Twitter permanently suspended accounts for Danielle Stella, a Republican challenging Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for her seat in 2020, after she twice tweeted that the congresswoman should be hanged, the Washington Post reports.
The big picture: Omar, the first Somalian-American member of Congress, has said she experiences spikes in death threats when conservatives, including President Trump, target her in attacks.
Former Vice President Joe Biden brought home more endorsements in November than at any other point since launching his 2020 campaign, FiveThirtyEight reports.
The state of play: Biden's "endorsement points" — calculated by the political influence of those endorsers — are far outpacing his competitors. Sen. Kamala Harris stands in second place, followed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders.
In just three weeks, billionaire Michael Bloomberg has captured a level of media attention that's eluded most 2020 Democrats with months on the trail and in debates.
The big picture: Recent stories about Bloomberg generated more social media interactions than Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang, Julián Castro or Tom Steyer have ever gotten, according to data from NewsWhip provided exclusively to Axios.
Democratic and Republican 2020 campaigns are using apps like Team to identify potential voters from their supporters' phone contacts, the Financial Times reports.
Why it matters: As Twitter refines its ban on political ads and Google restricts audience targeting for verified political advertisers, relational organizing apps can offer campaigns a work-around to access supporters' social networks.
Sen. Kamala Harris' 2020 campaign is in the midst of freefall as the campaign deals with disorganization at the highest levels and a dire financial situation, The New York Times reports, citing interviews with "more than 50 current and former campaign staff members and allies."
The big picture: At the start of the campaign, Harris shot to the top of the polls, especially after she confronted former Vice President Joe Biden over his desegregation and busing policy. Flash forward to today, Harris is at the bottom of the polls in early states and is struggling to make a lasting impression on voters, the Times notes.
Baby Yoda, the juggernaut character from Disney+'s Star Wars series "The Mandalorian," is driving almost twice as many average social media interactions on news stories about it as any 2020 Democrat, according to data from NewsWhip exclusively provided to Axios.
Why it matters: The internet's most memeable 50-year-old broke through the online conversation in a huge way since the show's Nov. 12 premiere — and its viral success should worry the 2020 race's late Democratic entrants, Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick.
