DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: Standing Room Only, Paxton Surrenders the Alamo, Rogers’ Selective Hearing, Hinson’s House Party, and Beefing with Cindy

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: Standing Room Only, Paxton Surrenders the Alamo, Rogers’ Selective Hearing, Hinson’s House Party, and Beefing with Cindy

TGIF. Welcome to the final edition of 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 4️⃣days until the midterms. 📲 DROP US A LINE: [email protected].

🧑‍🍳 THE NRSC GETS COOK-ED, FINAL SERVING: With just four days until Election Day and a “dismal national political environment for Republicans,” election analysts at the Cook Political Report now rate Democrats as the “slight favorites” to re-take the Senate majority thanks to “strong recruits” who have “put red states within reach.”

• 🏈 RECRUITING CLASS OF 2026: Democrats’ all-star slate of candidates – coupled with Senate Republicans’ repeated, embarrassing recruitment failures and “sub-par nominees in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas” – has created an environment where “Democrats are better positioned to win the majority than Republicans are to keep it.”
• 💪 FEELING… HERCULEAN: In a cycle where Democrats once faced “‘herculean’ odds to take back the Senate,” Cook now sees “multiple scenarios [for Democrats] to gain the four seats they need to flip the chamber” as “races appear to be moving away from the GOP” – putting Democrats on track to “pick up between two and six seats.”

🎟️ STANDING ROOM ONLY: In key Senate battleground states across the map, Democrats are spending the final days of the campaign riding a wave of momentum — packing gyms, auditoriums and concert venues, meeting with voters face to face, and hammering their GOP opponents for a toxic agenda that has sent gas and grocery prices soaring, led to devastating health care cuts, and unleashed rank corruption in Washington.

🐟 IN ALASKA:

MARY PELTOLA: “Person-to-person, one conversation at a time, I’m traveling to every corner of our state because every Alaskan deserves a voice […] The skyrocketing cost of fuel, groceries, and housing is making it harder and harder for families in Dillingham and across our state to get by.”

🍊 IN FLORIDA:

ANGIE NIXON: “Right now we are in a battle for the soul and humanity of this country.”

🍑 IN GEORGIA:

JON OSSOFF: “I’m here to tell you that I have no doubt our victory is near at hand. […] Georgia, when the polls close, we’ll defeat the bigot congressman, Trump puppet Mike Collins.”

🌽 IN IOWA:

JOSH TUREK: “We’re going to repeal these tariffs because they are absolutely decimating rural communities and killing our small family farms. We’re going to make sure we’ve got a fully funded Medicare, Medicaid. Because it is fundamentally wrong in a state with a health care crisis and a cancer crisis for 119,000 Iowans to see their health care premiums doubling, tripling, quadrupling. I’m going to do everything I can to drive private equity out of housing, health care, and nursing homes, because we’re making it way too expensive for the average person.”

🌻 IN KANSAS:

ADAM HAMILTON: “A year and a half ago there were 63,000 Kansans who had health insurance. That’s one in fifty people who lost it in the last year and a half because of votes that Roger Marshall made.” 

🌲 IN MAINE:

TROY JACKSON: “I’m just so proud. I’m so inspired. I’m a whole bunch of things that I never probably can get out of my heart. But thank you for what all of you are doing, because we have a shot. It’s our time right now. Honestly, let’s make sure in these next seven days we get people to go and vote. We talk to people. Do whatever you can because that’s how we’re going to win this race.”

🧤 IN MICHIGAN:

ABDUL EL-SAYED: “And the fact on the ground is that people can’t afford their gas, they can’t afford their groceries, they’re worried about seeing a doctor. They want people who are going to stand up to the corruption that Donald Trump’s office has created in our country.”

Former President BARACK OBAMA: “Abdul is fighting for change, real change. Change that will bring an end to this war. Change that will get money out of politics and put money in your pocket. Change that will finish the job that we started with the Affordable Care Act, and guarantee quality affordable healthcare to every single American.”

