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Recently pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is considering staging a primary challenge against Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake.

Arpaio, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump on Friday, told the Washington Examiner on Monday he was considering running for elected office again.

The Alabama Senate special election certainly isn’t a toss-up, but the possibility that former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore might become the Republican nominee creates the potential for a Democratic upset.

President Donald Trump’s polarizing persona is creating significant risk for congressional Republicans in next year’s midterm elections. But his decision to pluck Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions out of the Senate for his Cabinet created a special election this year that is turning out to be more adventurous than expected, considering Trump won the Yellowhammer State by 28 points less than a year ago.

The Republican field for Montana’s Senate race keeps growing, but the GOP is hopeful that an imminent announcement from state Auditor Matt Rosendale will give them a top-tier challenger against Sen. Jon Tester, one of 2018’s most vulnerable Democrats. 

“He is 95 percent there,” a Republican close to Rosendale said last week. The first-term auditor is expected to make a decision within the month. 

With the 2018 midterm elections about 18 months away, attention is shifting to the battle for the Senate — and who could emerge as potential challengers.

But history shows that prospective contenders have a few more months before they typically announce their candidacies.

For all of the moaning and groaning about Washington being dysfunctional, members of Congress aren’t exactly tripping over each other to get out of town.

So far, all of the Republican and Democratic senators up for re-election this cycle seem intent on seeking another term. And if that trend continues, it would be historic. 

The National Republican Senatorial Committee raised $7 million in March, its highest monthly haul for a non-election year. 

So far this year, the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm has raised more than $16 million and has more than $13 million in cash on hand, according to numbers obtained first by Roll Call. 

Democrats plan to hold Senate Republicans — and House Republicans who may run for the Senate — accountable for the health care plan proposed by House GOP leadership this week. 

“The new health care dynamic: GOP Senate candidates own this plan” is the subject line of a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee memo released to interested parties Thursday and obtained first by Roll Call.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee raised $4.2 million last month, making it the committee’s best off-year January haul since 2005.

The committee ended the month with $9.8 million in the bank, according to data obtained by Roll Call. 

Ahead of the first special election of Donald Trump’s presidency, a small group of Kansas Republicans has effectively handpicked an establishment-backed candidate as the next congressman from the Wichita-based 4th District.

At a special nominating convention Thursday night, 126 district committeeman elected state Treasurer Ron Estes to be the GOP nominee for the open seat, which was vacated by Mike Pompeo after his confirmation as CIA director. Estes received 66 votes on the final ballot.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is calling hypocrisy on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s strong words of opposition to new Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Warren was prevented from commenting on Sessions’ nomination as attorney general after she attempted to read a letter the late Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote expressing opposition to Sessions’ nomination to a federal court in 1986.