February 23, 2024 Press Releases

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: MEMO TO THE NRSC, THAT MEMO WAS A BAD IDEA, ROUGH WEEK FOR “THE TRANSPLANT BRIGADE” & ERIC HOVDE’S FAILURE TO LAUNCH

🚨📋MEMO TO THE NRSC: THAT MEMO WAS A BAD IDEA → Today, the NRSC pointed out that the American public has “overwhelming support” for women’s reproductive freedom and IVF treatments. This is true. In response, the DSCC released a new memo highlighting issue areas and statements espoused by Republican Senate candidates are also opposed by the overwhelming majority of the American public. Read the memo here.

🏠💰IT’S BEEN A ROUGH WEEK FOR “THE TRANSPLANT BRIGADE” → On the heels of last week’s NBC News report, a wave of new stories detailed that Republican Senate candidates are facing scrutiny for their lack of connection to the states they’re running in:

MSNBC: How problematic is the Senate GOP’s ‘carpetbagger’ problem? “There’s a common thread tying together several Republican U.S. Senate candidates this year: They have suspect ties to the states they’re running in.”
Heartland Signal: Republicans are now running three Senate candidates with loose ties to their state. “There are now three Midwest Republicans running for U.S. Senate with dubious ties to their claimed home states.”
POLITICO: “Can Republicans shake the carpetbagger charge? Three GOP Senate candidates in key races are already facing Democratic attacks centered on not being closely tied to the states they’re seeking to represent. It has been a potent line of attack in previous races.”

💸 NOT JUST CARPETBAGGERS, “SENATE REPUBLICANS HAVE RICH PEOPLE PROBLEMS” TOO → New reporting from HuffPost highlights “Senate Republicans have rich people problems.” The report details that “the GOP’s strategy to recruit the wealthy…is creating headaches. The wealthy often have plentiful baggage opening them up to Democratic attacks, including on their out-of-state homes, rich friends and yearslong business records.”

THIS HEADLINE SPEAKS FOR ITSELF: Damage control expert’s advice for Kari Lake: Find a ‘miracle worker’ to help you.

🤦‍♀️ HE SAID WHAT NOW?! This week, Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno claimed that “women don’t actually need abortions, just someone to lift heavy things such as strollers for them.” All three GOP primary candidates in Ohio doubled down on their support of a national abortion ban this week — a move that would clearly “overrul[e]” “the will of Ohio voters” who “voted decisively last year to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.”
🚨HOGAN ALREADY FACING HURDLES: The Associated Press reported that abortion will “complicate Republican Larry Hogan’s Senate bid in deep blue Maryland.” The report highlights that Hogan’s anti-abortion record “lingers with voters,” who say “the stakes are too high…to support handing Republicans another win in a closely divided Senate.”

📉 THAT AGED POORLY → On the two year anniversary of Rick Scott’s toxic 12-point plan to sunset Medicare and Social Security, Democrats are reminding voters what’s at stake in 2024:

☀️DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL launched a new seniors coalition and “promised to ‘retire’ Scott, dragging him over refusing to expand a government-funded healthcare program for low earners as governor.” Mucarsel-Powell also “spotlight[ed] Scott’s 2022 agenda when he led the National Republican Senatorial Committee to sunset and re-approve all federal programs” and released a memo that “showed [how] the issue would hurt Scott in 2024.”

📣DSCC CHAIR SEN. GARY PETERS, DNC CHAIR JAIME HARRISON, AND DCCC CHAIR REP. SUZAN DELBENE said “Social Security and Medicare remain under constant assault from Donald Trump and Republican candidates up and down the ballot. In November, voters will hold every Republican candidate accountable for their party’s agenda to gut these vital programs that millions of Americans rely on – spiking health care costs and ripping away the benefits hardworking Americans have earned throughout their lifetimes.”

🧑🏼‍🌾🚜 OLD MC(CORMICK) HAD A FARM?? → New reporting from Heartland Signal details that Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate David McCormick is catching heat for “designat[ing] himself a farmer despite his history as a white-collar hedge fund CEO” with a “net worth somewhere between $116 million and $289 million.”

🚀 FAILURE TO LAUNCH → Eric Hovde spent the first days of his campaign on defense. See below for a roundup of Hovde’s hiccups that must leave him wondering why he left the comfort of his $7 million Laguna Beach mansion in the first place.

On the morning of his launch, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed Hovde’s attempt to hide his $2.3 million out-of-state property ahead of his Senate run.
Hovde got called out for never mentioning Wisconsin in his campaign launch video.

Then he was dogged by reports highlighting his unpopular positions on the Affordable Care Act and reproductive freedoms.

And on National California Day, he “got some carpetbagger trolling from the Real Housewives of Orange County,” who “wished their ‘neighbor’ well on his new ‘work adventure.’”

💥🤺BUCKEYE BRAWL CONTINUES → This week, Bernie Moreno, Frank LaRose, and Matt Dolan “continued their attacks on one another” in their second GOP Senate primary debate. NBC noted one big takeaway from the debate: all three candidates are backing national abortion bans.

AND MORENO’S BUSINESS RECORD GETS THE BUSTED BY THE BEAST→ New reporting from the Daily Beast reveals allegations that “Moreno scuttled an agreement entitling…his longtime friend and business associate” to “millions” in net proceeds. It’s the latest in a series of revelations that “complicate the feel-good story about Moreno’s rise that [he] has featured so prominently in his biography” on the campaign trail, following revelations that he was sued by his employees for wage theft, destroyed evidence and was sanctioned by a judge — and then repeatedly lied about it.

💸 MONEY TALKS → POLITICO reported that “Colin Allred is continuing his trend of outraising Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred raised $3 million to Cruz’s $2.4 million. Allred doled out $4.6 million and has $8.5 million in his coffers. Cruz spent $2 million and has $6.6 million on hand.”

IN THE STATES