DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: GOP ATTACKS ON ROE ESCALATE MIDTERM STAKES – MAY MADNESS HEATS UP IN GOP SENATE PRIMARIES – DEMS FIGHT TO LOWER COSTS

SENATE REPUBLICANS’ ATTACKS ON ABORTION ACCESS AND WOMEN’S HEALTH CARE ESCALATES STAKES OF ‘22 ELECTION. A wave of news coverage is highlighting how the Supreme Court’s draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade is “shaking the U.S. political landscape” as “Republicans are deeply concerned that the looming decision could fire up the Democratic base.”

• Associated Press: Sudden abortion focus shakes midterm election landscape. “While the Democrats decried the draft, they suddenly have a clear, unifying message. The real possibility that abortion could be outlawed in dozens of states in the coming months could animate their… base — especially young voters, people of color and suburban women.”

• Vox News: Democrats are preparing to take Roe to the voters. “Senate Democrats are preparing to take their pro-abortion rights message to voters…They are planning to make abortion, and protecting reproductive rights, a central part of their efforts to hold on to their Senate majority — and contrast the party’s support of abortion rights with Republican efforts to restrict abortions.”

• The 19th News: How the Supreme Court leak immediately reverberated in U.S. Senate races. “Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) spokesperson Nora Keefe told The 19th that ‘no memo can change the fact that Republicans are grossly out of step with the voters that will decide the 2022 election.’”

SENATE DEMOCRATS VOW TO PROTECTWOMEN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE. Voters in Senate battlegrounds are reading and watching wall-to-wall coverage calling out GOP Senate candidates’ attacks on abortion access, birth control and women’s health care – and highlighting how Senate Democrats like Mark Kelly, Raphael Warnock, Maggie Hassan, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Michael Bennet will fight to protect a woman’s right to make her own decisions.

→ AZ – Senator Kelly on KNXV – WATCH:

• “This is an enormous step backwards for our country for women to lose this constitutional right. Roe v. Wade was a 50 year precedent. And this is the first time I can remember that rights were ever removed from any individual in our country. So, if this draft stands, and this becomes the decision, I would say, this is a sad day for our country and women’s health and women’s reproductive rights.”

→ GA – Senator Warnock on 11 Alive – WATCH:

• “In a country where we have high rates of maternal death while women are giving birth [Warnock] fears we’ll have even higher rates of death because women won’t have equal access to care if Roe v. Wade is overturned.”

→ NH – Senator Hassan on NECN – WATCH:

• “It is very very disturbing that the Court is… considering fully overturning Roe v. Wade, a ruling that has been the law of the land for 50 years and that has allowed women to control their own destinies and become full and included citizens in our democracy.”

→ NV – Senator Cortez Masto on KSNV – WATCH:

• “This is a generation of people that have been born and lived and died believing they have the right to choose. That’s what this precedent is all about. And there are so many others and new ones that are out there that have had a major impact. And they are steeped in the right of privacy and liberty in this country for individuals and their freedoms.”

→ CO – Senator Bennet on KKTV – WATCH:

• “It would drag us into a past when women faced horrific risks to their lives because they lacked the freedom to make their own health care choices.”

DSCC CHAIRMAN GARY PETERS SHARES FAMILY’S EXPERIENCE WITH ABORTION. , Sen. Peters spoke out about his own family’s personal experience with abortion – stressing that this is “no longer an abstract concept,” raising the stakes of the November elections.

• ABC News: Senator brings up family’s abortion story, as future of Roe v. Wade in jeopardy. “‘This is no longer an abstract concept for people. This is real life and it’s going to impact people in real ways,’ Peters, D-Mich., told ABC News.”

• Elle: Our Abortion Stories. DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters: “It’s such an intensely personal issue, and to have politics get in the middle of it—to get hard-and-fast rules make decisions for people in one of the most vulnerable times that they will probably ever have in their life—is simply unacceptable.” ”

CATCH UP QUICK ON THE GOP SENATE CANDIDATES IN THEIR OWN WORDS. Senate Republicans “want to throw doctors who break abortion laws in jail,”  are  candidates who “have explicitly said no to exceptions for rape and incest,” and are preparing to put forward a federal abortion ban. 

