DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: Senate GOP’s Titanic Mess, Et Tu, Paxton? High-Octane Hypocrisy, Peltola Reels ‘Em In, and Susan’s Dark Money Déjà Vu

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: Senate GOP’s Titanic Mess, Et Tu, Paxton? High-Octane Hypocrisy, Peltola Reels ‘Em In, and Susan’s Dark Money Déjà Vu

TGIF. Welcome back to Friday Takeaways from the DSCC – your weekly update from the DSCC Press Team on what you need to know across the Senate battlegrounds. There are 3️⃣2️⃣ days until the midterms. 📲 DROP US A LINE: [email protected].

🚢 A TITANIC MESS FOR SENATE REPUBLICANS: With just over 30 days until the midterm elections, Republicans are staring down a “disintegrating” Senate map as strategists “expand the imagination of how ugly it could get” amid the “increasingly plausible” possibility that Democrats will retake the majority. Iceberg ahead in 32 days… 

• 🌊 TAKING ON WATER: Republicans’ path to maintaining their slim Senate majority is “getting smaller by the day” after “the bottom fell out” in polling for their Senate candidates…
• 🎻 AND THE BAND PLAYED ON: Still, GOP leaders are passing around “delusional” forecasts that were “met with disbelief” and “laughed” at by their own donors at a recent fundraising retreat. Captain Tim Scott would like to assure passengers that the iceberg is fake news.
• 🆘 S.O.S. (SAVE OUR SEATS): As “top Senate Republicans openly acknowledge they face a tough map in November,” the NRSC has begun diverting time and resources to “defend Senate seats in three states that Trump won by double digits two years ago” while “Republicans coast to coast are getting pulled under by a violent undertow fueled by Trump’s unpopularity.” Women, children, and vulnerable incumbents first.
• 🎨 DRAW ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR BLUE STATES: Election forecaster Larry Sabato says that a majority of this year’s toss-up races “would go to Democrats if the election were held now” – putting Democrats in “serious contention to flip the Senate.” “Senate contests that would normally be Republican” are now in play as voters “unhappy about Iran, and gas prices, and diesel prices, and corruption” prepare to cast their ballots.
• 💔 THEIR HEARTS WILL GO ON… THEIR MAJORITY WON’T: Republicans are returning home with “deep anxiety” and “fresh campaign headaches” as their midterm outlook gets “bleaker by the day,” and they prepare to “spend heavily in states Trump handily won in 2024.” 

😢 ET TU, PAXTON? Yikes… In stunning new bombshell leaked audio from the NY Times, Ken Paxton, in a private meeting with D.C. lobbyists, was caught trashing President Trump and saying his GOP midterm convention hurt his campaign… Texans know that Paxton is a cheater who only serves his own corrupt self-interests… and now Trump gets to experience it firsthand. How embarrassing…

