Today’s notice: Buy low and sell your credibility. Gillibrand helps Nixon in Florida. A Democrat leads yet another poll in Kansas. A deep dive into Michigan’s 7th. Chuck Schumer, speechless. And: You can buy a skateboard from Tim Burchett as long as he doesn’t sell it to you.
THE LATEST
The most consequential miss of this Congress? Stock trading on the Hill is alive and well after a proposed ban failed to advance yesterday along party lines. Our team reported out the spin from the vote’s defeat, and it’s as you’d expect — Republicans say it was Democrats’ fault, Democrats say it was Republicans who blew it. You could probably have made a bet on that in a prediction market. But this one may really leave a mark.
The sleeper issue of this election cycle is the public anger over members of Congress trading. The Washington Sun’s Paul Kane and Avani Kalra write that both parties are trying to take advantage, and both are telling the same story: that lawmakers are using inside information to buy and sell stocks to get rich. Should work out great for Congress’ approval rating next year.
Trending
Congress hasn’t acted on this because not enough members think it’s a good idea to. The Sun’s Dave Levinthal — the dean of the congressional stock trade press corps — wrote a detailed postmortem to yesterday’s vote that tracks the resistance to legislative action from top Democrats and Republicans. Dave describes how members actually made their perception problem worse by repeatedly demonstrating how comically rickety the STOCK Act is — you know, the transparency law that was supposed to help the public understand that members are not insider traders.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers have violated the act’s disclosure provisions on a nearly 1-to-1 basis this decade, Dave writes.
Back to the campaign trail: Everyone is now promising voters that they will take action on congressional stock trading. But here’s the secret: everyone also rolls their eyes at this voter outrage. Most lawmakers dismiss the idea that they are sitting behind their desks on Capitol Hill getting tips and buying and selling stocks, Paul and Avani report. They are taking little action to disprove it, however. That cognitive dissonance could ring out for a long time.
More: White House Premieres a New Taxpayer-Funded Ad Lauding the Iran War • Hegseth Is Cutting the Number of Generals and Admirals by 20% • D.C. Pipe Bomber Suspect Challenges His Statements to the FBI
Open tabs:
- Trump Is Playing Defense in Trump Country (NYT)
- Congressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election (NBC)
- Eric Schmitt was warned about the Jack Smith texts. He used them anyway. (MS NOW)
- The source of Brian Fitzpatrick’s campaign ad attack fodder: A guest at his own wedding (Politico)
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Scoop: DSCC chair boosts Angie Nixon in Florida. The surprise progressive Democratic nominee in the long-shot Florida race will get some help from Washington today. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), the chair of Senate Democrats’ fundraising arm, will host a virtual event for Nixon, a source familiar with the plans told The Sun’s Stephen Neukam. Nixon said this week that the DSCC has not committed to helping her air ads.
First on The Sun: More good news for Democrats in Kansas? There are signs of momentum for Democrat Chris Mann in his race for attorney general against Republican incumbent Kris Kobach, according to a new poll by the Democratic Attorneys General Association shared first with The Sun. Mann leads the poll 47% to 46% on the strength of support from registered independents (56% to 29%) and Kobach’s high negatives (48% unfaves). DAGA was early to target Kansas for a flip, and the new numbers reflect some movement toward Democrats since a survey taken by the group last November, which found Kobach up 46% to 44%.
More: Trump Announces $54B Investment in a State With Tight Senate Race
FROM MICHIGAN
Rep. Tom Barrett walks the tightrope: The Sun’s Elena Schneider reports from Lansing, where the Republican incumbent is in Advanced Placement campaign mode. He needs to win over frustrated independents who are fleeing from Republicans, according to public and private polling, while energizing a deflated GOP base. In short, he needs to make the race all about his opponent, progressive Democratic nominee William Lawrence, while also making it just enough about himself, too.
Two quotes that define this race:
From Barrett, who crossed Donald Trump on the Iran war and drew criticism from the president — but needs voters who love the president to turn out for him in big numbers: “I think that we are a party that can handle, you know, differences of opinion.”
From Lawrence, who is trying to bat away the years of social media baggage that has been a big part of the messaging against him: “People understand that anything that one says on Twitter, as a private citizen, is to be taken with a heavy dash of salt.”
FROM THE HILL
Department of Ready to GTFO: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer held a presser yesterday ahead of senators jetting out of town for the sprint to Election Day. The Sun’s Igor Bobic noted that the event lasted a whole five minutes. Democrats have “the wind in our sails,” Schumer told reporters. He ignored a question about the future of party leadership, and that was the end of that. More on those jet fumes from The Sun’s Al Weaver.
More: Senate Punts Bill to Permanently Ban Chinese Cars Until After Midterms
NEW ON THE WASHINGTON SUN
It’s hard to sell skateboards in Congress, and not just because your average member is old and out of shape. The Sun’s Emily Kennard sings the ballad of Rep. Tim Burchett’s nascent homemade board business, a tale of trying unsuccessfully to navigate Byzantine congressional ethics rules. The Tennessee Republican can’t put his name on his boards or associate himself with them directly.
“I get it. I get it,” Burchett told Emily. “You know, somebody wants to sway my vote, and they come buy a skateboard from me, or something.”
Burchett finds the whole thing laughable, given what we opened this newsletter with. “I’m not trying to do any insider stock trading. I’m just trying to sell a few skateboards,” he said.
More: Duffy Calls for Quicker Aviation Certifications to Keep Up With China • Housing Groups Sue to Stop Trump From Canceling HUD Funds • Judge Rejects Trump Administration’s Effort to Keep Its Boat Strike Memo Secret
NOT US
- Newsom on 2028 timeline: ‘There’s no such thing as a deadline,’ by Blake Jones for Politico
- Growth, Inflation Figures Show Signs of an Economic Pickup, by Matt Grossman for The Wall Street Journal
- How Cities Are Forced to Funnel License Plate Data to a Massive Federal Surveillance Program, by Jason Koebler for 404 Media
- The House reimburses lawmakers for D.C. expenses. See who spent the most. By Alexei Koseff and Lydia Sidhom for The Washington Post
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The newsletter was produced by Thomas Burr and Andrew Burton.
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