🌺 IN MISSISSIPPI:

SCOTT COLOM: “Our junior senator is going to do nothing to fix rural healthcare in Mississippi […] She’s going to do nothing to fix hospitals in Mississippi. She’s made that clear. She’s got no solution. I’m offering solutions.”

🪨 IN NEW HAMPSHIRE:

CHRIS PAPPAS: “I want to make life better for Granite Staters. I want to build a fairer economy that creates more opportunity and brings down costs. I want to take on this lawless president and restore checks and balances. And I want to fundamentally change the way that Washington works so that we are going after corruption, that we’re getting big money out of politics.”

🐏 IN NORTH CAROLINA:

ROY COOPER: “We know for too many North Carolina families there’s too much month at the end of the money.” 

North Carolina Governor JOSH STEIN: “I saw up close his integrity, intelligence and servant’s heart as he prosecuted dangerous people, and he took on big corporations that ripped off families, scammed seniors and defrauded Medicaid […] Roy Cooper has protected the people of North Carolina.” 

🌰 IN OHIO:

SHERROD BROWN: “Ohioans won’t stand for this rigged system any longer. Ohio’s fighting back.”

Former President BARACK OBAMA: “Yes, we need to lower costs. We need to put money in people’s pockets. Yes, we need to end this war and the corruption in Washington. But we don’t do any of those things if we don’t fix our moral compass as a nation.”

🌴 IN SOUTH CAROLINA:

ANNIE ANDREWS: “Whether you are a Republican, like my own dad who feels left behind by his party, or you’re an Independent who is ready for change or you are a Democrat who is daring to feel hopeful in this moment, this campaign is for you. Each one of you are the heart and soul of South Carolina.” 

🤠 IN TEXAS:

State Rep. JAMES TALARICO: “This time of year there is no better place to be than a high school football game […] There is that moment in every game – the last play or the last drive – where you have to leave it all on the field. UT, we are in that moment.”

🗺️ UP FOR GRABS: Democratic Senate candidates’ final blitz comes as a CNN polls “paint a picture of a Democratic Party well-positioned to make a play for Senate control” – with Democratic Senate candidates up “across the board,” including in “territory that was once staunchly Republican [and] now appears to be up for grabs.”

• 🍬 EIGHT-STATE TREAT: Meanwhile, race raters at Inside Elections shifted their ratings for eight Senate races on Thursday, all of them away from Republicans…
  • 🍑 GEORGIA shifted from Lean D to Likely D
  • 🌽 IOWA shifted from Tilt R to Toss-Up
  • 🌻 KANSAS shifted from Tilt R to Toss-Up
  • 🐊 LOUISIANA shifted from Solid R to Likely R
  • 🌺 MISSISSIPPI shifted from Solid R to Likely R
  • 🌰 OHIO shifted from Toss-Up to Tilt D
  • 🌴 SOUTH CAROLINA shifted from Lean R to Tilt R
  • 🤠 And TEXAS shifted from Toss-Up to Tilt D
• And not a trick in the bunch.
  
• 🌴 PALMETTO PANIC: And even Fox News election analysts moved the SOUTH CAROLINA Senate race to a toss-up after Trump visited the state for the second time in just one month on Thursday. 

🚌 PAXTON SURRENDERS THE ALAMO?: Ken Paxton’s disastrous campaign is crashing out as he starts cancelling events on his bus tour days before election day as he can get barely a few dozen people to show up to his most recent events – and appears to have removed his final campaign stop at the Alamo.