• 🫣 SO… AWKWARD: All week long, the fallout continued after Paxton’s comments… On Wednesday, Paxton skipped out on a rally with JD Vance, and on Thursday, Paxton had to see Trump face-to-face at an event in Denton… Oh, to be a fly on the wall for *that* convo…
• ❌ DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE: Meanwhile, in a shocking, disgusting move – Ken Paxton defended the Epstein-style sweetheart deal he gave to admitted child molester Adam Hoffman in a recent interview this week… When asked why he provided Hoffman with a corrupt deal of only 1 day in jail for a crime that carries a typical sentence of 25 years to life in prison, Paxton said, “Well, guess what? They served 60 days.” Fact check? This is a lie. Paxton’s initial corrupt deal of only 1 day in jail was thrown out by a GOP judge, and the pedophile was able to get out of jail in only 29 days – without having to register as a sex offender.
• 👎 IT GETS WORSE: It got even worse for Paxton after a new bombshell investigation by the San Antonio Current found that he has a long, problematic history of doling out sweetheart plea deals to *other* sexual predators… According to the Current – “there are at least three other instances over the past decade in which defendants accused of sexual assault or trafficking were offered plea deals by Paxton’s office that allowed them to avoid both jail time and placement on the state’s sex offender registry.”
• 📺 LAST WEEK TONIGHT, WORST WEEK EVER: Paxton’s week started just as bad as it ended. Earlier this week, he faced a brutal segment from HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver where – for 10 minutes – Oliver recounted Paxton’s history of scandals and selling out Texans. Ten minutes wasn’t nearly enough. In the segment, the HBO host recounts Ken Paxton’s decades-long record of corruption… from his impeachment by his own party, to his enriching himself in public office and acquiring 15 properties, stealing a fellow lawyer’s $1,000 pen, literally running away from questions on the campaign trail, and his own staff reporting him to the FBI for “using his office to benefit a wealthy donor.”
• 🚙 UBER FOR DAVE? Meanwhile, top GOP strategist and former advisor to President George W. Bush Karl Rove refused to back Paxton — rattling off his decades-long record of corruption… Rove slammed Paxton as a bad candidate, citing his infidelity with “multiple girlfriends,” alleged bribery, and enriching himself in public office. He shared that his “personal favorite is the Uber account in the name of David P” that Paxton used to cover up trips he made to see his mistress, adding, “I mean, can you make this shit up?” Rove went on to say that Senator Cruz told him  “we’re losing.”
• 🔌 POWER HUNGRY: This week, Ken Paxton also came under fire from Texans after saying Texas has “plenty of open space” for data centers as he faces outrage from rural Texans who don’t want data centers in their backyards… Paxton called data centers “a huge economic boon,” while Texans continue to see scarcer water and higher electric bills.
• 🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTEGRITY: Paxton’s latest comments on expanding data centers in Texas should come as no surprise; after all, he was one of the architects who helped flood Texas with data centers, voting for the 2013 law that gave data centers a multi-billion-dollar tax handout costing taxpayers over $3.3 billion and counting… Paxton’s campaign contributions from data center interests have “exploded” to nearly half a million while he has refused to weigh in on local control over data centers. Paxton was also previously “gifted” 100,000 shares in a company providing servers for data centers and now “holds up to $6.8 million worth of mutual funds invested in the data center or artificial intelligence boom.”

⛽ HIGH-OCTANE HYPOCRISY: Last week, Mike Collins became the latest GOP Senate candidate to be exposed for shamelessly begging voters for gas money after voting to continue the price-hiking war in Iran… A tank of gas has become a “painful $60 decision” for Peach State voters who are contending with some of the highest diesel prices on record, but that’s not stopping Mike from begging Georgians to “put some diesel in the tank!” … Don’t forget, this is the same Mike Collins who “wholeheartedly support[s]” the war and has told struggling Georgians that “the economy is moving.”

• 🔁 RINSE, REPEAT, REFUEL: Mike Collins joins other GOP Senate candidates Dan Sullivan and Susan Collins who also employed a similar, shameless tactic to convince struggling Americans to “cough up” funds for gas… In May, after dismissing the “apocalyptic” fuel prices across Alaska as mere “externalities,” Dan Sullivan asked Alaskans to help “pay for gas” in a fundraising email… and in August, Susan Collins asked Mainers for cash to help her “put gas in the tank” “despite voting several times to uphold the Iran war and her husband holding thousands of dollars’ worth of oil and gas stocks.”

🚩 A DISTURBING PATTERN: Michael Whatley just “can’t stop associating himself with sex offenders”… New reporting from the Daily Beast exposed him for lying about his ties to Daimon King, a registered lifetime sex offender and convicted child rapist… Whatley claimed the Craven County GOP – not his campaign – organized the event where King led the opening prayer, but the receipts show otherwise…

• 🔥 LIAR LIAR SENATE CAMPAIGN ON FIRE: Leaked audio reveals Whatley himself admitted he initiated the event. And an invitation for the event says it was “Paid for by Whatley for Senate.” In a social media post, Whatley said it was great to “host” the event. This comes after Whatley has been under fire for repeatedly appointing Harvey West, a convicted child sex offender, to NCGOP leadership roles. West has admitted he was open with NCGOP leadership about his criminal past “from day one.”
• 🧽 SCRUBBED CLEAN: Meanwhile… a new report from NC Voices this week exposed Whatley for “quietly remov[ing]” from his campaign website that he previously worked at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where he did Enron’s bidding as they ripped off consumers and cost taxpayers billions of dollars…
• ⚡ POWER BROKER: Whatley was the “lead day-to-day negotiator” for President Bush’s signature energy legislation that was full of Enron’s wish-list policies. Whatley’s policies would allow Enron to take its power trading scheme nationwide and cost consumers millions of dollars. Whatley oversaw this effort right after Enron expanded into North Carolina and tried to rip off North Carolinians – with the help of the lobbying firm that employed Whatley.

