David Mark

Two former House members who served federal prison time within the past dozen years have lost 2026 comeback bids: Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) Steve Stockman (R-Texas) One more to go, with Chris Collins (R-Fla.) running in FL19. Collings previously was a House member from New York.

@LahavHarkov A version of this happened to Paul McCartney during The Beatles’ waning days. There were tv specials with “respectable” hosts speculating on it. Now, the guy is still playing concerts at age 83.

One of the funny things that’s happening is that completely normal things in photos and videos of Netanyahu (such as devices and papers being blurred) are being dissected as proof he’s dead by people who clearly do not follow these things day to day. Also cute is that they think that he has a public calendar that he actually keeps to at any time, let alone wartime.

@eb4everyone @EmersonPolling @CaliforniaICP Fair enough; thanks.

@DavidMarkDC @EmersonPolling @CaliforniaICP They also polled the governor’s race

NEW: LOS ANGELES POLL with @CaliforniaICP Karen Bass 20% Spencer Pratt 10% Nithya Raman 9% Adam Miller 4% Rae Huang 3% 51% undecided emersoncollegepolling.com/california-202…

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is the 27th House member retiring in the 2026 election cycle. Twenty-seven House members are seeking, or unsuccessfully sought, other offices.

Sharp ideological shift in reelection plans of Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.). He was seemingly gearing up for a GOP member-on-member fight in Central Valley CA05. Now running as "No Party Preference" in blue-leaning Sacramento-area CA06. Presumably with a pivot to the center.

A pair of 2026 two-time congressional retirees. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) didn't seek reelection in 2018 but won a different seat two years later. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) was a House member from 2009-17. In 2020 she won a single, six-year Senate term.

@CAFranchise @kkondik Three House terms (elected in 2020). But point taken.

@DavidMarkDC @kkondik I don't think Rep Owens enjoyed it, so I can see why he doesn't want a competitive primary in a mostly new district. Serving two terms means he qualifies for congressional retirement, and he'll keep appearing on Fox News.

Amid bitter Rep. Christian Menefee vs. Rep. Al Green TX18 Democratic primary runoff, other House incumbents are demurring from member-on-member fights. Rep. Kevin Kiley running in blue-leaning CA06 rather than against GOP Rep. Tom McClintock. Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) retiring.

United Airlines says put on your headphones or get off the plane wapo.st/3Pjk3M0

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is the ninth senator retiring in the 2026 election cycle. Five Republicans and four Democrats.

Last-minute candidate filing bait-and-switches aren't uncommon in House races. But doing so in a Senate race, with six-year terms, is on another level. Montana's filing deadline for Independent and Minor Party candidates is June 1. Write-in candidate filing deadline is Aug. 5.

Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) is the 25th House member retiring in the 2026 election cycle. Twenty-seven House members are seeking, or sought unsuccessfully, other offices.

Former House members are 0-4 in 2026 comeback bids. Losers so far: - Ex-Rep. Quico Canseco, R-TX. - Ex-Rep. Mayra Flores, R-TX. - Ex-Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-NJ (special election). - Ex-Rep. Steve Stockman, R-TX. Thirteen other former House members are seeking their old jobs back.

Two members of Congress were in office during the February 1979 Iranian Revolution, when Ayatollah Khomeini seized power — Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) Both were House members at the time.

Well, we should soon learn something about the quality of various Texas pollsters.

The president has to be invited by Hill leaders to address a joint session of Congress to deliver a State of the Union address. Seems inevitable that at some point an opposition Congress simply won't issue an invitation.

Members of Congress skipping SOTU by an opposition party president has been a slow build over a long time. In 1999, President Bill Clinton delivered speech amid his Senate impeachment trial. Then-Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) and perhaps a few other Republican lawmakers didn't go.

Doug Moe, Denver Nuggets coach from 1980-90, has died at 87. Moe announced his dismissal from the Nuggets on Sept. 6, 1990, at a press conference where he and his wife Jane had a Champagne toast. Hard to imagine that happening today.

The late Robert Duvall's performance in the 1963 "Twilight Zone" episode "Miniature" is a masterpiece. One of the few hour-long episodes in the series that holds up. Duvall plays a shy, socially awkward man who becomes obsessed with a 19th-century dollhouse in a local museum.