Happy Wednesday! Freaked out by AI? Democratic campaign operatives say that’s too bad! “The Democratic Party has begun testing the use of artificial intelligence to write first drafts of some fund-raising messages, appeals that often perform better than those written entirely by human beings,” the New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher reports. “Inside campaigns, artificial intelligence is expected to soon help perform mundane tasks that previously required fleets of interns.”

Up to Speed

• Add a new name to the list of potential Republican presidential candidates: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. He was in Iowa last week for a meet-and-greet hosted by the Story County GOP. Not every Republican invited to headline a GOP event in the Hawkeye State is a White House aspirant, a point aptly made by North Dakota columnist Rob Port. But a source in Iowa told Port: “I just completed an opinion poll by an agency clearly hired to see if the North Dakota governor can run for president.” Burgum’s campaign spokesman had not responded to a request for comment from The Dispatch at press time Wednesday morning.
• Former Vice President Mike Pence must testify in front of a grand jury about conversations he had with former President Donald Trump in the lead-up to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, in the Justice Department’s broader investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Several news outlets confirmed the ruling, which is still under seal.
• Two-term Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a video announcement Monday that she will run for reelection in 2024. 
• The pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down nabbed another former Trump aide, Matt Wolking, to serve in a communications role, a sign that the Florida governor’s still unannounced presidential campaign is quickly emerging. Wolking will join a group of experienced operatives at Never Back Down, including former senior Trump official Ken Cuccinelli, former Trump 2020 communications director Erin Perrine, and coveted GOP strategist Jeff Roe, the architect of Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s victory in 2021. 

New York: Where House Majorities Are Won

ISLAND PARK, New York—Sitting in a small coffee shop in his hometown Saturday morning, GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito couldn’t stop smiling about his surprise victory in New York’s 4th Congressional District—a Long Island seat President Joe Biden carried by double digits two years ago.

In D’Esposito’s words, “nobody in a million years” predicted a Republican could win his seat. But he did—by 3.5 points.

“There’s always that thought that Republicans have to be so careful not to stand for their conservative values because New York is so Democrat, and I just don’t see that,” D’Esposito said in a wide-ranging interview with The Dispatch last weekend near his campaign headquarters in Island Park, a small village located in the southwest corner of Long Island.