• 📆 CANCELED DUE TO… LACK OF INTEREST: Paxton canceled his events in El Paso, Texarkana, and Tyler, as he can’t seem to draw any crowds on his own and more Texas Republicans declare they will not vote for him…
  • Paxton has been “overwhelmed by mockery,” after video showed just a few dozen people in San Angelo on October 28th. 
  • At one of his smallest crowds yet in Odessa, Paxton couldn’t even draw an applause with only one participant clapping and Paxton responding “Thank you. Thank you for that one clap.”
  • Paxton’s “humiliation” continued Wednesday evening as a stop in Abilene brought in even fewer people. 
  • Paxton was even caught literally having to bus people into his rally in Amarillo and even the crowd then was still laughably small on October 26th. 
  • Venues are even rebuking Paxton’s meager events with Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que denouncing Paxton coming to their restaurant, saying the event on October 24th was “not authorized by ownership.” 
• 🏟️ FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: Talarico meanwhile is drawing massive crowds in rural Texas, including nearly 4,000 in deep red Lubbock which Trump won by over 40 points with lines stretching for blocks.
• 🧾 NO WONDER THE SEATS ARE EMPTY: One reason Texans likely aren’t too eager to attend a Paxton rally? Reporting by the New York Times uncovered that he has been forcing Texas taxpayers to foot the bill as he travels to lavish destinations from Aruba to his luxury condos in Utah… The probe revealed that “Paxton has taken about 350 trips outside of Texas with a taxpayer-funded security detail,” costing taxpayers over $3 million…
• 🚪 EXIT, STAGE RIGHT: And after having spent years abusing his office to get rich on a government salary, Republicans across Texas and the country have had enough, and are speaking out against corrupt Paxton:
• 🐘 NOT THEIR PARTY ANYMORE – Texas Republicans:
  • Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan made his position clear he cannot vote for Ken Paxton: “He does not align with my morals and integrity… I’m a team player, but at some point, I got to draw the line.”
  • Former Texas Rep. Glenn Rogers announced he is voting for Talarico because: “Character is more important than party, and if it’s not, then we’re in trouble as a nation. …I cannot trust Ken Paxton. I’ll never trust Ken Paxton. I’ll never vote for him. I’ll never support him.”
  • Neil Bush, son of President George H. W. Bush and brother of former President George W. Bush announced he voted for James Talarico, saying, “I have been a Republican for most of my life, and I still believe deeply in many traditional Republican principles. But character matters more than party affiliation.”
  • Former Executive Director of the Texas Republican Party, Wayne Thorburn, declared that he cannot support Ken Paxton and said he will be voting for James Talarico because he is a “man of individual character. And he will do what he thinks is the proper and right thing for all of Texas when he’s in the Senate.”
  • Former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus said, “Republicans are really pushing their luck with Ken Paxton at the top,” and that Paxton “has a list of scandals as long as a CVS receipt.”
  • Tom Phillips, the former Republican chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, wrote this week that he is voting for Talarico because, “Paxton’s longstanding reputation will embarrass Texas in ways our state simply cannot afford.”

📺 BAD AD, WORSE REVIEWS: Susan Collins’ campaign is “facing a wave of backlash” after her campaign’s new ad “belittle[d] working-class Mainers.” The critics even included a former Collins staffer, who “accused Collins and her allies of displaying their ‘disdain for little people,’ before concluding with four words: ‘The race is over.’”

• 🛢️ FUELING THE CAMPAIGN: Collins’ latest wave of backlash comes as new report from the Maine Newsroom revealed that as Mainers face record-high heating oil prices, the heating oil industry has donated nearly $250,000 to Susan Collins’ re-election efforts. The donations come as the Iran War continues to drive up costs, after Collins voted five times against resolutions that could have ended the Iran War.
• 💰 MUSK MONEY: And another report from Maine Newsroom revealed more than $100,000 in new contributions that one of Elon Musk’s PACs put behind Susan Collins’ re-election. According to the report, three days before Collins “told reporters she didn’t know Elon Musk was spending money to help her,” “her own fundraising committee took $55,000 from SpaceX’s PAC.”
• 💸 DONOR DILEMMA: Speaking of donors… A new report in the Bangor Daily News revealed even more shady ties between Susan Collins, the lobbyist running her Super PAC, and dark money organizations. Last year, as Scott Reed’s consulting firm was paying Collins’ husband at least $1,000, the firm took hundreds of thousands of dollars from a mysterious firm to lobby Collins’ committee. According to the report, the group even took its name from a Collins hearing and “has never said who funded it.”