💍 FOR BETTER OR FOR LOBBYING: Ashley Hinson’s campaign was “rocked” by an ethics complaint alleging she violated House ethics rules by helping her shadow lobbyist husband Matt Arenholz gain access to the Iowa Congressional delegation… Till ethics complaints do us part.

• 🏠 KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY: This comes after a report from the Washington Sun last August found that Arenholz helped his insurance industry lobbying group “arrange meetings with Hinson and other Iowa congressional delegation members,” a scheme that independent watchdog observers say “blurs the line” between business interests and public office. Additional reporting from Iowa Starting Line found that “two insurance-industry PACs have given Hinson’s campaign committees a combined $135,000 since 2019.”
• 🌽 HINSON’S GAIN, IOWA’S PAIN: Meanwhile, Iowans in Ottumwa, local leaders, a farmer, and a paramedic took part in the latest stop of the “Hinson’s Gain, Iowa’s Pain” statewide tour – calling out Hinson for raising their gas, diesel, and grocery costs by voting seven times to continue the Iran War and cutting rural healthcare… This comes after Hinson released a desperate statement last week trying (and failing) to hide her seven votes to support the war…
  • Former Ottumwa Mayor Rick Johnson: “In the last year, multiple health centers have closed or reduced their services in and around Ottumwa following Ashley Hinson’s vote for the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ which made the largest cuts in Medicaid history. You can see it impact our area of the state very much because these two southern tiers of counties in Iowa have always been known as the poverty belt of Iowa, and in the last year, we’ve had several clinics in our area close.”
  • Henry County farmer John Whitaker: “As we look at what is happening in agriculture, and particularly the cost of diesel fuel right now, I think of one thing: Ashley Hinson has voted no seven times on the War Powers Act resolutions. That’s seven times she’s had the opportunity to put a stop to the war in Iran.”
  • EMT paramedic Kolton Jones: “So, currently in the state of Iowa – in the country as a whole – especially in rural Iowa, we have a crisis going on. We have several crises going on. We have a healthcare crisis, education crisis, and currently we’re seeing increased gas prices. All of these things are really hitting rural Iowa the hardest. Iowa, I believe, has had the largest increase state-wise for gas prices, and Ashley Hinson is kind of at the center of all of this.”
• 🫣 HIDING HINSON: Ashley Hinson is desperately avoiding questions from local press across Iowa after multiple polls – including a new one yesterday from Fox News – show her losing the Senate race. It comes after Hinson’s “team has grown increasingly wary of the tight race” and begun to “panic” now that it’s becoming clear Iowa voters are ready to reject her this November for voting seven times to continue the war in Iran that is raising costs.

🎣 PELTOLA REELS ‘EM IN: A new Washington Post report details how Alaskans across the state of all political stripes are rallying behind lifelong Alaskan and former commercial fisherman Mary Peltola, as Sullivan’s cost of living crisis spikes the cost of gas and groceries. Hook, line, and Senate seat.

• 📈 THE SULLIVAN SPIKE: With gas prices hitting “$10 a gallon” and the “cost of groceries [becoming] just too high” – Alaskans are “spread thin” and have had to “hunt or fish to feed themselves” – and are blaming Dan Sullivan for “making the cost of living worse,” backing DOGE cuts that have “gutted federal agencies needed for the fishing industry,” and passing the toxic plan that “cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.”
• 🫶 “ONE OF US”: Alaskans know Mary Peltola will fight to bring down costs and will always put Alaska first, calling her “one of us” and lauding her “invaluable” understanding of Alaska’s “values” and “way of life.”
• 🧪 BAD CHEMISTRY: Meanwhile, new reporting revealed that Dan Sullivan’s toxic plan to gut health care gave tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks to RPM International – the multibillion-dollar chemicals company that represents his  “biggest single financial holding” – benefiting Sullivan’s own bottom line… This follows reporting that Sullivan has “been rewarded for the company’s financial success” after RPM raised costs on customers in response to Sullivan’s tariffs. 

