Today’s notice: The latest from an increasingly dramatic election map. A scoop about White House efforts to find buyers for Russian diesel. Democrats’ 2028 agenda includes figuring out how to campaign in the age of AI. And: A story about Northampton, Massachusetts, and the cruel politics of deep-blue America.
THE MAP
Alaska: Wild country, wild times. “This is a scandal of the highest order,” Dan Sullivan (the senator, that is) told Fox News last night. His advice to voters: “Don’t let Democrats cheat.”
Where we are: On the one hand, there is the Justice Department effort to toss out the Senate election results if the Republican incumbent does not win. That effort has been roundly condemned by a broad swath of people, including Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. A federal judge last night allowed Democrats to intervene in the DOJ lawsuit, and the same judge could dismiss the whole case by Friday.
Trending
On the other hand, there is the revelation that what Donald Trump and his allies have alleged about the Alaska Senate race appears to be true: Democrats did set out to confuse voters by recruiting the other Dan Sullivan to run, according to a seemingly airtight New York Times report yesterday. People who think the lawsuit is bupkis do not think the Times story is. Murkowski accused Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign of a “cover-up,” while Trump posted that Peltola should face “legal and political consequences.”
He may get one of those, but not the other. The lawsuit remains on very shaky legal ground, and running for office to make it harder for another candidate to win is not illegal. But there’s still time for voters to punish Peltola for the trickery. Or, at least, for Republicans playing defense to make that their closing argument.
Meanwhile, in the Lower 48:
Ohio: That ad, and dat ass. That’s what the marquee races in this state have come down to, The Washington Sun’s Al Weaver reports from Lima. Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad featuring Democrat Amy Acton’s estranged mother has blotted out practically everything else, Al writes. Whatever is left has been drowned out by the president’s ongoing fascination with Sen. Jon Husted’s butt. “None of that was on my bingo card,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, told The Sun.
Georgia: Barack Obama is back at The Cheesecake Factory. Trump “wasn’t even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison,” the former president told a crowd in Atlanta. “That part didn’t bother him. But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory comparisons. He took great umbrage.”
To the haters, Obama said he knows how to navigate a chain-restaurant menu. “I am the father of two daughters,” he said. “Do you think I could have survived their childhood without going to The Cheesecake Factory? … That was my jam for about a decade.”
Iowa: The cancer crisis election. The state ranks second in the nation for new cancer diagnoses, and talk about how to deal with the increasing numbers has played a dominant role this election cycle, The Sun’s Elena Schneider reports from Maxwell. More than $20 million has been spent by both parties airing ads referring to cancer. In 2022, that figure was less than $200,000. “Everyone knows someone with cancer,” a national GOP strategist told Elena. “These voters are saying, ‘Holy crap, this is a big problem, and Republicans have been in charge for over a decade,’ so there’s no other place to point finger.”
Florida: Democrats change their mind. House Democrats’ super PAC rebought ad time in two congressional districts — Florida’s 7th and 27th — where it had recently canceled its buys. The previous withdrawal spurred speculation that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was abandoning the races, though the new ad reservations are for less than was planned before.
Michigan: Fiancé-gate and the neverending primary. Rep. Haley Stevens’ fiancé said he’s voting for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers over Stevens’ opponent in the Democratic primary, Abdul El-Sayed. There’s little love lost between the camps: CNN reported El-Sayed and Stevens haven’t spoken in months, though she did say on the network last night that she’s voting for El-Sayed. Republicans are banking on the ongoing strife among Democrats to put Rogers over the top.
California: DOJ told to leave the ballots alone. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter declined a DOJ request yesterday to stop California from counting the votes of over 20,000 people the government identified as potential noncitizen voters. “This Court will not deprive Californians who have met the requirements for voter registration of their fundamental right because of Plaintiff’s unfounded allegations,” Carter ruled. The DOJ instantly appealed to the 9th Circuit.
Maine: Troy Jackson wins mock election. The annual statewide student “election” run through the secretary of state’s office “has shown an exceptional capacity for predicting the state’s real election outcomes,” the Portland Press Herald reports, except for the 2020 matchup between Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democrat Sara Gideon. So Democrats should be either really excited by Jackson’s mock win this week — or really worried.
Mississippi: Dems investing to boost Scott Colom. The DSCC bought $500,000 in ad time for the nominee yesterday, the first time the campaign arm has made that kind of investment in the state this cycle.
More: Democrats Seek to Close the ‘Elon Musk Loophole’ in Campaign Spending • Crypto Went Big for Republicans After Democrats Sank the CLARITY Act • Civil Rights Groups Sue to Stop DHS Voter Fraud Investigations
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
Scoop: Trump aides trying to find buyers for Russian oil. At least three vessels carrying Russian fuel released through Trump’s deal with Vladimir Putin are expected to make it across the Atlantic the week after the midterms. The question is, who will accept it? The Sun’s Anna Kramer and Jeff Stein report that administration officials are privately encouraging U.S. firms to accept the oil, but the firms are hesitant due to the legal and political liabilities of accepting sanctioned fuel.
FROM 2028
First on The Sun: Top Democrats to discuss how to deal with AI campaigning after 2026. How Weird Will AI Make 2028? will be among the topics of conversation when Democrats gather for the centrist What’s Next conference in Denver shortly after ballots are counted next week. The Sun’s Jenna Monnin got a first look at the programming for the event, as well as an expanded list of Democrats attending, including Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and a slew of mayors from across the country.
NEW ON THE WASHINGTON SUN
Deep-blue America is not OK: First came the story of that western Massachusetts lesbian bar. Now comes the tale of a downtown redevelopment plan in Northampton, where the language and tactics of national political warfare have filtered into this small town. The Sun’s Ellie Silverman takes a deep dive into the breakdown of civic life there — a world where everyone is a Democrat, everyone is woke, everyone knows everyone and everyone calls everyone else a fascist.
More: Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Orders Investigation Into Vance’s Donor Network • Trump Administration Touts Triumphal Arch as Drone Defense Complex • Justice Department Tells Judge East Potomac Park Will Close by Nov. 15
NOT US
- How Cleta Mitchell Turned Trump’s “Big Lie” Into a Movement, by Doug Bock Clark for ProPublica
- These Gen Z Men Who Voted for Trump Rate His Performance, by Eliza Collins and Denise Blostein for The Wall Street Journal
- Two Blocks in Pennsylvania Show Why It’s So Hard for Campaigns to Reach Voters, by Stuart A. Thompson for The New York Times
- Trump’s Bizarre Closing Message to Voters, by Jonathan Lemire for The Atlantic
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The newsletter was produced by Thomas Burr and Andrew Burton.
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