statewide basis are governor and senator, and it’s inconceivable that Pappas would challenge Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in next year’s primary. That leaves only a gubernatorial bid on the table, which could be an appealing option if popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu winds up running for Senate instead.

● NY-Gov: Former Trump White House official Andrew Giuliani announced a campaign for governor on Tuesday, making him the third notable Republican to do so (if you think he rates) after former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and Rep. Lee Zeldin. Giuliani is best known as the son of Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City Mayor and alleged attorney for Donald Trump. In kicking off his bid, the younger Giuliani embraced his familial legacy, such as it is, saying, “I’m a politician out of the womb. It’s in my DNA.”

● VA-Gov: State Sen. Amanda Chase, who finished third at this month’s Republican convention, says she’s “planning on supporting" the party’s gubernatorial nominee, Glenn Youngkin, and is “not planning on running as an independent,” though neither remark closes the door. What will settle matters soon, however, is the June 8 filing deadline, which is the same day as the Democratic primary.

Speaking of Team Blue’s primary, state Sen. Jennifer McClellan is out with her first TV ad. The National Journal reports that the spot is backed by a six-figure buy and is airing in the Richmond area, where McClellan’s district is located. The commercial serves as an introductory ad for McClellan, who narrates the ad and highlights the lack of diversity among past Old Dominion governors.

As a montage of all-male former Virginia chief executives plays, including Thomas Jefferson and the infamous segregationist Harry Byrd, McClellan declares that “the perspectives of Virginia governors, while different in some ways, have had more in common than not.” The spot focuses in particular on Douglas Wilder, the only non-white person to hold this office, and Terry McAuliffe, who is the current frontrunner to hold it once again.

McClellan continues by arguing, “This moment demands something different. To rebuild with no one left behind.” She concludes, “The time for a new perspective is now.”

Other Races

● VA-AG: Democratic incumbent Mark Herring’s opening commercial ahead of the June 8 primary begins with state Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, who is both the first woman and African American to hold that title, praising him for having “gone to court to fight for the Affordable Care Act and access to women’s health care.”

More supporters, including Rep. Don Beyer and state House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (no relation), go on to highlight the attorney general’s progressive record, including his work ending rape kit backlogs. Herring himself then appears at the end to declare, “I take on fights that need to be fought. To right wrongs.”

Herring faces a competitive intra-party challenge next month from Del. Jay Jones, who would be the first African American to win this office. Jones has the backing of Gov. Ralph Northam and Reps. Elaine Luria and Bobby Scott, and the Republican firm Medium Buying reports that he’s outspent Herring so far on TV and radio about $560,000 to $285,000. Herring’s side still holds a financial lead, though, as the incumbent’s allies at the Democratic Attorneys General Association have deployed an additional $400,000.