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Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) announces the 2018 budget blueprint during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 18, 2017. Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Republican U.S. Rep. Diane Black is running for governor in Tennessee.

Black made the announcement Wednesday morning on her campaign website. In a video, she says she believes in conservative values and would fight for the right things as governor.

Other Republican candidates for governor so far include state House Speaker Beth Harwell, state Sen. Mae Beavers, businessman Randy Boyd and businessman Bill Lee. Karl Dean, the former mayor of Nashville, is running on the Democratic side.

Black is in charge of one of the most powerful committees in Congress, the House Budget Committee. She was named interim chair in January when President Donald Trump nominated Rep. Tom Price of Georgia to become secretary of Health and Human Services.

Before being elected to Congress, Black served as a state lawmaker.

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Republican US Rep. Diane Black to run for Tennessee governor - PBS NewsHour

Ed Butowsky bills himself as an "internationally recognized expert in the wealth management industry" and a "leading voice on financial matters." He's also been a semi-regular guest on Fox News and its sister channel, Fox Business Network, as well as a number of other media outlets.

It's those ties to Fox, as well as to the Trump White House, that helped thrust Butowsky to the center of a bizarre and explosive story involving a slain Democratic National Committee staffer and the Trump administration.

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses Butowsky of working with the White House on a false (and eventually retracted) Fox News story about the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich.

According to the suit, the story was intended to undermine the public's belief in the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia hacked the DNC and obtained the emails ultimately released by Wikileaks.

The lawsuit, which was brought by Rod Wheeler, a private investigator who was quoted in the retracted Fox story represents the first tangible link between the fringe conspiracy theory surrounding Rich's death and the White House.

Related: Lawsuit: Fox News concocted Seth Rich story with oversight from White House

Butowsky told CNN that the allegations are "bulls**t."

He further detailed his side of the story in an appearance on CNN Tonight on Tuesday, claiming the lawsuit was just an attempt by Wheeler to make money.

"I've never talked to President Trump in my life," Butowsky said, denying that the White House had "anything to do with any of this."

In a statement, Jay Wallace, Fox News' president of news, denied that the network published the story "to help detract from coverage of the Russia collusion issue." Wallace also said that Fox has "no evidence that Rod Wheeler was misquoted."

Though he is now more squarely in the public eye than ever before, Butowsky's role in the saga has been known for some time. After Fox's story lit up pro-Trump media in May, the Rich family revealed that Butowsky was subsidizing Wheeler's investigation into the murder, which Washington, D.C. police have blamed on a botched robbery.

But the Rich family was, according to a spokesman representing them, taken aback when they learned that Butowsky has ties to Steve Bannon, the White House strategist and former chairman of Breitbart News.

Butowsky has appeared on Breitbart News Radio multiple times over the years and has described Bannon as "a friend and a very nice man." But Butowsky later told BuzzFeed that he and Bannon are more like acquaintances.

"It's not like I have a Steve Bannon teddy bear," Butowsky said in May. "I've never eaten a meal with the guy."

Butowsky's website details a long career in business, including the 2005 launch of a private wealth management advisory firm in the Dallas area. He's described as "a well-respected member" of the community, and "an accomplished speaker on a variety of topics."

Beyond his business, Butowsky has also plied his trade as a go-to analyst for reporters and broadcasters, frequently popping up on television or in news articles.

His media hits include appearances with outlets outside the conservative media space occupied by Fox and Breitbart, including CNN, CNBC and CBS.

He's also a close friend of "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan, even serving as a spokesperson of sorts after Logan was hospitalized in 2015.

But on Tuesday, as the lawsuit reverberated throughout the media world that he's traveled for years, Butowsky tried to make himself less visible. He appeared to remove videos of his cable news appearances from YouTube, and he deleted his Twitter account.

CNNMoney (New York) First published August 1, 2017: 4:49 PM ET

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The wealthy Republican donor at the center of explosive Fox News lawsuit - CNNMoney

Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado was the first Republican in Congress last year to cut an ad promising to stand up to Donald Trump and six months into the presidency, he has tried to live up to that promise, bucking the president on immigration, health care and other issues.

