TRUMP MAKES IT OFFICIAL — Former President DONALD TRUMP announced his endorsement of J.D. VANCE in the Ohio Senate GOP primary on Friday evening, spurning last-minute efforts from Republicans in the state who tried to call Trump off. Vance has been trailing other contenders in polling, including JOSH MANDEL and MIKE GIBBONS — making Trump’s nod especially valuable, but also especially risky.
To that point, WaPo’s Josh Dawsey and Mike Scherer have a good read this morning on Trump’s go-for-broke mentality on picking favorites in key races: “With his endorsements of [MEHMET] OZ, Senate candidate TED BUDD in North Carolina, gubernatorial hopeful DAVID PERDUE in Georgia and, on Friday, author and Senate candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio, Trump has leaped into the middle of several competitive primaries that could put his desired image as a kingmaker at risk.”
Money quote from Trump to an unnamed adviser: “I’m a gambler.”
BEST SATURDAY READ …
LETTER FROM ALASKA — SARAH PALIN is back, jumping into the crowded race to fill the late Rep. DON YOUNG’s seat in Congress. Her campaign announcement drew immediate national headlines and interest and a swift endorsement from Trump. But back home in Alaska, Palin has a ways to go to get back in voters’ good graces. Our colleague David Siders went to Wasilla, Alaska to take their temperature on her bid for the state’s sole congressional seat:
The 2008, populist folk-hero-of-the-right version of Palin, Siders writes, “would have thundered into a mere congressional race like a ‘mama grizzly’ (her term), easily clearing out any local competition. And she may yet win, purely on name recognition. Yet here, in her own hometown, Republicans were laughing at her. ‘She’s not seen around much,’ SHELLEY HUGHES, the Republican state Senate majority leader, told me.”
Now, running for the seat of the late Rep. DON YOUNG, “Palin is the embodiment of several conflicting truths in American politics. In one sense, she is all potential — a celebrity candidate in the age of celebrity candidates; a mere 58 years old at a time when national leadership is contested among people pushing 80.
“But she’s also heavily encumbered with baggage, a losing candidate at the national level with a long series of tabloidy family dramas and minor scandals. Here in Alaska, she also personifies the tension between local and national politics, and her candidacy could be a referendum on which matters more. She is deeply unpopular in her home state.”
A sampling of quotes from Alaksans:
- “I mean, I don’t know that I know anybody that’s thrilled about it. But, I mean, it’s happening.”
- “Oh, God, I loved her when she was governor, but I was pissed that she left. Alaskans don’t quit on anything … She got sucked in by the glamor of all that Washington, D.C., bullshit, in my opinion. … I just feel like it’s been so long, I don’t know if she’s relevant anymore.”
- “I just think Sarah these days is not a person to be taken seriously, and I think she’s desperate for the attention she once had.”
Good Saturday morning. Happy Pesach to members of the tribe, and thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line here, or get in touch with the rest of the team: Rachael…