April 12, 2024 Press Releases

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: “BOZO” GOP SENATE CANDIDATES CAUGHT IN THEIR OWN MESS (AGAIN), TRAIL OF INCONSISTENCIES & LAKE’S SUPPORT FOR 1864 ABORTION BAN

🌒 TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE TRUTH → New reporting from Slate details how the GOP’s deeply damaged “bozo” Senate candidates keep getting caught in their own mess. Read the key points from Slate below:

This was the one thing Mitch McConnell didn’t want to happen.

In the past week, both Wisconsin’s Hovde and Montana’s Sheehy have gotten involved in some real bozo-like situations.

Sheehy had said while campaigning that the bullet [in his arm] is there because he was shot during combat in Afghanistan—but the Post found that he told a ranger at Glacier National Park in October 2015 that he’d been hit in the arm by a round from his own handgun when it fell to the ground.

[Nursing home] occupants, [Hovde] implied, are too feeble—basically already dead, really!—to plausibly cast ballots of their own volition.

🚩 SHADY SHEEHY’S SCANDALS → Following two Washington Post reports that found Sheehy has given “several inconsistent accounts” about his military record, the GOP Senate candidate has faced a wave of questions. The Washington Post reports are just the latest in a pattern of inconsistencies, exaggerations and falsehoods Sheehy has told about his biography.

BOMBSHELL FROM BLOOMBERG NEWS BREAKS DOWN MCCORMICK’S INVESTMENTS IN THE CHINESE MILITARY → New reporting from Bloomberg Government reveals that as head of Bridgewater Associates, Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate David McCormick “steered millions of dollars of investments into Chinese companies that produce fighter jets, bombers, planes equipped to jam enemy radars, and the country’s first domestically built aircraft carrier.”

📋 CHECKING THE RECEIPTS → New reporting from CNN outlines Republican Senate candidates’ well-documented history of “hard-line positions” opposing reproductive freedom and abortion access. Some highlights below:

“Following the Dobbs decision, Lake also said that she was ‘thrilled’ at the prospect of an arcane law from when the state was still a territory taking effect.”

“Hovde launched a campaign for US Senate from Wisconsin in which he said he was ‘totally opposed to abortion.’”

“It was widely reported by national and local media outlets that McCormick supported only exceptions for the life of the mother in ‘very rare instances.’”

👀 LAKE “GOT WHAT SHE WANTED” → In the wake of Arizona’s Supreme Court reinstating a near total abortion ban from 1864, a flood of news coverage has detailed “avowedly anti-abortion” Lake’s extensive record of supporting dangerous abortion bans – including the now active 1864 ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. Read some of the coverage below:

AZ Republic: [Lake’s] record speaks for itself. The kids call that “receipts.”

Washington Post: At a GOP gubernatorial debate in 2022, Lake said she approved of the territorial-era law banning all abortions.

Axios: Lake in 2022: The near-total ban is a “great law” and sets an example for other states.

Rolling Stone: Lake is learning just how hard it is to outrun her record on abortion.

AZ Republic: As lakes go, she’s more of a shallow pond.

See more: What They’re Saying: “Don’t buy Kari Lake’s fake concern over an Arizona Supreme Court abortion ruling”

👵👴 HOVDE’S SENIOR SENTENCE → New audio reveals Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde claimed, “if you’re in a nursing home, you only have five, six-month life expectancy. Almost nobody in a nursing home is in a point to vote.” The comment “sparked a flurry of backlash.”

MEANWHILE, BALDWIN MAKES FRONT PAGE NEWS →

⛽ MORENO’S SHIFTING GEARS → New reporting from Spectrum News revealed that GOP Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno “sold SUVs made in China for years, but tells Ohio voters he refused to do so.” This new report adds to the “string of inconsistencies” following Moreno, after he was exposed for lying about everything from getting rid of Cleveland State’s Confucius Institute, to “dubious claims” about “escap[ing]” socialism, and his business origin story.

🤑 MILLIONAIRE TAX GIVEAWAYS → Ahead of Tax Day, the American Journal News detailed Senate GOP candidates’ strong support for the 2017 Trump Tax Giveaway, the “unpopular Trump era law that gave tax breaks to wealthy people and big corporations.” Read more from the report.

GOP PRIMARY GETTING “NASTY” IN NEVADA → New reporting from CNN this week detailed how the “increasingly nasty Republican Senate primary” in Nevada has resulted in GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown flying down to Florida to meet with Donald Trump and try to curry his endorsement. Read more on CNN.

MCCORMICK WINES AND DINES WITH INSURRECTIONISTS → As reported in Heartland Signal, Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate David McCormick rubbed elbows with known “Jan. 6 organizer and state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin).” The article notes that Mastriano was not only a January 6th participant, “but he was also responsible for chartering several busloads of rioters to the event.”

📻💰 CRUZ BLOWS HOT AIR → Ted Cruz is facing renewed backlash and investigations over his “super PAC generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate revenue” from his podcast after “two campaign finance watchdog groups” allege that Cruz “‘brazenly violated’ Federal Election Campaign Act.” Read more about the ongoing scandal:

The Daily Beast: The Ugly Truth Behind Ted Cruz’s Super PAC Podcast

Newsweek: Ted Cruz Faces Second Investigation in Less Than a Year

Austin American-Statesman: Watchdog groups say Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ‘brazenly violated’ Federal Election Campaign Act

Spectrum News: Sen. Ted Cruz accused of breaking campaign finance laws

📹 HOGAN CAUGHT ON TAPE → As Larry Hogan continues his bus tour, new video footage shows him refusing to say he will oppose judges who would further threaten Marylanders’ reproductive freedom. Hogan previously refused to support federal laws codifying Roe v. Wade or protections for IVF treatments. See more from the DSCC.

⏭️ THE COMPANY YOU KEEP → New reporting in American Journal News highlights how, after comparing “abortion to murder in an April 2023 radio interview,” Montana GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy has been endorsed by the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which only backs “candidates who support a national abortion ban.”

📺 ADD IT TO THE QUEUE → This week, the Debbie Mucarsel-Powell Senate campaign announced a new digital ad, “Banned,” highlighting Rick Scott’s unequivocal support for a near-total abortion ban with almost no exceptions for rape and incest.