DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: DSCC CHAIR PETERS TOUTS CANDIDATE QUALITY – LAXALT’S OWN FAMILY ENDORSES CORTEZ MASTO – WHAT IS RON JOHNSON EVEN TALKING ABOUT?

CREW LOVE – DSCC CHAIRMAN PETERS TOUTS STRONG DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES, EMPHASIZES STAKES OF SENATE ELECTIONS. DSCC Chair Senator Gary Peters joined Washington Post Live with Jonathan Capehart this week to highlight how ‘the major advantage that we have going into this election is candidate quality.’ Peters also joined MSNBC host Rachel Maddow to emphasize that ‘women’s reproductive freedom is on the ballot’ in November. Watch for yourself:

• Washington Post Live With Jonathan Capehart  (WATCH): Sen. Peters: “In each state it’s a candidate vs. candidate race, and that’s the major advantage that we have going into this election is candidate quality. I think it’s very clear, in fact we have Republican strategists, even the leader of the Republicans in the Senate have said that they have a problem with candidate quality.

• MSNBC Rachel Maddow Show (WATCH): Sen. Peters: “And it right now doesn’t matter what state you live in, because the Republicans are pushing a national ban, a national ban without exceptions. So this will impact people’s lives in a significant way. So we are certainly focused on that issue.”

TALK ABOUT AN AWKWARD THANKSGIVING DINNER – LAXALT FAMILY ENDORSES SEN. CORTEZ MASTO. Nevada voters are reading and watching a wave of news coverage highlighting how ‘more than a dozen relatives of Republican candidate Adam Laxalt came out in support Wednesday of his Democratic rival, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto,’ which is ‘a pretty big embarrassment for Laxalt’ and marks ‘the second time that some of Laxalt’s family have endorsed his opponent.’

• Nevada Independent: Fourteen members of Laxalt family endorse Democratic rival, Cortez Masto, in Senate race. “The letter marks the second time that Laxalt’s extended family has chosen not to back his political aspirations. During Laxalt’s 2018 run for governor, 12 of his family members publicly opposed his bid, writing in an op-ed published in the Reno Gazette-Journal that Laxalt’s campaign ‘leveraged and exploited the family name.’”

• Associated Press: Members of Nevada senate candidate’s family endorse opponent. “The Laxalt family joins a growing list of endorsers from across the aisle, Cortez Masto spokesperson Sigalle Reshef said in a statement, citing law enforcement organizations and rural lawmakers who have endorsed the Democratic candidate.”

• The New York Times: Family of Republican Senate Candidate in Nevada Endorses His Opponent. “The Republican candidate, Adam Laxalt, built his political career on his family name. Some of his relatives are now hoping they can put an end to that career.”

• KSNV-NBC (WATCH): Laxalt Family Endorses Sen. Cortez Masto. “They called him a carpetbagger, saying he had ethical shortcomings, and served out of state donors over Nevadans.”

DSCC LAUNCHES NEW TV AD AGAINST ADAM LAXALT: “BRIEFCASE.” The DSCC released a new ad in the Nevada Senate race, “Briefcase.” The spot highlights how Adam Laxalt is a sleazy, corrupt politician who is looking out for himself and his corporate backers, like Big Oil.

WATCH: “Briefcase”

NO HOMETOWN HERO HERE – MASTERS RIPPED BY FORMER CLASSMATES. The Tucson Daily Star — Blake Masters’ hometown paper — published a scathing letter signed by 75 of Masters’ former classmates, teachers, and alumni of his tight-knit high school condemning the ‘dangerous politician’ Masters has become.

• Tucson Daily Star (Opinion): Why did Masters turn his back on community? “We are deeply grieved to see the Blake we knew for two decades become the dangerous politician he is today. He is beholden to a power-hungry billionaire and his radical ideology.”

• Copper Courier: ‘He Is Beholden to a Power-Hungry Billionaire’: Blake Masters’ Tucson Classmates and Teachers Urge Arizona to not Elect Him. “Some of Blake Masters’ former classmates, teachers, and fellow alumni from Tucson have condemned him in an open letter, citing his extremist ideology.”

• HuffPost: GOP Candidate Blake Masters Torched By Ex-Classmates: He’s A ‘Dangerous Politician.’ “The Republican Senate candidate ‘will lead Arizona down a dark, dystopian path,’ his former friends and teachers warned in a scathing open letter.”

JOHNSON HAS THE CHEESE TOUCH – LOCAL NEWSPAPER SLAMS HIS STINKER OF A RECORD AS BAD PRESS CONTINUES TO PILE UP. In a blistering editorial, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called out all the ways Senator Ron Johnson has betrayed his state. A new report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also revealed that Johnson voted “for a provision in the Trump tax plan that allows those buying private jets to write off the full amount of their new plane’s cost” while his family purchased three private jets, and the Wisconsin State Journal detailed how Johnson has repeatedly supported national abortion bans.

• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Editorial): Election deceiver, science fabulist, billionaire benefactor. After 12 years, it’s time to term-limit Sen. Ron Johnson. “For years, Ron Johnson has demonstrated that he should be retired to his family’s seaside Florida home — and not representing Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate. Voters should send him packing this November.”

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson comes under criticism from Democrats over purchase of private plane by his adult children. “Under the Trump tax plan, Johnson’s family members may be eligible to write off the cost of those planes. Howard Air owns a total of three single-pilot, business jets.”

• Wisconsin State Journal: Record contradicts Ron Johnson statement that he always supported abortion exceptions. “‘I’ve always supported the, you know, exceptions.’ That’s what U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said in a recent interview with a Fox 6 reporter about abortion, specifically a 2011 bill the senator co-sponsored that would have granted fetuses and people equal rights under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”

• Newsweek: Woman Who Voted for Ron Johnson Slams GOP Senator: ‘Very Dishonest‘. “Katie Lehman, a Kenosha, Wisconsin, voter, told MSNBC reporter Julie Tsirkin on Saturday that she and her husband previously voted for Johnson, but will now support his opponent Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, a Democrat, instead in this year’s midterm elections. ‘We actually voted for Ron Johnson once in the past because he seemed honest in his commercials and he is not honest,’ Lehman said. ‘In fact he is very dishonest.’”

→ ICYMI – Cap Times (Editorial Board): Mandela Barnes will be a great U.S. senator for Wisconsin. “The choice could not be clearer. Give Tammy Baldwin a partner in the Senate. Elect Mandela Barnes.”

BOLDUC BELIEVES ABORTION RIGHTS BELONG TO ‘GENTLEMAN’ LAWMAKERS, QUESTIONS VALIDITY OF 2020 ELECTION. It was yet another brutal week for Don Bolduc: CNN reported Bolduc undermined the validity of the 2022 election — before any ballots have even been cast in New Hampshire, he is under fire for saying that abortion decisions “belong” to GOP “gentlemen,” and even suggested he would “put serious limits on fertility treatments.” 

• CNN: Bolduc raises unsubstantiated possibility of 2022 election impropriety ahead of New Hampshire Senate contest. “Bolduc, a Republican who has pushed the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen, raised the unsubstantiated prospect that the same could happen in 2022.”

• HuffPost: GOP Senate Nominee: Abortion Decisions ‘Belong’ to GOP ‘Gentlemen’ State Reps. “New Hampshire GOP Senate nominee Don Bolduc told supporters this week that he thinks the future of abortion rights ‘belongs’ to Republican ‘gentlemen’ state lawmakers, who he claims know best how to give women a voice on their reproductive rights.”

• Newsweek: GOP Candidate Says Abortion Decisions Belong to ‘Gentlemen’ Legislators. “Don Bolduc, a retired U.S. Army general running against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire, made the comments when speaking about whether abortion issues should be decided at the state or federal level during a town hall in Auburn, New Hampshire, on Wednesday night. ‘It belongs to the state. It belongs to these gentlemen right here, who are state legislators representing you,’ Bolduc said.

• Vanity Fair: Republican Senate Candidate Don Bolduc Calls Embryo Disposal “Disgusting Practice,” Leaves Door Open on National Ban. “The New Hampshire GOP nominee…waffles on his position around banning other procedures that could put serious limits on fertility treatments.”

READ IT BEFORE THE DEBATE – FOR HERSCHEL WALKER, NOTHING IS HARDER THAN THE TRUTH. A new CNN fact check exposed U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s latest lies — part of a larger pattern in Walker’s campaign, which has been ‘littered with false and misleading claims.’

• CNN: Fact check: Herschel Walker’s false and misleading recent claims. “In 2020 and 2021, he was a serial promoter of false claims about the 2020 election. In the years prior, he repeatedly exaggerated his academic record and business record. And in 2022, Walker has made inaccurate claims about a variety of subjects – once even falsely claiming he never made a false claim that he had actually made on camera at least twice.”

DON’T BE CAUGHT NAKED! NEW DSCC AD CAMPAIGN HELPS ENSURE PENNSYLVANIANS PROPERLY VOTE BY MAIL. The DSCC launched a new digital advertising campaign to remind Pennsylvanians who are voting by mail to use their secrecy envelope so that their ballot is not deemed ‘naked’ and disqualified. The ads are part of Democrats’ ‘Don’t Be Caught Naked’ voter education campaign about the steps to vote by mail.

• PennLive: Democrats launch six-figure “naked ballot” education campaign for Pa.“Democrats are taking their fight against so-called ‘naked ballots’ in Pennsylvania to the next level with a six-figure ad campaign that launched Thursday.”

• Bucks County Courier Times: Democrats launch naked ballot campaign ahead of midterms. “A banner flew over Philadelphia Tuesday morning warning voters to ‘cover up’ their mail-in ballots in the provided secrecy envelopes for the midterm election.”

• Pennsylvania Capital Star: Pa. Dems take ‘Don’t be Caught Naked’ campaign to the skies over Philly. “When it comes to casting your mail-in ballot this midterm campaign season, Pennsylvania Democrats would really, really appreciate it if you didn’t go naked. No, that’s not a reminder to wear pants to your local county elections office (you’d probably feel the draft anyway). Rather, it’s part of a recently launched campaign to remind voters to use their secrecy envelopes when they vote by mail this fall.”