🕶️ DARK MONEY DÉJÀ VU: Susan Collins’ current campaign is being powered by dark money donations structured similarly to those at the heart of the bombshell Navatek pay-to-play scandal, according to a new report out this week from HuffPost…. According to the report, “two super PACs backing her current reelection campaign, including one run by Scott Reed, the operative at the center of the ProPublica story, have received $7.4 million in undisclosed contributions from nonprofits that appear to exist solely to hide donors’ identities.”

• ✍️ THE BOARD HAS SPOKEN: The Portland Press Herald’s Editorial Board is issuing a scathing rebuke of Shady Susan and her response to widespread coverage following last week’s stunning ProPublica report that detailed how she was a “willing participant” at the center of a pay-for-play corruption scheme – allegedly taking donations and using her position on the Senate Appropriations Committee to steer “tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding” to her major donor.
• 🔄 SWING VOTERS SWING AWAY: The board writes, “it is extremely disappointing to watch Collins and members of her staff move to immediately discredit a thorough and fair piece of investigative journalism on political and personal grounds,” adding Collins’ “emphasis on the events taking place ‘seven years ago’ cynically attempts to detract from the crux of the story, which hinges on the collapse of the investigation” under Trump’s DOJ. Now, new reporting from the PPH finds that Maine swing voters are now rethinking their support for her following the bombshell scandal.
• 🎖️ REPORTING FOR DUTY: The fallout from Collins’ bribery scandal continued as Maine veterans gathered in Bangor to call her out for steering federal taxpayer dollars meant to defend our nation to a company whose CEO had donated to her campaign… Here’s what they had to say: 
  • U.S. Navy Veteran Jason Tkacs: “We’re demanding answers. Senator Collins must release every communication between her office, her campaign, the 1820 PAC, Navatek, and Martin Kao, and restore the FBI’s public corruption unit so this investigation can finish.”
  • Maine Veterans’ Alliance’s Tristin Friend: “Hearing that military contracts were given that didn’t have a purpose, that the Navy didn’t even purchase, and then just hearing that our benefits are being robbed elsewhere, that’s what galvanized us.”
• 💰 CHECK THIS OUT: It wasn’t just Maine veterans who called Susan out… Maine Democrats held a press conference outside of her Portland office where they presented her with a copy of the check her Super PAC received from Navatek CEO Martin Kao before she steered millions in federal funding to his company as a gift to remind Mainers who Collins really answers to…

🚩 STILL ON HIS TEAM: Up in the Great Lakes State – ABC 12 broke news that Mike Rogers has willingly and knowingly decided to keep Brian Ford as a member of his campaign’s senior leadership team, despite Ford’s “ties to a Midland church sex abuse scandal” and his “[public] support of former pastor James Randolph,” who was “convicted of sexually abusing children.” Rogers has “received criticism” after he “refused to acknowledge” concerns from former members of the Midland church who say Rogers “elevated leaders connected to the sexual abuse scandal.”

• ❌ NOT ONE, BUT TWO: Don’t forget, Rogers’ campaign faith coalition team has not one… but “two ties to a church upended by child sex crimes,” including Ford, who remains on the campaign coalition’s senior leadership team, and Tim Cross, who resigned “after saying he didn’t at first believe the victims in the Midland church sex abuse cases.”
• 💊 SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE… New reporting from Detroit Metro Times reveals how Rogers’ so-called healthcare plan “reflects pharmaceutical industry priorities,” includes proposals that “already exist” under federal law, and provides “few details” about how his proposals would actually lower healthcare costs for Michiganders. The report also reveals new details about Rogers’ toxic record of serving his Big Pharma donors, including how he used industry-aligned talking points in Congress to oppose measures that would lower prescription drug costs for veterans—which Rogers argued would be “harmful to innovation.” Side effects may include higher drug prices and a fatter campaign account.
• 🩺 ROGERS ABANDONS SICK KIDS: Speaking of health care… a new report out this week from the Detroit Metro Times exposed how Price-Hike Mike Rogers “repeatedly voted against expanding health insurance for low-income children, opposing legislation that Michigan officials said could help tens of thousands of uninsured kids get care.”
• 🚬 HOLY SMOKES: Rogers “cast 19 votes against measures to extend, expand or increase funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program,” even though the program “helped cover children whose families couldn’t afford private insurance but earned too much to qualify for Medicaid.” The proposal would have been paid for by “raising tobacco taxes,” an industry that has heavily supported Rogers, including holding a “fundraiser facilitated by a tobacco company’s corporate jet.”