As Republicans try to defend their House majority next year, lawmakers like Mr. Coffman are trying to find that elusive middle between being a Republican and being a Trump Republican.

For Mr. Coffman, who said last year that he didnt care for [Mr. Trump] much, little has changed. He is vowing to keep bucking the president when he wants, including voting against the American Health Care Act and trying to chart a more lenient path for illegal immigrants.

Mike Coffman has a long track record of independent leadership challenging big spenders in both parties and putting the interests of his constituents first. As Mike has said before, he will stand with President Trump when he agrees with him and stand up to him when he thinks hes wrong, said Tyler Sandberg, campaign adviser to Mr. Coffman.

Mr. Coffman won his district by 9 percentage points last cycle in the same region where Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton topped Mr. Trump by 9 points.

Some Republicans say thats a good sign: Voters are willing to split their ticket and reward congressional Republicans even if they do not support Mr. Trump. One party strategist said that if incumbents such as Mr. Coffman can win swing districts when Mrs. Clinton or Barack Obama is on the ballot, then they are strong enough to win midterm elections.

Others said that might not be the case next year.

The Republican majority could not be any worse than it is right now, said David Flaherty, CEO of Magellan Strategies in Colorado. He said Republicans like Mr. Coffman will need to switch up their campaign strategies now that Mr. Trump is in the White House, and they can no longer sell themselves to voters as checks on government.

Instead, its Democrats who will be able to portray themselves as checks on a runaway Republican Party.

The generic ballot test when voters are asked if they would vote for a Democrat or a Republican in their districts congressional election next year is tilting toward Democrats by 9 percentage points, according to Real Clear Politics average of polls.

Mr. Coffman is one of nearly two dozen Republicans representing districts Mrs. Clinton won last year.

Another is Rep. Barbara Comstock, Virginia Republican, whose district stretches from the Shenandoah Valley to the Washington suburbs. Ms. Comstock won her district in November by 6 points, and Mrs. Clinton won it by 10 points.

Mr. Coffman and Ms. Comstock voted against Republicans American Health Care Act and have voiced criticism of Mr. Trumps other policies.

I did not support the AHCA today because of the many uncertainties in achieving those goals. As the process moves forward, I hope that we can continue to work together to fix our broken health care system, Ms. Comstock said in a statement after the May vote.

Democrats, though, said each lawmaker has plenty of votes to gut Obamacare that they will have to explain.

Coffman is extremely vulnerable in 2018, especially in a district that was carried by Hillary Clinton and has seen an explosion of civic activism, Morgan Carroll, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, said in a statement.

Democrats also said opposing Mr. Trump on some high-profile issues isnt enough for voters who want to see a broader resistance.

Congresswoman Comstock is stuck between a rock and a hard place, said Cole Leiter, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She can pretend to be a moderate and isolate herself from her base voters or march lockstep with her party and confirm for families who have rejected the Trump-Washington Republican agenda who she really is. Its an untenable position.

Ms. Comstock has voted for Mr. Trumps position 97 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEights count. Mr. Coffmans record is slightly less lockstep but still at 94 percent.

Nathaniel Gonzales, editor of Inside Elections, said Republicans are still looking for that elusive spot that shows independence but doesnt alienate Trump supporters.

I think every Republican member is playing a game of Survivor and trying to get the right equation to get re-elected. Barbara Comstock tried to distance from the president, but she also needs voters who like the president, Mr. Gonzales said.

Early polling suggests competing influences at work. A Washington Post/ABC News poll last month found a slight majority of voters 52 percent want Democrats to take control of Congress next year, but Republicans and Trump voters are more enthusiastic about their candidates.

Democrats say they have much better odds than Republicans because of Mr. Trumps historically low approval ratings and because the party in power usually loses some seats in midterm elections.

Republicans are in a race to the right to see who can be the Trumpiest candidate. Voters in Colorado understand that a vote for the Republican Party in 2018 is a vote for the Trump agenda of giving more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and then sticking middle-class and working families with the bill, Ms. Carroll said.

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Republican incumbents in swing districts try to find right distance from Trump - Washington Times

A Republican congressman from Colorado on Monday declared that the Republican Party is dead, arguing itno longer has a vision for a better America.

