| | | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker | With help from Brittany Gibson, Jesse Naranjo, Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
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A container ship rests against wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday in Baltimore. | POLITICO illustration/Photo by AP | What up, Recast family! Former President Donald Trump gets a new court date for his alleged hush money trial and his bond in a civil case is reduced to $175 million. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris travel to the battleground state of North Carolina and in New Jersey, and Andy Kim’s path to the Democratic Senate nomination is all but cleared. Today, our thoughts are with Maryland, the site of a stunning bridge collapse. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore declared a state of emergency early Tuesday morning following a shocking collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The city’s mayor, Brandon Scott, called it “an unthinkable tragedy.” Video of the incident shows a large container ship making impact with one of the bridge’s support beams. Moments later the 1.6-mile bridge broke apart and fell into the water. Search and recovery efforts are underway as several vehicles were on the bridge when it collapsed. By Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden, speaking from the White House, called the bridge “critical for travel” not just for the city of Baltimore but for the entire northeast corridor. “It is my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge. I expect the Congress to support that effort,” Biden said. The incident, which occurred 51 days before Maryland’s hotly contested Democratic primary for the state’s open Senate seat, will likely elevate issues of infrastructure and transportation. Ten Democrats are wooing voters ahead of the state’s May 14 primary, with Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) pulling ahead of the pack. Both Trone and Alsobrooks offered well wishes to those impacted by the collapse and offered to pitch in to help Marylanders recover. “We are praying for Baltimore and everyone affected by this devastating bridge collapse,” Alsobrooks said on the social media platform X. She later added that Prince George’s County had dispatched its dive unit to assist in the search and rescue efforts. In a statement, Trone said, “Baltimore is a city known for its resilience, and we must all now rally around Baltimore as the city begins to heal, rebuild and move forward.”
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Meanwhile, on Monday, Rep. Jamie Raskin, arguably Maryland’s most popular elected official, announced he was backing Alsobrooks over Trone, a man he beat for his current seat in 2016 in what was then the nation's most expensive primary.
In a video, Raskin explained his rationale: “I'm supporting her for the U.S. Senate. She’s going to deliver for the people of Maryland everyday as United States senator, at the same time that she's going to be defending democracy and freedom against Donald Trump and the MAGA right.” The winner of the Democratic primary will in all likelihood face former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in the fall.
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Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan's entry into the Maryland Senate race changes the general election dynamics for Democrats. | Julio Cortez/AP | Last month, Hogan, a popular two-term governor, made a surprise entrance into the Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). His announcement sent an unexpected jolt to Democrats who suddenly had to defend what they’d thought would be a safe Democratic seat. Hogan, a moderate, faces nominal competition for the Republican nomination. The ex-governor’s entrance in the race has also amped up the urgency among Maryland Democrats to pick the best choice to take on Hogan, who leads by double digits over both Alsobrooks and Trone, according to a survey by The Washington Post last week. The gravity of the contest was urgent in Raskin’s plea to potential Democratic voters. “If Larry Hogan were to go to the Senate, he’d be another brick in the wall for Donald Trump and his party,” Raskin said. (Hogan is an outspoken Trump critic and has said he won’t vote for Trump or Biden in November.) Raskin, who serves as the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee, has become a fixture on cable television. He gained a national following as the lead impeachment manager during Trump’s second impeachment trial and briefly considered running for the Senate seat himself. He ultimately decided to pass on the opportunity in July, arguing he could best serve the country by running again for his House seat. If Democrats take back the House in the fall, that would put him in line to chair the Oversight Committee in the next Congress.
|  Rep. Jamie Raskin this week announced he was backing Alsobrooks in the Democratic primary. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | The Raskin endorsement, coupled with the backing of several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), signals a bright spot for Alsobrooks, who is trailing Trone in most public polls. Raskin’s endorsement follows Trone’s damaging gaffe late last week. Trone, who is white, apologized for inadvertently using a racial slur during a congressional hearing last week. (Alsobrooks is Black.) Trone, who has gone to great lengths to attract voters in Maryland, a majority minority state, used a derogatory word for Black people when he compared Biden’s tax proposals to those sought by Republicans. “So this Republican jigaboo that it’s the tax rate that’s stopping business investment, it’s just completely faulty by people who have never run a business,” said Trone, who is the magnate behind Total Wine and More, the nation’s largest beer and spirits retailer. He later said he was “attempting to use the word 'bugaboo' in [the] hearing…. [Jigaboo] has a long dark terrible history. It should never be used any time, anywhere, in any conversation, and I apologize.”