• Washington Post: The GOP’s newfound abortion dilemma on rape and incest. “As the GOP begins nominating candidates for November’s elections, several of them have explicitly said no to exceptions for rape and incest.”

• Business Insider: Republican senators won’t say if they support rape and incest exceptions to abortion bans

• SEE MORE – DSCC: What to Know About GOP Senate Candidates’ Record on Abortion

“PANTS ON FIRE” – SENATE REPUBLICANS SLAMMED FOR LYING ABOUT RADICAL ANTI-CHOICE AGENDA. Republicans are already lying to voters about their true position on abortion – which would include locking up doctors for providing health care.

• PolitiFact: Do Republicans want to throw doctors who break abortion laws in jail? Their plans say yes. “In a memo to Republican candidates and lawmakers, the National Republican Senatorial Committee said that Republicans do not want to throw doctors in jail for violating abortion laws… We rate this claim Pants on Fire.”

• MSNBC: Actual GOP proposals disprove the party’s abortion talking points. “On the one hand, GOP candidates are being told to say, ‘Republicans DO NOT want to throw doctors and women in jail.’ On the other hand, there’s reality.”

MAY MADNESS UNDERWAY AS GOP SENATE PRIMARIES HAVE “GONE OFF THE RAILS.” Ohio marked the first of four bruising GOP Senate primaries in the month of May as news coverage continues to highlight how “things have truly gone off the rails” for the GOP as their candidates “spend millions to tarnish each other” and are “going for the jugular” – all while Trump “breeds more chaos” with his endorsements. 

• Associated Press: Trump’s Bid to Shape GOP Faces Test With Voters in May Races. “Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who leads the GOP’s effort to retake the Senate, described the month of May as a brutal sorting period likely to be dominated by Republican infighting instead of the policy solutions or contrasts with Democrats he’d like to see. ‘The primaries too often become sort of character assassinations,’ Scott said in an interview. ‘That’s what has happened.’”

• Fox News: ​​May Madness: Primary season ignites in earnest kicking off with Ohio. “Voters are heading to the polls in Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and other states this month in some high-profile primary showdowns.”

…AND DSCC CHAIR GARY PETERS CONGRATULATES TIM RYAN ON WINNING OH’S DEMOCRATIC U.S. SENATE PRIMARY.  After Tim Ryan’s primary victory on Tuesday night, DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters issued the following statement: “Tim is a tenacious champion for working Ohioans: he understands that all work has dignity, and in the Senate he’ll keep fighting to make sure all working families have a fair shot at success. While the out-of-touch millionaires in the GOP primary have spent months leveling vicious and embarrassing attacks against each other, Tim has focused on the issues that matter most to the people of his state and putting their interests first – and those are the values he’ll bring to serving in the U.S. Senate.”

DSCC LAUNCHES BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN IN PA AHEAD OF TRUMP RALLY HIGHLIGHTING  ‘UGLY,’ ‘BRUISING,’ & ‘CHAOTIC’ GOP PRIMARY. Ahead of Donald Trump’s rally in Westmoreland County, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) unveiled a billboard along the route to the rally highlighting how the Senate Republican primary in Pennsylvania has been dominated by “bruising and “chaotic” infighting – and how Trump’s endorsement has only intensified the “ugly” attacks in the race. 

→ WATCH – KDKA: “When former President Trump comes to town… the Democrats will have a greeting of their own.”

→ AND ICYMI – AMERICAN INDEPENDENT ON MCCORMICK: GOP SENATE CANDIDATE WHO BLAMED TRUMP FOR JAN. 6 BEFORE RUNNING NOW DEFENDS HIM

HERSCHEL WALKER REFUSING TO DEBATE, SUPPORTS BANNING ALL ABORTIONS. It’s been another brutal week for Herschel Walker, who was slammed by his GOP opponents for dodging Georgia voters by skipping yet another debate – and  doubled down on his support for banning all abortions without exceptions for rape or incest saying, “I believe from the womb to the tomb.“

• AP: Georgia GOP Senate debate focuses on Herschel Walker absence. “‘I think a simple question for Herschel Walker is, what do you think the United States Senate does?’ Saddler said. ‘It’s the deliberative body of Congress. It’s what you do as a United States Senator, you get up there and you debate ideas…. And Herschel Walker can’t get up here.’”

