Good morning! Here’s your Daily News for Wednesday, August 8, 2018.

1. Midwest Midterm Test: what we learned.

Game on

• People are going crazy about a razor-thin special election for Congress where Republican Troy Balderson appears to have edged Democrat Danny O’Connor.
• Why? Because Republicans aren’t supposed to come close to losing that district. Trump won OH-12 by 11 points in 2016.
• It points to the tough sled Republicans are going to have holding onto their House majority. As many as 79 Republican-held seats are thought to be at greater risk than this one was.
• Keep in mind that this was a special election, though, and many Ohio voters appear to be busy defending Urban Meyer and attacking Paul Finebaum.

Nominees

• Republicans managed to nominate their best candidates to take on incumbent Democratic Senators in Michigan and Missouri.
• John James, a black Iraq war veteran and businessman, will challenge Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley will take on Sen. Claire McCaskill.
• As troublesome as the House map is for the GOP, the Senate map is pretty promising.

Read up on some of the takeaway’s from AP’s Bill Barrow HERE.

2. NRA targets Jones’ SCOTUS vote. 

• The National Rifle Association has launched a TV ad campaign targeting Alabama Sen. Doug Jones’ vote on the Supreme Court nomination.
• The spot puts the future of gun rights in stark terms and urges those who support the 2nd Amendment to call Jones and urge him to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

Four liberal justices oppose your right to self-defense. Four justices support your right to self-defense.

President Trump chose Brett Kavanaugh to break the tie.

Your right to self-defense depends on this vote.

Tell Senator Jones: defend our right to self-defense, confirm Judge Kavanaugh.

• It’s part of a multi-state and national advertising campaign.
• Other states include North Dakota (Heitkamp), Alaska (Murkowski), Indiana (Donnelly), and West Virginia (Manchin).
• You might notice that, like Alabama, those are states with gun-loving populations.
• See the ad HERE.

3. Stadium progress.

• Mobile appears close to figuring out how to build a new stadium.
• The University of South Alabama is moving forward with construction plans for an on-campus stadium, and the City of Mobile appears closer to approving a plan to help fund it in exchange for city use.
• Read more from WKRG and Lawrence Speckler.
• Meanwhile, in Birmingham, the BJCC’s bond sale to finance the new downtown stadium was “highly successful,” generating $313 million.
• That should be plenty to finance stadium construction as well as the renovation of Legacy Arena, which is a critical part of the project.
• Read more from Erin Edgemon HERE.

4. Skip Tucker: Oh, Please. 

• Skip Tucker is back this week and he’s none too pleased with the “self-proclaimed intellectuals,” national and local, who call Donald Trump an “idiot.”
• Anyone who does might want to pony up their own IQ test results, he writes.

When Trump first entered the presidential campaign, mainstream media laughingly called him crazy. That is a prime psychological ploy – those who support a crazy must be crazy. It didn’t work.

…

Meanwhile, Trump is winning and liberal mainstream media, overall, is in continual decline.

And Trump is the idiot?

Oh, please.

• Read his full column HERE.

5. News briefs.

Bentley talks?

• Former Gov. Robert Bentley went on the record with YellowHammer’s Sean Ross yesterday.
• That’s impressive and kudos to Sean for scoring it.
• Before you get your hopes up, understand that it’s mostly a defense of his time in office and an explanation of his strange new presence on social media. That’s something Sen. Dick Brewbaker and I both have been wondering about.
• Read the full piece HERE.

Here comes the groom

• Zac Edwards was getting hitched to his new bride, Cindy down in Orange Beach, when he noticed a swimmer struggling in the surf.
• So, the former life guard stripped off his wedding attire and went in to rescue the swimmer.
• Get that man some groom’s cake. Full story HERE.

Hits keep coming for Huntsville 

• Another day, another national recognition for Huntsville.
• U.S. News has rated the Rocket City one of the best places to live in the United States.
• A thriving job market, quality of life, and emerging culture scene are some of the reasons why.
• Read the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s write up about it HERE.

Headlines.

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – NRA targets Jones’ vote in new TV ad. 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Skip Tucker: Oh, Please.

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Manafort lawyer: ‘So many lies’ Gates can’t keep up.

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – 15 states side with Nevada in drugmaker delay of execution.

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Primary night takeaways: Democratic optimism, women advance.

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Experts: Iran could answer US sanctions with cyberattacks.

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Trump going ahead with $16B in Chinese imports.

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Groom rescues struggling swimmer moments after beach wedding.

MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER – Federal judge dismisses Montgomery inmate civil rights lawsuit.

MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER – Maddox, Ainsworth and Boyd speak to tourism gathering.

OPELIKA-AUBURN NEWS – UPDATED WITH DETAILS: Authorities arrest suspect in 12-year-old cold case involving suspected murder of Auburn woman.

DOTHAN EAGLE – Columnist Steve Flowers’ Inside the Statehouse:  Primary Political Potpourri.

YELLOWHAMMER NEWS – Yellowhammer exclusive: Bentley gives scoop on social media activity, leaves door open for 2020 US Senate run.

TUSCALOOSA NEWS – Not surprisingly, Moores are not exiting quietly.

ANNISTON STAR – Faculty, students returning to class face new normal.

AL.COM – Walker County man on death row has sentence affirmed by higher court.

AL.COM – Columnist Cameron Smith:  I’ll leave the Republican Party if you’ll say goodbye to the Democrats.

WASHINGTON POST – Missouri voters defeat GOP-backed ‘right to work’ law, in victory for unions, Associated Press projects.

NEW YORK TIMES – Trump’s Tariffs Are Changing Trade With China. Here Are 2 Emerging Endgames.

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