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

* It took a while to call Kansas’ gubernatorial race, but on Thursday afternoon, The Associated Press announced that Democrat Cindy Holscher had prevailed over Republican Ty Masterson, and that she would succeed outgoing Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who served two terms and could not legally seek a third.

When newly elected officials take office in the coming months, there will be at least 29 Democratic governors nationwide — the most in a generation — and that number is likely to reach 30 if former Democratic state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins prevails in Alaska.

What’s more, Holscher’s incoming lieutenant governor, K.C. Ohaebosim, will be the first Black official to hold statewide office in Kansas in 140 years.

* Despite failures and scandals during his time as governor of Maine, Republican Paul LePage was elected to Congress last week, in a race the AP called on Thursday afternoon. LePage narrowly defeated state Auditor Matt Dunlap to succeed Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who chose not to run for re-election. (Dunlap conceded the race a week ago.)

LePage is 1 of only 3 Republicans to flip a Democratic-held seat in this year’s midterms, but the other two — Texas’ Jace Yarbrough and Tennessee’s Brent Taylor — ran in districts that had been gerrymandered to ensure Democratic defeats.

* In Wisconsin, where Democrats will have a trifecta (control of the governor’s office and both chambers in the state legislature) for the first time in 16 years, the party appears likely to redraw the state’s congressional map.

* Montana was home to a closely watched ballot measure this year, with local voters offered a chance to approve Initiative 194 (known as the “Montana Plan”), which set out to restrict corporate political spending, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. It passed by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, though Republicans have already filed suit, trying to ensure that voters do not get their way.

* During his latest interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt, Donald Trump took credit for Republican Sen. Jon Husted losing last week by “less than a point” — a boast that might have been more effective were it not for the fact that Husted actually lost by roughly 5 points.

* In the same interview, the president also said he might remain neutral during the Republican presidential primaries in 2028, though he also declared that the party’s nominee should be “whoever Trump chooses,” referring to himself in the third person. While such talk likely makes the president feel better about himself, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 52% of Republican or Republican-leaning voters said they wanted a 2028 GOP nominee with “a different approach to governing as Donald Trump.”

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