DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: Win the Senate, Sinking Susan, In a Mood(y) for Corruption, Paxton’s Paper Trail, and Whatley’s Troubling Venue

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: Win the Senate, Sinking Susan, In a Mood(y) for Corruption, Paxton’s Paper Trail, and Whatley’s Troubling Venue

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 9️⃣5️⃣ days until the midterms. 📲 DROP US A LINE: [email protected].

💰 WIN THE SENATE: This week, the DSCC rolled out its Win The Senate program – a major $40 million investment in 10 Senate battleground states (AK, FL, GA, IA, ME, MI, NC, NH, OH, TX) – putting Democrats “on offense” across an expanded battleground map and helping to build the infrastructure needed for Senate Democrats to flip the Senate in the next 95 days.

🦞 SHELL SHOCKED REPUBLICANS: Republicans are panicking after fifth-generation logger from Allagash and former president of the Maine Senate, Troy Jackson, secured the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Maine and raised $2 million from 30,000 donors in his first 24 hours… causing even the NRSC to admit that Troy is “fully capable of winning this seat […].”

• 📉 SINKING SUSAN: Susan Collins is “underwater” and faces a “rough road” and “the most difficult political environment” of her career after she’s stood with Trump 96% of the time, was the decisive vote for the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, and cast the “key” and “pivotal” vote that advanced the Republican plan to gut Medicaid and rip health insurance away from Mainers so Republicans could hand out massive tax giveaways to billionaires and massive corporations. Rough road indeed… but she paved it herself…

❌ IN A MOOD(Y) FOR CORRUPTION: A shocking new report from CBS Miami revealed that as Attorney General of Florida, appointed GOP Senator Ashley Moody gave the final stamp of approval on a corrupt deal that diverted $10 million of taxpayer dollars intended to expand healthcare for Florida’s children to a Republican-aligned political campaign just before Governor DeSantis appointed Moody as Senator, citing her political allyship. Taking money from sick kids to fund a campaign – hard to sink lower than that…

• 🍊 SQUEEZING FLORIDA DRY: As a result of Moody’s deal, kids and their families across the state lost out on access to affordable, high-quality healthcare. After the outrageous settlement was revealed, state law enforcement opened an investigation, and a grand jury then issued a report detailing its findings. Under state law, a grand jury report quickly becomes public unless someone named in the report objects. As a result, the grand jury report in the Centene scandal remains hidden. Left Floridians with the pulp…
• ☀️ NO SUNSHINE HERE: Now, as Moody continues to face scrutiny and evade questions about her involvement in the scandal, Florida Democrats are calling on her to tell Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to release the grand jury report. What are you hiding, Ashley?

🧾 PAXTON’S PAPER TRAIL: Speaking of scandals… Ken Paxton’s got plenty – and he’s being abandoned by Texans, is trailing in the polls, and can barely fill a room because of it. This week, Corrupt Ken Paxton faced another scandal when internet sleuths found the dates were fabricated in the metadata of resurfaced receipts from Paxton’s impeachment trial.

• 🏠 HOUSE HUNTERS: Ever wondered what multi-millionaire Paxton’s 15 properties look like? Courier Texas is out with new reporting detailing Paxton’s luxurious real estate portfolio after he increased his personal wealth by up to 7,000% as an elected official.

• 🏃 RUNNING… AND RUNNING… AND RUNNING: And while Paxton keeps running… and running… and running… Texans are slamming him for refusing to answer questions about his voter fraud and enriching himself in public office…
  • 📰 READ WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:
    • Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Alarms should be blaring in the Paxton campaign […] their candidate isn’t ready for what lies ahead.” 
    • Fox 26 Houston: “He’s just running a terrible campaign”
    • CBS News Texas: This was “not the first time the Attorney General hasn’t wanted to answer questions about allegations.” 
    • MS NOW: Paxton is “running away from accountability, quite literally.”
    • Austin American-Statesman: “If the questions in a U.S. Senate debate get too rough  […] there’s no provision for a staffer to step forward and throw in the towel.”

🍑 RUNS IN THE PARTY: Like Ken Paxton, Mike Collins has had a busy few weeks running away from questions about his own scandals… It’s been weeks since a bombshell CNN report exposed the Senate candidate’s relationship to neo-Nazi propagandist David Alan Scheer, yet he still has not answered questions over his “close ties” with Scheer. This week, he “abruptly” ended his press conference amid questions about his relationship with Scheer as he continues to run from accountability. 

• 🎥 CATCH HIM IF YOU CAN! Collins’ latest blunder came after, earlier in the week, a newly released video caught him physically dodging questions outside of an event…

🐟 DAN’S DIRTY DOLLARS: In what’s becoming an all–too–familiar trend among GOP Senate candidates, Dan Sullivan has become the latest to be exposed for taking cash from known Epstein associates after voting to block the release of the Epstein files… This week, new reporting revealed that Sullivan has taken $10,000 from Epstein associates after he voted to keep the files sealed and called the issue a “political pawn.” Those donors include Henry Kravis, who appeared in Epstein’s “little black book,” and Howard Lorber… both named in the files.