🙊 SUNU-NO COMMENT: Last Friday, Donald Trump-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate John Sununu refused to answer whether he would’ve voted for the Senate War Powers Resolution to end Trump’s war with Iran, as Granite Staters continue paying sky-high prices at the gas pump. Sununu has “expressed support for” and “has been defending” Trump’s war with Iran, even saying it “achieved success,” but a recent UNH survey found that 75% of Granite Staters believe Trump’s war with Iran is going “poorly” and 69% want Trump to cease bombing Iran.

• TRANSCRIPT: Mr. Sununu, would you have voted for a war powers resolution in the Senate, sir? Would you admit that Iran was a bad war? Trump’s war — would you admit that that was a bad decision on Trump’s part? Or are you just gonna do everything that Trump tells you to do?

🤦 HERE WE GO AGAIN: Jon Husted just can’t seem to get through a week without demeaning those he seeks to represent… this week, newly uncovered audio from TiffinOhio found that Husted “blamed government benefits for ‘out-of-wedlock birth,’” saying they “drive the father out of the household.” Somebody take the mic away from this man.

• 🔁 ON REPEAT: The latest remark comes on the heels of Husted’s generational run of callous, demeaning, and dismissive comments towards Ohioans – these comments include saying that struggling Ohioans are “not very experienced at navigating the real world,” recommending that they learn “how to budget,” arguing that the solution to the affordability crisis is to “earn more,” and asserting that Ohioans’ work ethic is “broken.”
• 🔌 PULLING THE PLUG ON HUSTED: Ohioans have had enough of Jon Husted. This week, Ohioans facing skyrocketing electric bills rallied against the “face of data centers,” Jon Husted’s record of bringing hundreds of data centers to Ohio while local communities were left with the bill… Then telling Ohioans that “we are the problem” as they continue to see their utility bills skyrocket.

📍 IN THE STATES: 

• AK – The Washington Post: $10 for a gallon of gas has red Alaska thinking about a Democratic senator
• GA – The Hill: GOP chair of Georgia Peanut Commission backs Ossoff for Senate 
• IA – Raw Story: Key midterm Republican rocked by ethics complaint as she slips behind Dem in polling
• KS – MS NOW: A Kansas Democrat’s red-state pitch: A two-term limit and no Trump trials
• ME – Maine Public Radio: Heather Cox Richardson helps Troy Jackson woo Democratic voters at Portland event
• MI – The Washington Post: This Senate Democratic candidate is making a play for RFK Jr.’s MAHA supporters
• MS – The Dispatch: Colom: Hyde-Smith too ‘chicken’ to debate him
• NH – WCAX: At NH winery hit by tariffs, Pappas calls for small business exemptions
• NC – The Wilson Times: Cooper hears farmers’ concerns over rising costs at Wilson tobacco stop
• OH – ABC 13: Sherrod Brown rallies voters in Fremont, criticizes Husted on tariffs, data centers
• TX – El Paso Times: James Talarico courts Black voters in new Texas US Senate race ads

🤳 TWEET OF THE WEEK: 

Maeve Coyle
@maevemcoyle 

Maddy McDaniel
@maddymcdaniel14

Monica Robinson
@mo_robz

Tommy Garcia
@Tommy_D_Garcia

Joe Bush
@TheJoeBush

Jackson Buttler
@jackson_buttler

Suhani Patel
@suhaniiipatel

📲 DROP US A LINE: [email protected]