In an op-ed for The Denver Post, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said the party that once had the blood of the people coursing through its veins is not pursing conservative policies.

After eight years of assuring that unified Republican government would allow for conservative policy, our Republican Congress has accomplished little, except for passing a spending bill that shackles the aspirations of future generations with crippling debt, Buck wrote.

We care about the meaningful. We have a vision for the meaningful, Buck said, speaking for Coloradans.

If we can pass a balanced budget amendment, a responsible spending bill, and reforms of our health care system, of our tax system, of our entitlement system, and of our immigration system, then we can begin to fulfill the one-time destiny of this party, a destiny to offer hope and prosperity to the people of this great nation.

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Colorado GOP rep declares: 'The Republican Party is dead' - The Hill

President Trump tweeted July 28 that his homeland security secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, is replacing Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff. (Victoria Walker,Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

The ouster (or resignation, depending on whom you listen to) of Reince Priebus as President Trumps chief of staff last week served as another tug of the crowbar splitting Trump away from the party he ostensibly leads. Priebus came to the White House from the Republican Partys senior-most position; his departure, coupled with the departure of Sean Spicer as press secretary, means that Trumps administration is without two of its strongest ties to the Republican National Committee.

And, as Tim Alberta noted in an article for Politico over the weekend, it means that the administration hardly has strong ties to the party at all. Alberta writes:

Looking around Trumps inner circle, there is communications director Anthony Scaramucci, a political novice who in the past donated to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who used Breitbart to try and burn the Republican Party to the ground; National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, a lifelong Democrat; director of strategic communication Hope Hicks, who has zero history with GOP politics; and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, a pair of self-professed Manhattan progressives.

Of Trumps closest advisers, Alberta adds, only Mike Pence has any association with the Republican Party.

Contrast that with July 2009, when President Barack Obama was building out his team. His interim communications director was Anita Dunn, whod worked in Democratic politics for years. Senior adviser David Axelrod had done the same. His National Economic Council director was Larry Summers, whod served as treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton. Adviser Valerie Jarrett had worked for Democratic Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, which is how she knew the Obamas.

But the relative distance between Trumps team and the GOP goes a bit further than that. We reviewed his and Obamas Cabinet members at this point in each presidents first term. Obamas team had a greater percentage of lifelong Democrats than Trumps team doeslifelong Republicans. Obama hadmore staffers whohad never given to the opposing party. And Obamas team had more people with experience in elected office, federal appointments or working for Democratic Party organizations than did Trump.

Our full analysis by person:

Even the Obamastaffers without experience at the federal level often had experience at the state level, including EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and his secretary of education, Arne Duncan. Several had experience or appointments under Republican presidents.

To Albertas point, though, Trumps most senior advisers lack ties to the GOP, save Pence. This was hugely beneficial to Trump on the campaign trail, allowing him to position himself as an outsider unbeholden to the party that provided his glide path to the presidency. In office, though, its less helpful. Trump now has no one in his inner circle who knows how to twist arms to get things done on Capitol Hill. (Pences efforts in that regard, including a midnight visit to the Senate floor last week in hopes of castingthe tiebreaking vote on a Senate health-care measure, havenot proved very effective.) The input Trumpreceives from his senior team will lack the perspective of the party he leads.

Save for passing legislation a big exception there may be a plus side to this distance. Trump ran as the populist everyman whowould deliver on all of the things that Americans say they want but which never seem to happen in Congress. If Trump were to start trying to effect change that crosses party lines and incorporates the concerns of Democrats as well as Republicans, he might have some success.

But thats not really the space Trump occupies. His opposition to the party doesnt stem from his being a centrist, bridging the gap between left and right. Hehas repeatedly shown that his opposition is like Bannons: much further to the right than the party mainstream is mostly willing to go. Trump isthe most successful Fox News-watching tea partyer in American political history, and thats why hes distant from the rest of the party.

The consolation for Republicans? That second chart, showing how, outside of Trumps inner circle, there are a lot of party stalwarts who are in positions to affect the functioning of the executive branch. Not as robustly partisan as Obamas 2009 White House, but at least Trumps Cabinet is friendlier to the GOP than is the West Wing.

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Here's how untethered the Trump administration is from the Republican Party - Washington Post