🎧 SELECTIVE HEARING: On Sunday morning, price-hike Mike Rogers joined Kristen Welker for a “disastrous” interview on Meet The Press, where she asked “Is a vote for you a vote for the Trump agenda?” In what’s now been described by The Bulwark as a “masterclass in political desperation,” Rogers tried to wriggle out of the question by pretending to have earpiece trouble, stammering: “Um, I’m apologizing. I’m having some difficulty in my earpiece. But is a vote for you…? I’m not sure.”

• ✅ THE ANSWER IS YES: Though he refused to admit it in the interview, Rogers has already been caught saying he only entered the Senate race because Trump told him to, has pledged to “giv[e] President Trump another reliable vote to get his agenda across the finish line,” and said “We need leaders in the Senate who will fight for President Trump’s agenda — not undermine it. That’s why I’m running.”
• 📖 BUREAUCRATIC READ TAPE: New reporting from Heartland Signal found that Rogers has repeatedly proposed requiring Michiganders who apply for government assistance to “demonstrate that they can read before receiving help,” suggesting “literacy requirements” as “conditions” for accessing programs like SNAP and Medicaid.
• 💵 CASHING CHECKS FROM EXTREMISTS: Another new report out this week revealed that Rogers is “cash[ing] checks from anti-abortion extremists” in the final days of his Senate campaign. Recent FEC filings show Rogers’ campaign accepted $5,000 from the National Pro-Life Alliance PAC, an extremist group lobbying for the passage of the Life at Conception Act—which would “ban all abortions with no exceptions for rape, incest, or health risks.”
• 📜 FOR THE RECORD… Rogers consistently delivered on that agenda while in Washington: He lobbied for a nationwide abortion ban, backed bills that would ban abortion with no exceptions, and supported a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
• 🔺 PAY-TO-PRISM: This all comes as investigative reporting from The American Prospect reveals Rogers is benefiting from an apparent pay-to-play scheme selling big corporations access to high-ranking government officials… According to the report, Rogers’ wife, Kristi Rogers, runs a “Beltway trade group” representing “energy traders, mining companies, and manufacturers in their efforts to influence federal officials and federal policy.” To join its Founding Council, corporations pay a $100,000 initiation fee plus $50,000 in annual dues to “get face time with federal policymakers and diplomats with substantial leverage over decision-making that would affect their businesses” through “invitation-only events” with members of Congress and Trump cabinet officials.
• 👀 UP TO THEIR EYEBALLS: While Ms. Rogers bragged PRISM is “up to our eyeballs” offering corporations “a direct line to federal officials” that would help them manage the Trump administration’s chaotic shifts in trade policy, or capitalize on them, Mike Rogers was publicly backing Trump’s chaotic tariff regime. Ethics watchdogs warn Ms. Rogers’ position “raises the potential for serious conflicts of interest” in the Senate, where Mike Rogers “would likely have significant overlap with the legislative priorities of the businesses Ms. Rogers now shepherds.”
• 🏭 A GUY WALKS INTO A FACTORY… Rogers’ defense of those tariffs has a credibility problem of its own. His bad week ended with reporting from The Bulwark revealing that “Mike Rogers may have an imaginary friend who loves tariffs.” Rogers has repeatedly shared an anecdote about a “guy—who is sometimes several guys or even an entire factory’s worth of guys—” who supposedly added a second shift because of Trump’s reckless tariff policies. He regularly cites the story on the campaign trail to argue that the tariffs have spurred reshoring and manufacturing growth, but “there may be more than one way this is false.”

