Tuesday’s Campaign Round-Up, 4.21.26: Trump, Johnson make eleventh-hour pitch in Virginia

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.

* Ahead of Virginia’s vote on a redistricting ballot measure, Donald Trump hasn’t said much about it, but the president and House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana made an eleventh-hour pitch to supporters in the commonwealth with a Monday night telerally call. The morning after, Trump used his social media platform to direct Virginians to “save your country.”

* In California, the Democratic gubernatorial field is finally starting to shrink: On the heels of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s departure, Betty Yee, a former state controller, announced Monday that she’s also suspending her campaign after struggling to raise enough money to remain competitive.

* Risa Lombardo used to sell MAGA merchandise and was a Republican Party official until very recently. Now, she’s a Green Party gubernatorial candidate in Arizona as part of an apparent attempt to fool progressive voters in the state and divide the left in the 2026 race.

* Indiana Republicans approved a voter-ID law, but it prohibits the use of student identification cards. This week, a federal appeals court allowed the partisan policy to remain in effect.

* There’s been talk for months that Ohio’s gubernatorial race will be competitive, and there’s fresh evidence to bolster the point: The latest poll conducted by Bowling Green State University found Republican Vivek Ramaswamy barely leading Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee, 48% to 47%.

* Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s lengthy career in public office is nearing its end, but the Democratic governor isn’t exiting the arena altogether: Walz this week launched a new political action committeecalled Small Town PAC, as part of a broader effort to recruit and support Democratic candidates running in rural areas.

* And in Wyoming, there was talk that Republican Gov. Mark Gordon was prepared to challenge the state’s term-limits law, but the governor announced late last week that he will instead step down at the end of his second term, which ends in early January.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”