Today’s notice: The Collins-Jackson debates have begun. Tom Emmer tells us what the midterms are about. How Republicans went on offense on health care. An unlikely crusader against Citizens United. And: New reporting on how the Biden administration responded to Oct. 7.
THE LATEST
Is this still the Maine event? Remember when all anyone could talk about was the Maine Senate race? Last night, incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins shared a debate stage with her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson.
He held his own, staying largely on his message that Collins voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and that she’s a member of the same party as Donald Trump. Collins stuck to her message, too, reminding voters that she’s a powerful appropriator every chance she got. When she wasn’t saying that, she was pointing out her own votes against Trump agenda items.
Trending
Mainest moment: When the candidates debated who had closer ties to Canada, Collins mentioned a sister-in-law north of the border; Jackson said, “I’m partly French!”
If none of these pitches got the job done, the candidates have three more debates coming up, including one tomorrow night.
Democrats would love to win Maine — Collins has long been someone they think they should be able to beat. But the race is still neck and neck. If Maine was still top of mind, there would be a lot of finger-pointing right now among Democrats. Jackson was the pick of the left after progressives dominated the primary with the now-disgraced Graham Platner. So Jackson’s failure to launch could be taking up a lot of internet space among chatterers, and maybe it should.
“It’s weird, for sure. And it doesn’t entirely make sense,” a Democratic operative told The Washington Sun’s Al Weaver. “Troy Jackson is not a blank canvas, like early-days Platner was. He has a long governing record in the state, for better and worse, and he just seems to have not hit his stride as a statewide candidate.”
The Senate map has expanded so much for Democrats now that they’re getting excited about places like Kansas (moved yesterday to “toss up” by The Cook Political Report) and comfortable about places like North Carolina (moved to “likely Democrat”). Alaska? Sure, Democrats say. Nebraska? Trump just went there to shore up votes, what else do you need to know??
Democrats still have to pick up four seats to win the Senate majority, which remains a tall order. But suddenly, they’re seeing options everywhere. That means Maine may not be the must-win for the party of just a few months ago. Does this race moving to the edges of the national spotlight benefit Collins or Jackson? Let’s see how the debates play out.
More: DOJ Asks Judge to Shut Down Discovery Motion in Kennedy Center Case • Is the U.S. Prepared for Another Pandemic? • WSJ: Inside Bessent’s Treasury: Tension, Turnover and Unmet Economic Goals
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
The GOP’s October in one quote: “Look, $4 gas, $6 diesel is unacceptable. I think we all agree on that, but it’s still not enough to vote for a communist,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told our Reese Gorman at a campaign stop in Texas. Emmer name-checked Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico but added that the line applies to “all these other candidates that they’re putting up for office.”
Inside Republican health care messaging: Former Rep. Brad Wenstrup and Trump-aligned pollster John McLaughlin have been offering Republicans a briefing on how to talk about health care costs this cycle, The Sun’s Kadia Goba reports, and battleground ad buys show that some candidates are taking their advice. Even as public polling has found Democrats leading on the issue — by a 2-1 margin, according to KFF — Wenstrup and McLaughlin say Republicans can stay in the game by talking about waste, fraud and abuse.
In Iowa, Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and the party’s Senate nominee, Rep. Ashley Hinson, have called out “Big Insurance” on the trail. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-New Jersey) is talking about insurance companies, too, promising to make them offer more access to mental health coverage.
“Here is the pivotal shift: Republicans have stopped playing defense,” said GOP strategist Rob Burgess. “For years our side treated health care as the other team’s turf and hoped the subject wouldn’t come up.”
FROM TEXAS
Angela Paxton wants to end Citizens United: Yes, that Angela Paxton, the one who cut a passive-aggressive ad for her estranged husband, Ken Paxton, the other day. The Sun’s Paul Kane reports on her quest to pass a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling. She views it as a states’ rights question, and belongs to part of a growing bipartisan movement. “The idea that Texas should decide for Texas, that’s all this is,” she told Paul. “It’s not saying we should have this campaign finance law or this campaign finance law.”
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
After the pocket rescissions: The Sun’s Jackie Llanos reports on two government initiatives defunded by the Trump administration last year — the High School Equivalency Program and the College Assistance Migrant Program. At the time, the White House said the Biden-era programs “laundered taxpayer dollars to radical open borders NGOs who provided legal services to illegal aliens.” But Jackie reports on the American citizens whose education plans have been thrown into chaos by the legally dubious pocket rescissions.
PODCAST
It’s the Washington Sun Cast — taped in front of a live audience! The Sun’s Igor Bobic, Kadia Goba and Paul Kane emptied their notebooks from the campaign trail to tell us what they think this year’s October surprise might be.
NEW ON THE WASHINGTON SUN
Biden officials say they had no warning of Oct. 7 attacks in Israel: “We were as surprised as the Israelis were,” Harrison Mann, a Defense Intelligence Agency official at the time who resigned in response to U.S. policy during the war in Gaza, told The Sun’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed in a new report that includes an excerpt from Akbar’s book “Crossing the Red Line” about the Biden White House and Gaza. Akbar details how discussions about pre-attack intelligence have spurred questions about U.S. reliance on the Israelis for intel on the region.
Recent reports say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned by Arab governments of a looming attack by Palestinians in Gaza, but did not pass the tip to his own country’s military. That tip was not communicated to the U.S. either, Akbar writes. “We rely too heavily on Israel rather than developing our own ability to get information,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
More: Lawyers for Olympian Cleared in Reflecting Pool Case Demand a Watchdog Probe • Sen. Murphy Was Denied Entry to a U.S. Military Base in Qatar
NOT US
- Trump’s Unlikely Strategy to Control History: Footnotes, by Kelsey Ables for The Atlantic
- The Inescapable Hasan Piker, by Simon van Zuylen-Wood for New York magazine
- The S&P 500 Hits a New Record High, Powered by Tech—and Not Much Else, by Hannah Erin Lang for The Wall Street Journal
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The newsletter was produced by Thomas Burr and Andrew Burton.
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