🚩 A LONG-STANDING RELATIONSHIP: This week, it was revealed that Dan Sullivan has maintained a long-standing relationship with an alleged child predator and elected Republican in Alaska, accepting her endorsement and campaigning with her even after she was accused of having a sexual relationship with a minor… 

• 📲 THE DELETED PHOTO: Sullivan also posted a photo to social media posing next to a registered sex offender who was convicted of possession of child pornography, then quickly deleted the photo to cover his tracks.
• 🗳️ THE EPSTEIN RECORD: This follows Sullivan’s vote to block the release of the Epstein files, taking campaign cash from Epstein associates, and voting to confirm Todd Blanche despite pleas from survivors, making “his palling around with sex offenders especially relevant and concerning with one week to go until the midterm election.”
• 📈 PERFECT TIMING, IMPERFECT PAPERWORK: Sullivan was also hit with an ethics complaint from anti-corruption group End Citizens United after it was revealed that he made several suspiciously timed stock trades that violated the STOCK Act… Sullivan repeatedly sold shares in his single biggest stock holding – RPM International – shortly before the public release of weak earnings reports caused significant price drops, raising questions about whether Sullivan has been leveraging non-public information to make beneficial trades. Sullivan then failed to report these trades in a timely manner in an apparent violation of the STOCK Act. 

🏡 HOUSE PARTY: Hypocritical Ashley Hinson was exposed this week after a report from MeidasTouch News uncovered that she lived in a “half million dollar” house bought and paid for by her parents while she attended the University of Southern California… Today, the house would be “worth nearly $1 million.”

• 💵 HINSANE SAVINGS ADVICE, VOL. 2: Earlier this month Hinson called millennials the “worst group of savers in the country right now” during a Senate debate, but the report shows Hinson enjoyed a lavish upbringing. High school friends called Hinson “one of the richest kids in school” and said she “drove luxury cars” in college.
• 🧢 LUXURY LIVING: The report comes as Hinson tries (and fails) to pitch herself to Iowans as a “working class mom,” despite the fact she has increased her net worth by up to 15x, owns up to $5 million in insurance stock, and spent $50,000 of taxpayer money on a “luxury” DC apartment.
• 🏃‍♀️ RUN, ASHLEY, RUN: The latest story on Hinson’s high-life came as new clip from CNN shows her literally running away from CNN reporter Manu Raju as he tries to ask her why she has voted repeatedly to continue the war in Iran…
• 🛢️ REWARDS PROGRAM: And as she votes again and again to keep the war going –  and even saying she would support another major offensive after the midterms in an interview with ABC News last weekend – she is allegedly being “rewarded” by Big Oil companies with an additional $20,000 in campaign contributions as they continue to rake in record profits thanks to the war…
• 🎖️ EIGHT MONTHS & SEVEN VOTES: And this week – Iowa veterans came together on the eight month anniversary of the war to call her out for her role in bringing forth “record diesel prices,” “surg[ing]” gas costs, fertilizer prices “near peak levels,” and inflation higher than the national average. 

💊 “IMPECCABLY TIMED”: In Kansas, a new report from Popular Information this week exposed corrupt, floundering GOP Sen. Roger Marshall for his “impeccably timed purchase” of $250,000 in stock in an “obscure pharma company just before it secured key FDA approval.” Marshall has since watched his stake in the company swell to as much as half a million dollars – because FDA clearance for human trials “typically increases the value of a company.”

• ⏰ 285 DAYS LATE: After buying the pharma stock, Marshall did not disclose the stock purchase until 285 days later – violating the STOCK Act, the law to prevent insider trading that requires members of Congress to disclose stock purchases within 45 days. In the years that followed, Marshall pushed “legislation that could ultimately benefit” the company from his seat on the Senate HELP Committee, which oversees the FDA.
• 🔦 HAVE YOU SEEN THIS SENATOR? Meanwhile, as Marshall faces an “unexpectedly steep re-election challenge,” the New York Times reports that his “closing pitch leans heavily on discounting his own constituents’ concerns” as Kansans “grapple with economic anxieties exacerbated by tariffs and the costs of the war with Iran.” Marshall has “curtailed traditional public town halls and remains elusive on the campaign trail” – offering “little in the way of personal connection” and “creating growing distance [with] his constituents.” 

🌺 MISSISSIPPI MATTERS: Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are on offense deep in GOP territory on an expanded map that reaches all the way to Mississippi – as the DSCC places a $500,000 joint ad buy with District Attorney and seventh-generation Mississippian Scott Colom.