|  Trone, left, led Alsobrooks in a recent poll. | Brian Witte/AP; Office of the Maryland Governor | Polling shows that nearly 40 percent of Maryland Democratic voters remain undecided in the primary. Of those who have decided, Trone leads 34 percent to Alsobrooks’ 27 percent, according to the Washington Post survey. Raskin told The Washington Post that neither the poll nor Trone’s recent comments influenced his endorsement. As always, we’ll be watching to see how all this impacts the nation’s most intriguing Senate primary. All the best,
The Recast Team
| | | KEYS TO THE KIM-DOM
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New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim's chief rival in the state's Democratic Senate primary, first lady Tammy Murphy, dropped her bid over the weekend. | Seth Wenig/AP | And just like that, Rep. Andy Kim’s path to the Democratic nomination — and in all likelihood, New Jersey’s Senate seat — became a helluva lot easier. Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady and Kim’s chief rival, suspended her campaign over the weekend, ending what many thought was going to be “a near-coronation into one of the nation’s premier Senate primary races” as my POLITICO colleagues Matt Friedman and Daniel Han put it. Murphy, who’s married to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, made the announcement in a video, where she explained that she did not want to have to go negative in order to gain support for her candidacy, which recent polls showed her trailing Kim by double digits. “It is clear to me that continuing in this race will involve waging a very divisive and negative campaign, which I am not willing to do,” Murphy said. “And with Donald Trump on the ballot and so much at stake for our nation, I will not, in good conscience, waste resources tearing down a fellow Democrat.” While she did not reference Kim by name, she did vow to help Democrats to get elected in the fall. Murphy’s campaign shed a light on the divide between New Jersey’s grassroots and the party bosses who wield broad control over how the party apparatus runs campaigns in the state. While she enjoyed the support of some of the state’s most powerful and connected party leaders, her campaign could not catch on with the Democratic base. Last month, Kim, who is of Korean descent, filed a suit challenging the state’s use of the party line system. He’s seeking to abolish the state’s unique ballot design, which allows most of New Jersey’s 21 counties to endorse candidates of their liking. The candidates, in turn, get favored ballot positions under the “county line,” or slate of party-backed candidates. That system, Kim argues in his suit, is “fundamentally unjust and undemocratic.” This is now Kim’s seat to lose in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972 (though two Republicans have been appointed to fill vacancies). Kim still faces nominal competition from labor leader Patricia Campos-Medina and Lawrence Hamm, an activist. Murphy’s decision to bow out of the contest comes on the heels of Sen. Bob Menendez’s announcement that he will not seek the Democratic nomination, though he left open the possibility he’d run as an independent in the fall. Menendez is facing federal corruption charges stemming from accusations he carried out political favors for business associates in exchange for cash, gold bars and a luxury vehicle. He's also accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
| | | RFK JR. NAMES VP PICK Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chose tech attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan to be his running mate Tuesday at an event held in Oakland California. POLITICO’s Brittany Gibson sent this dispatch: Kennedy, who is mounting a long-shot, third-party presidential run, has been searching for a vice presidential candidate to join his independent bid since quitting the Democratic Party primary last October. He announced Shanahan's addition to the ticket at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts in Oakland, California, where Shanahan was raised by a Chinese immigrant mother and a father who suffered from mental illness. There were no shortage of names floated before Kennedy finally settled on Shanahan. The short list was wide-ranging, including NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Now that he’s named his running mate, the campaign can begin collecting ballot access signatures in about 20 more states.
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|  Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is one of the most progressive Democrats in New Jersey. He says he’d push the state farther to the left at a time of political upheaval. | Ted Shaffrey/AP | Meet the Dem Channeling Republican Governors — The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, is described by POLITICO’s Dustin Racioppi as “a Black Democrat raised by activist poets.” If elected as New Jersey’s governor next year, Baraka wants to borrow tactics used by Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida. Harris Stays in Front of Biden — The vice president is nothing if not consistent. And on the Israel-Hamas conflict she continues to be a half-step ahead of Biden on the issue, report POLITICO’s Eugene Daniels, Alexander Ward and Jonathan Lemire. Whither Executive Actions on the Border? — POLITICO’s Myah Ward reports the White House had floated a string of executive actions to help stem the influx of migrants from crossing the southern border, but that was more than a month ago. She digs into it here. NYC Council Fights to Restore Non-citizen Voting Rights — Members of the New York City Council are appealing to the state Supreme Court to restore a 2022 law it passed granting municipal voting privileges to green-card holders or other non-citizens authorized to work in the U.S. As POLITICO’s Emily Ngo reports, the legislation was struck down by an appellate court last month.
| | | THE RECAST RECOMMENDS Percival Everett, whose 2001 novel, “Erasure,” formed the basis of the Oscar Award-winning indie flick, “American Fiction,” has a new novel, “James.” It follows the trevails of Jim, who ran away from enslavement, and his young white friend, Huckleberry, in the Deep South. (Sound familiar?) The television adaptation of Liu Cixin’s acclaimed novel “The Three-Body Problem” stars Jovan Adepo, Rosalind Chao and John Bradley. The timeline-jumping drama weaves together recent Chinese history and modern day scenes, and is streaming on Netflix now.
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| Sydney Sweeney and Álvaro Morte (of “Money Heist” fame) star in “Immaculate,” a psychological horror film about a devout woman who moves to an Italian convent harboring dark secrets. It’s in theaters now. In this bracing Tiny Desk Concert, consummate hard core punk rockers, Soul Glo, turn NPR’s headquarters into a mosh pit. Among the ample big drops in the music world last week came “We Don’t Trust You,” a collab between rapper Future and producer Metro Boomin. Surprisingly it’s the power duo’s first full project together. Check out the visuals for the eponymous track “Young Metro.”
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| TikTok of the Week: Protect the chips
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