Morning Digest: Seriously, are any GOP Senate recruits actually from the states they're running in?

The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.

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Leading Off

Dave McCormick, Sam Brown, Tim Sheehy, Nella Domenici, Mike Rogers, and now Eric Hovde. What do they have in common? Well, they're all Republican Senate candidates … and they all have deep ties to states other than the ones they're running in. Hovde, who joined the transplant brigade on Tuesday, owns a multi-million home in sunny Southern California and won't even say how much time he's spent in Wisconsin—but he is rich. Jeff Singer explains why this latest GOP recruit might, like his brethren, struggle to prove his bona fides as he seeks to flip a Democratic seat.

He came into office as a self-professed "radical" but has since earned a reputation as a collaborative deal-maker. Now Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is looking to add "governor" to his unlikely resume. Singer recounts Baraka's unusual career—which includes an appearance on a celebrated R&B album—and handicaps the large and growing field of Democrats seeking to become New Jersey's next chief executive in 2025.

It seems like the on-again, off-again brush war between Donald Trump and the Club for Growth is off again … maybe? In one congressional race in North Carolina, a rival conservative group is savaging the Club's preferred candidate by reminding folks of past hostilities between Trump and the Club. Yet in another House contest down in Texas, the two erstwhile enemies are behaving like nominal allies. But in Trumpworld, the enemy of your enemy is probably still your enemy. Make sure to stick around for Singer's kicker, because it's unlikely either side has forgotten this … slight.