• 🥩 BEEFING WITH CINDY: The DSCC’s latest investment comes as Republicans continue their full-scale rescue mission to bail out out-of-touch GOP Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith – who just days ago doubled down on her infamous claim that Mississippians have “so many proteins to choose from” – even as beef prices continue to skyrocket thanks to her toxic, price-spiking agenda and votes to rubber stamp the reckless tariffs.

🪨 TRIPPING ON GRANITE: In the Granite State, Chris Pappas and John Sununu squared off in the final New Hampshire U.S. Senate debate this week, during which Sununu tripped over himself again and again while trying to outrun his toxic record of support for Trump and his ties to corporate special interests…

• 🤫 THE SECRET PLAN: Speaking of a toxic record… in stunning new audio from NHPR, John Sununu repeatedly refused to tell a reporter what policy on Social Security he would support in the Senate. Sununu justified withholding his policy plans from voters by saying the “other side” would use anything he shared against him.
• 📉 “WILLING TO DO IT AGAIN”: Sununu has a long history of supporting Social Security privatization. While in office, Sununu “helped lead the charge” to privatize Social Security — which would have exposed Granite Staters’ retirement savings to stock market crashes — and said while campaigning this cycle, “I was willing to do it before, and I’m willing to do it again.” Sununu’s non-answer mirrors his recent refusal to provide specific proposals for saving Social Security at a U.S. Senate debate in Conway. 

🎖️ TWICE ASKED, TWICE DODGED: Last week, DC insider Michael Whatley refused to denounce Donald Trump’s threat to withhold funding for Camp Lejeune veterans and their families who were affected by water contamination if Republicans lose control of Congress in the midterms… now, he’s doubling down and AGAIN refusing to condemn the comments…

• Reporter: Now I asked Whatley about [Trump’s] comments…Do you agree with Trump’s position here? 
• Michael Whatley: We need to take care of the families…
• Reporter: You think he was serious when he said that?
• Michael Whatley: No, you know, look, the president, he talks a lot about the campaign…

📺 “KARA”: Jon Ossoff for Senate released a new video this week slamming Mike Collins’ vote to gut Medicaid in spite of the intense backlash from constituents in his congressional district…  

• 🏥 THE COLLINS CRISIS: Collins greenlit Trump’s unpopular budget law, which created a crisis for rural health care in Georgia. St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia – which is located in Collins’ congressional district – confirmed that Medicaid cuts “solidified” the decision to shutter the labor and delivery unit, and Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton announced that it may have to cut its ICU in light of a $3.3 million budget shortfall due to Trump’s budget law.
• ❌ “WE WERE DEVASTATED”: Kara, a registered Republican who is featured in the ad, saw her labor and delivery unit — the only one in four counties — shut down after Trump and Collins cut Medicaid, and said, “we were devastated because we know some of these babies won’t make it. I reached out, and Mike Collins essentially told me Donald Trump’s plan was more important than these women and babies.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Kara “blames Collins, who voted for the cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

📍 IN THE STATES: 

• AK – New Yorker: Alaska’s Senate Race Could Be Decided by Salmon
• GA – AJC: Obama campaigns for Ossoff, Bottoms
• IA – The Daily Freeman Journal: Turek talks health care, campaign reforms
• KS – The New Yorker: How a Kansas Megachurch Pastor Might Determine Who Wins the Senate
• ME – MS NOW: Troy Jackson makes final pitch to Maine voters in seven-figure ad blitz
• MI – The New Yorker: The Final Electric Days of Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate Campaign
• NH – WMUR: Sen. Mark Kelly, Chris Pappas meet with first responders in Manchester
• NC – WCNC: Roy Cooper makes final campaign push in Charlotte, focusing on cost of living
• OH – WKBN: Sherrod Brown talks goals, accomplishments in final stretch of Senate race
• TX – NYT: How James Talarico’s Years Teaching Middle School Prepared Him for Politics

🤳 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]