• 🥩 SULLIVAN GETS GRILLED: Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft grilled Dan Sullivan for his record of luxury spending on $200 ribeyes – while handing out free steaks to Alaskans to bring attention to his self-serving record. Alaskans are struggling just to put food on the table, but Dan Sullivan isn’t worried – he’s eating at some of the best restaurants in DC. Sullivan caring about affordability? Now that’d be rare.
• 🧾 DAN’S DECADENT TAB: 
  • $35,000 at the Capital Grille, “home of the $200 bone-in dry-aged ribeye”;
  • $20,000 at the French restaurant Bistro Bis;
  • $20,000 at Charlie Palmer Steak;
  • And $14,000 at the “ultra-discreet” 116 Club, “a Capitol Hill row house where lobbyists rub shoulders with legislators.”

🪞 MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL: New reporting from Spectrum News shows that Jon “the face of data centers” Husted led the charge to bring a record number of “power-hungry” data centers to Ohio, sending utility rates skyrocketing. Now, three months before an election, is blaming hardworking Ohioans for utility rate increases caused by the record number of data centers that he brought to Ohio. 

• 🍎 WHO’S THE MOST CONDESCENDING OF THEM ALL: Appointed GOP Sen. Jon Husted – “We, the people, have created the demand for these data centers because we use all of these digital products that it processes, and if we don’t want them, then don’t use them. I mean, you can go back to the bunny ear antenna on your TV — you don’t need a data center. But if you’re connected to a wire, you’re using the data center. So, understand, like, when we look in the mirror, we are the problem.”

• 🌰 PROTECTING THE WRONG PEOPLE: Meanwhile, Ohioans have not forgotten that Husted has been accused of being “tolerant and even protective of sexual abusers” for over 20 years… New reporting from American Journal News exposes Husted’s record of gutting legislation to help survivors of sexual abuse hold their abusers accountable while serving as the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives.
  • 📰 READ MORE: American Journal News: Claims Jon Husted protected sexual abusers date back more than 20 years

👎 WHATLEY’S TROUBLING VENUE: This week, DC insider and Big Oil Lobbyist Michael Whatley is under fire for campaigning at a church that reportedly covered up for and protected an employee who was indicted for sexually abusing children. Mickey McMahan was accused of grooming and sexually assaulting young girls for decades “through his work” as a piano player and basketball coach at the church. McMahan was arrested in 2024 for 26 child sex offense charges.

• 🤝 A FAMILIAR PROBLEM: The latest revelation comes as new reporting from the Daily Beast and NC Newsline show that Whatley’s ties to convicted child sex predator Harvey Lee West – who he appointed repeatedly to NCGOP leadership – continue to dog his campaign while simultaneously he defends his biggest individual donor who was charged in a sex trafficking investigation.…
  • Daily Beast: Trump Senate Pick Skewered for Hiring Child Sex Offender 
  • NC Newsline: New $2.3M ad campaign ties Whatley to convicted sex offender as NC’s US Senate race tightens

💊 YOU BREAK IT, YOU BUY IT: Corrupt multi-millionaire Mike Rogers this week posted a video asking Michiganders “why prescription drugs cost so much more in Michigan than they do in Canada.”  Just one inconvenient detail: Rogers himself voted to block legislation that would have allowed the reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada,  while Big Pharma bankrolled his campaigns. We’re all trying to find the guy who did this…

• ❌ Rogers voted against a bill that would have allowed reimportation of prescription drugs from foreign countries like Canada—effectively blocking lower costs for Americans—and “repeated industry talking points” to oppose such efforts, warning “unmonitored, reimported prescription drugs can and have killed American citizens.”
• ❌ Rogers has voted repeatedly against allowing Medicare to negotiate lower costs for prescription drugs, something he has said he is “passionately against” and has derided as “sugar high politics.”
• ❌ Rogers voted to oppose efforts to lower prescription drug costs, while he was being “bankrolled” by Big Pharma, receiving more than $1 million in contributions to his campaigns and his political action committee from the pharmaceutical and health products industry since 1999.

🐾 JOHN E. SUNUNU – ALL BARK…: GOP NH Senate candidate John E. Sununu has spent his campaign branding China “the biggest strategic threat” the U.S. faces and demanding Washington “confront China everywhere” … But new reporting this week from MeidasTouch exposes his own close ties to the CCP…

• 🐶 …NO BITE: During his decade-plus out of office, Sununu was busy “sitting on boards and drawing paychecks” from companies that partnered with a Chinese telecom giant flagged by U.S. intelligence, financed a media venture with a fund run by a former Chinese Communist Party official, and helped a Chinese state-owned insurer expand its footprint “inside one of the world’s most influential financial markets.” IDK… Doesn’t sound like he’s all that worried about China…

📍 IN THE STATES: 

• AK – Native News Online: Peltola Campaign Claims Growing Momentum as Alaska Senate Race Reaches 100-Day Mark
• GA – Washington Examiner: Ossoff’s campaign dominance pays off as race shifts his way 
• IA – New York Times: Obama Makes One of His First Midterm Endorsements With a Basketball Video
• ME – MS NOW: ‘Ready for change’: Troy Jackson’s plan to unseat Susan Collins in Maine
• NC – WNCT: Roy Cooper brings “Make Stuff Cost Less” tour to Wilson
• OH – WLWT: Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown speaks with voters in Cincinnati Monday
• TX – MS NOW: Texans ‘deserve answers’ about Ken Paxton, Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico says, demanding debates

🤳 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]