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A Senate GOP debate without Herschel Walker highlights new abortion clash. “Missing from the stage was GOP front-runner Herschel Walker, a former football star who was instead hosting a fundraiser in east Georgia while his rivals mocked him as a coward for skipping the event. He also was a no-show at a previous debate… ‘Herschel Walker will not win in November,’ said Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, who, like the other contenders, framed himself as the best alternative to Walker.”

🗞️ MUST READ – SEN. WARNOCK COLUMN FOR THE AJC: MORE-AFFORDABLE INSULIN CAN’T WAIT 🗞️

WISCONSIN PRESS ASKS: “IS SENATOR RON JOHNSON OK?” Johnson’s latest “string of jaw-dropping statements” prompted reporters to ask the question Wisconsin voters have been wondering for a while: Is Ron Johnson OK?

• UpNorthNews: Is Senator Ron Johnson OK?“Johnson is in a position to influence… the public health response to the pandemic to the freedom to access healthcare, and this week he reminded us just how out of touch he is on all of these issues.”

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: ‘He doesn’t understand medicine is a science’: Ron Johnson escalates ‘guerrilla war’ against medical establishment. “Todd Callender told Johnson that COVID-19 ‘shots caused vaccine-induced AIDS. They purposefully gave people AIDS’… Johnson did not directly push back at the vaccine falsehood.”

JUST THIS WEEK, THANKS TO SENATE DEMOCRATS.

→ Senate Democrats Hold Hearings On Lowering Costs. This week Senate Democrats held committee hearings on legislation to help working families by lowering the costs of prescription drugs and taking on the big drug companies that get rich by keeping prices high. It’s a clear contrast from Senate Republicans and it will lead their campaigns to defeat in November Read more from the DSCC here.

IN THE STATES

AZ – Arizona Republic (Opinion): Maricopa County supervisors call out Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s dishonesty. “As the board’s Chairman Bill Gates put it, ‘I want to be clear to the attorney general [Brnovich]: He is not going to campaign off the backs of the dedicated employees of Maricopa County.’”

CO – Colorado Times Recorder: Lindell Endorses Hanks, And a Hanks Backer Sees a ‘Potential Ally’ in NRSC Chair Rick Scott. “MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said today that he endorses state Rep. Ron Hanks, the Jan. 6 insurrectionist running for U.S. Senate in Colorado, ‘one hundred percent.’”

FL – Sun Sentinel (Opinion): The Rick Scott-Marco Rubio Agenda: Killing Social Security and Medicare. “Rubio wants to take us back to a time before Social Security and Medicare, when over 50% of American seniors had incomes below the poverty line. When it was every man and woman for themselves. When your only option if you became disabled, lost a family breadwinner, or outlived your savings was moving into the poor house.”

GA – Capitol Beat News Service: U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock pushing to cap prescription drug costs for seniors. “Warnock’s bill would reduce the cap on out-of-pocket costs of prescription drugs for seniors from the current $3,000. It also would require drug manufacturers to take on more of the cost burden, reducing government subsidies and saving tax dollars.”

GA – WTOC: Senator Warnock pressures banks to stop overdraft fees. “Sen. Raphael Warnock is pushing an initiative to stop bank overdraft fees at a congressional hearing today. Reverend Warnock says this is just latest in his efforts to stop banks from charging customers a fee when their account goes below zero. … He says getting rid of the fees will help many in the working class, college students and people serving or who have served in the military.”

NC – Axios: Scoop: Senate candidate Cheri Beasley raised $1M in April.“Cheri Beasley, the presumptive Democratic nominee in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, raised more than a million dollars in April… Beasley has a financial advantage going into the November general election over her Republican counterparts, who are spending hefty amounts of cash to take shots at each other ahead of the May 17 primary.”

WI – Wisconsin Examiner: In interview, Sen. Johnson says it ‘may be true’ that COVID vaccines cause AIDS. “In a video interview published on the right-wing social media platform Rumble, Sen. Ron Johnson said it ‘may be true’ that vaccines against COVID-19 cause AIDS.”

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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