Today’s notice: Republicans have a Black voter problem (again). The state of things in Alaska. A gambling scoop. Katie Zacharia’s first briefing. And a crackdown on American voters who haven’t resided in the U.S.
THE LATEST
Not long ago, MAGA’s inroads with Black voters were a defining storyline of a movement that sought to remake the Republican Party. But three weeks before Election Day, that excitement has faded into frustration. The Washington Sun’s Jasmine Wright took a deep dive into where things stand now with this unlikely coalition.
Enter Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, who is spending more than $1 million to target Black voters in his state. He hopes to build on Trump’s 2024 numbers with Black voters — he wants “north of 20 [percent]” of Black votes in his state, he told Jasmine recently in Florida.
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The problem: He has to start basically from square one. Nearly a dozen GOP operatives, lawmakers and local elected officials told Jasmine that the mainstream GOP failed to maintain the support of the 15% of Black voters Trump won in 2024.
“You know how you buy some stuff, put it in the garage and forget that it’s there? That’s where the effort is at,” a Black Republican strategist told her.
One anecdote: The Frederick Douglass Freedom Alliance pitched the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee in early spring on a canvassing and messaging plan to target Black voters for nearly a half-dozen races in the midterm elections, Jasmine reports. Both committees rejected the pitch.
When asked whether the Republican Party is doing enough nationwide to target Black voters, Donalds demurred: “I think a lot of the party doesn’t know how, and I don’t think it’s that they don’t want to. I just think they don’t know how.”
More: Trump’s Taxpayer-Funded Ads Kept Running After a Court Ordered Him to Stop • Republican-Aligned Super PAC Buys Ads in the Wrong Portland • Trump Says He Had ‘Nothing to Do With’ the Raid on Ilhan Omar’s Home
FROM ALASKA
What is Trump going to find when he visits the state today? Our Alex Roarty just got back from Alaska and has a report on the state of the Senate race, just as the president hits the ground to stump for his party.
A senior member of Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan’s campaign told Alex they believed that, had the election been held at the start of October, the senator would have lost. But they said the past two weeks have bolstered Sullivan enough that if the election were held now, they believe he would win.
Democrats still feel very good about Mary Peltola’s chances, especially when the state’s ranked-choice voting system is factored in. In past races, many GOP-aligned voters only ranked their top candidate and left the rest of the ballot blank. That could cost Sullivan thousands of votes and swing the election. “That’s frustrating, right?” he told Alex.
FROM THE FTC
Scoop: The feds are looking into sportsbetting. Federal Trade Commission officials are probing the $167 billion online sports gambling industry, The Sun’s Jeff Stein is first to report. While the evaluation is in its early stages, sources said it’s likely to focus on allegations of deceptive and misleading ads from online sportsbooks such as FanDuel and DraftKings. Both companies have denied wrongdoing.
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
What to expect in the briefing room: New press secretary Katie Zacharia is slated to hold her first press briefing at 9:30 a.m. The Sun’s Ben T.N. Mause said he’ll be watching for hostility at the podium: “Multiple people have told me she’s cool behind the scenes. But how’s she going to react to a tough question? And will she maintain the status quo, or will she raise or lower the level of antagonism with the press?”
NEW ON THE WASHINGTON SUN
The war on “never resided” voters. Trump administration officials removed an option to request a ballot for American citizens abroad who have never lived full time in the U.S. — children of diplomats or military service members, for example. Reporting for The Sun, Rebecca Ritzel takes a close look at a broad effort to restrict this kind of absentee voting that includes the Pentagon and the Republican National Committee.
NOT US
- A Trump Loyalist, a Turkish Investor and a Battle for Wealth and Influence by Anatoly Kurmanaev and Tyler Pager for The New York Times
- Trump’s Russia deal leaves GOP candidates with a Putin problem by Andrew Pantazi for Axios
- They came to Washington to dismantle government. Now, they’re profiting from it. by Faiz Siddiqui, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Meryl Kornfield for The Washington Post
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The newsletter was produced by Brett Bachman and Nikie Johnson.
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