Good morning, NBC News readers.
A belated Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.
President Donald Trump is officially launching his reelection campaign tomorrow. As the campaign starts to heat up, we take a look at the changing significance of the early primary states and Trump's "bigger, better and badder" team this time around.
Here's what we're watching today.
Forget Iowa and New Hampshire. The 2020 Democratic primary is taking place online.
Old-school face-to-face politicking is central to the mythology of Iowa and New Hampshire's status as first-in-the-nation presidential pickers.
But the 2020 Democratic primary is taking place online and in the national media as much as it is on the ground, leaving some candidates behind while others thrive in the new paradigm.
A potentially deadly infection is hitting California farmworkers hard, worrying researchers
Valley fever, a dangerous illness caused by a soil-borne fungus, thrives in dry, undisturbed soil.
Years of climate change-fueled drought has led to a swift rise in the number of people diagnosed with it — in California, rates of new cases rose 10 percent between 2017 and 2018.
And many of the state's farmworkers have been caught in the crosshairs of the potentially deadly disease.
When Victor Gutierrez contracted valley fever, his family often had to choose between food and his medication. He survived, but he still isn't able to work full time.
“It has changed my life a lot,” Gutierrez said. “When I used to work, I would always have money in the house — to eat, to buy my children clothes, for everything. But right now, I have debts.”
Trump 2020: 'Bigger, better and badder'
It's been just over four years since Donald Trump came gliding down a golden escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy.
Now president, he will officially kick off his bid for a second term with a megawatt rally in battleground state Florida on Tuesday evening.
Many of the key players from his first campaign, save for his immediate family, have either parted ways with Trump — some amicably, some not — or been embroiled in the Russia investigation for what they did to help get him elected.
This time, their effort is “bigger, better and badder,” according to campaign manager Brad Parscale.
We take a look at the significant people in then-candidate Trump’s 2016 orbit and who the inner circle is this time around.
Meantime, Trump’s re-election campaign is cutting ties with some of its own pollsters after leaked internal polling showed him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in critical 2020 battleground states, according to a person close to the campaign.
Want to receive the Morning Rundown in your inbox? Sign up here.
Plus
- Iran says it will soon break the nuclear deal’s limits on its stock of low-enriched uranium — a move that could cause even more strain with the U.S.
- "I will join to fight against this evil law": Pressure builds on Hong Kong leader as democracy activist vows to join protests.
- One man was killed and at least five other people, four of them teenagers, were injured when gunfire rang out at a graduation party in Philadelphia on Sunday night.
- "I got a little gettin' even to do": O.J. Simpson is now on Twitter.
THINK about it
Fatherhood is a balancing act full of nerves, joy, frustration and evolution. The stakes are huge and clear answers are elusive. I love it, Robert Schlesinger writes in an opinion piece.
Science + Tech = MACH
Global warming sometimes seems like a distant or abstract threat, but new research casts the phenomenon in stark, life-or-death terms.
In the absence of significant progress in efforts to curb emissions of temperature-raising greenhouse gases,extreme heat waves could claim thousands of lives in major U.S. cities, scientists say.
Quote of the day
"What you've got to get at is the hearts and minds of people who want to pull out a gun and fire at a group of 60 people."
— Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross at a press conference after a graduation party shooting that left one dead.
One fun thing
Father's Day may have been yesterday but hats off to all the dads in our lives — and their efforts to keep us smiling and laughing, even if their jokes sometimes miss the mark.
Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown.
If you have any comments — likes, dislikes — drop me an email at: petra@nbcuni.com
If you'd like to receive the Morning Rundown in your inbox Monday to Friday, please sign up here.
Thanks, Petra