→ ICYMI – American Independent: Mehmet Oz railed against pandemic relief that companies he’s invested in have received. “The Pennsylvania Senate Republican nominee claims loans from the Paycheck Protection Program were a wasteful ‘blank check,’ despite owning stock in businesses that received them.”

NOT THE TAR HEEL WAY – NEW REPORTING DETAILS HOW TED BUDD IS TOO EXTREME FOR NORTH CAROLINA. Reporting from POLITICO highlights how Congressman Budd “is among the most conservative members of the House, with a voting record to show for it” – and would be too extreme for North Carolinians in the U.S. Senate.

• POLITICO: Conservative Budd challenges N.C.’s purple tradition in Senate battle. “Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), the GOP nominee in North Carolina’s close Senate contest, is among the most conservative members of the House, with a voting record to show for it”

HILLBILLY CONMAN – VANCE SLAMMED FOR HIS NON-PROFIT THAT “FELL APART” AFTER ONLY 2 YEARS. A bombshell report in the New York Times reveals how J.D. Vance used his nonprofit to bolster his own political ambition instead of its stated goal of combating the opioid epidemic.

• New York Times: J.D. Vance’s First Attempt to Renew Ohio Crumbled Quickly. “Mr. Vance’s nonprofit group raised only about $220,000, hired only a handful of staff members, shrank drastically in 2018 and died for good in 2021. It left only the faintest mark on the state it had been meant to change, leaving behind a pair of op-eds and two tweets. (Mr. Vance also started a sister charity, which paid for a psychiatrist to spend a year in a small-town Ohio clinic. Then it shuttered, too.)”

WORSE THAN THE BRONCOS – O’DEA’S CAMPAIGN FACES AN AVALANCHE OF BAD PRESS. Colorado Newsline reported that a mega-donor to O’Dea’s campaign is also the author of a self-published book that uses ‘racist stereotypes.’ And Axios Denver highlighted O’Dea’s shady business practices after his construction company came under fire for ‘dozens of worker safety and wage violations and multiple lawsuits.’

• Colorado Newsline: Major pro-O’Dea donor, heir to a Gilded Age banking fortune, wrote of ‘slavery redux’. “Timothy Mellon, whose self-published 2015 book used racist stereotypes, backs Colorado GOP Senate hopeful with $4 million donation.”

• Axios Denver: Senate candidate Joe O’Dea’s business record in the spotlight. “Republican U.S. Senate candidate and construction company owner Joe O’Dea’s record as an employer is drawing scrutiny to the campaign trail for dozens of worker safety and wage violations and multiple lawsuits.”

→ ICYMI: Sentinel Colorado (Editorial): ENDORSEMENT: Bennet’s record and goals make the case for his Senate re-election — O’Dea makes a strong case against himself.

JUST THIS WEEK, THANKS TO SENATE DEMOCRATS.

→ Senate Democrats Like Catherine Cortez Masto Fight To Lower Costs. Senate Democrats have taken a historic step to lower costs like prescription drug prices, tackle inflation, and address working families’ most pressing priorities. Senator Cortez Masto is putting the interests of working Nevadans first.

• Reno Gazette Journal (Opinion): Democrats deliver lower energy costs, clean energy jobs and enhanced energy security. “The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, championed by our own Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen and signed by President Biden, will not only drive down costs for Nevada families, but also makes critical investments in creating jobs and securing America’s clean energy future.”

IN THE STATES

CO – Durango Herald (Editorial): Vote for Bennet: Champion for Southwest. “Bennet is easier to know through his legislative work. Easier to trust. Vote ‘yes’ for Bennet for U.S. Senate.”

NC- Capitol Broadcasting Company (Opinion): Debate exchange on drugs shows Budd’s more about rhetoric than solutions. “Never, in the course of U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd’s discussion of illegal drugs did he mention the HUGE toll that drug addiction is taking on the state, any concern for those who struggle with addiction or who are its victims. Nor did he make any mention of efforts to address this.”

WI – Cap Times (Opinion): Who does Ron Johnson represent?“Johnson has shown no backbone or courage to condemn authoritarian extremists who seek to control women’s lives, our right to vote and our economic rights as human beings.”

WI – WIZM: Sen. Baldwin promotes Barnes over Johnson in visit to Dem office in La Crosse. “‘It’s so callous of the Republicans in Congress, celebrating this decision (striking down Roe),’ said Baldwin, ‘rather than understanding that it has brought women back in this country, eliminated freedoms that we’ve had for 50 years.’”

TWEET OF THE WEEK

David Bergstein
@DavidABergstein

Amanda Sherman
@asherman89

Pat Burgwinkle
@Burgwinkle

Nora Keefe
@norakatekeefe

Freedom Murphy
@F_AlexanderM

Eli Cousin
@elicousin

Claire Berry
@claireliseberry

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