March 8, 2024 Press Releases

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: “TED CRUZ GETS BAD NEWS ON SUPER TUESDAY,” DEMS HAVE “CLEAR PATH TO ARIZONA SENATE WIN” & BUCKEYE BRAWL REACHES NEW HEIGHTS

🚨🚨“TED CRUZ GETS BAD NEWS ON SUPER TUESDAY”→ “Cruz [got] bad news on Super Tuesday” when Colin Allred won a “decisive” victory in a nine-candidate primary, dramatically overperforming expectations to win with nearly 60% of the vote.

📣 DSCC CHAIR SEN. GARY PETERS says “a fourth generation Texan and working-class kid who made it to the NFL and Congress, Colin Allred has proven he can take on and win tough fights. In November, Texans are going to elect a Senator who will put delivering results for the people of Texas over politics – that is Colin Allred.”

🏜️”CLEAR PATH” IN THE GRAND CANYON STATE → New reporting highlights that “Democrats see clear path to Arizona Senate win.” This week’s announcement “simplifies [Gallego’s] path to victory” over “Trump-aligned bomb thrower” Kari Lake, who is not poised to “win back the support of moderate Republicans and independents they say she has alienated.” The report adds that recent polling “has shown a two-candidate race is better for Democrats and Gallego.”

💬💭DSCC CHAIR SEN. GARY PETERS says “we were gonna win regardless, but now we even have a stronger hand,” and Peters noted that “the DSCC will continue working tirelessly to ensure Democrats win Arizona’s Senate seat in 2024 by electing Ruben Gallego…and…defeat[ing] Kari Lake, a power hungry liar who has shown she will do or say anything to advance her own ambitions at Arizonans’ expense.”
💬🗯️SEN. MARK KELLY says “Ruben is going to beat Kari Lake and he is going to be an effective member of our caucus.” Sen. Kelly added “I can’t stress how strongly I feel that Kari Lake is the wrong answer, not only for the United States Senate, but for any elected position in any state in any country. She is a danger to democracy.”

🌅 THE VIEW FROM AZ: Republican strategist and former aide to late Sen. John McCain Chuck Coughlin believes “Gallego will have an advantage with unaffiliated voters who had been turned off by Lake’s midterm campaign that embraced conspiracy theories about the 2020 election (and also attacked McCain Republicans)…there’s never a second time to make a first impression. As for Lake, I just think I have a hard time trying to figure out how she can credibly expand her base. She lost her last gubernatorial election. … She underperformed and there’s clearly segments of voters that chose not to support [her]. I don’t know how you undo that.”

🎬📲“WE CAN’T LET THEM WIN” → This week, the DSCC released a new video, featuring a text conversation between family members discussing how Republican Senate candidates are threatening IVF treatments and reproductive freedom.

📰 Reporting continues to detail how the NRSC and Senate Republican candidates have “been scrambling to distance themselves from the implications of a policy they have been voting in favor of for decades in anti-abortion legislation” following the Alabama Supreme Court ruling. The reporting highlights the hypocrisy of the NRSC releasing a memo urging GOP Senate candidates to come out in support of IVF when “the NRSC is chaired by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mon.) who was an original co-sponsor of the Life at Conception Act.”

Watch “We Can’t Let Them Win”

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HOGAN’S HORRIFIC WEEK→ At an Axios event this week, Larry Hogan: 1️⃣didn’t “commit to federal IVF protections”; 2️⃣ “decline[d] to say whether he’d support a federal law to codify Roe v. Wade,”, and when pressed for a “yes or no” answer, Hogan giggled saying “no, it wasn’t a yes or a no”; and 3️⃣Reminded voters that he is fully committed to caucusing with Republicans – saying “of course I am” when asked.

🗣️DSCC SPOX AMANDA SHERMAN BAITY says “Republican Larry Hogan just reminded voters why he has no place representing them in the Senate: just like the most extreme MAGA Republicans, he won’t protect women’s right to make their own decisions about their health care and their families – and if he was elected, he’d turn the Senate over to Republicans so they can pass a national ban on abortion. That’s a disqualifying agenda for Maryland voters.”

🤥 LIAR LIAR, LAKE ON FIRE → In case you missed it, Kari Lake was called out for “lying” about her stance on abortion on MSNBC this weekend. Lake is already on the record celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade and supporting Arizona’s territorial era law that would outlaw abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalize doctors who perform the procedure. Lake has previously called abortion “sacrifice” and “execution,” saying it is “not health care.” See for yourself:

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🧾 THE ROGERS RECEIPTS → Local reporting continues to detail that while Rogers tries to hide from his extreme anti-choice views, “he has a voting record that can be compared to his statement.” News outlets were quick to call Rogers out for co-sponsoring “four bills in Congress ‘that would have the same effect as the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF ruling.’” The Detroit News reported that when “asked about how the fetal personhood bills he sponsored in congress squared with his support for IVF, Rogers refused to discuss the legislation.”

🤦‍♂️ GOLD COAST GAFFES → New reporting details just how “out of touch” Connecticut mega-millionaire David McCormick really is, and how it continues to “lead to some awkward moments on the campaign trial.” See for yourself:

✈️ PLANES: At a campaign stop, McCormick “told supporters gathered that he was going to ‘live on the bus,’ through November. He flew back to Connecticut later that evening.”
🚂 TRAINS: Reports detail that McCormick wants to repeal the infrastructure law — which “Pennsylvania has received over $13 billion from” — despite the fact that “the former hedge fund manager is unaware of what’s in the infrastructure bill or how Pennsylvania has benefitted from the bill.” McCormick’s Connecticut roots were on full display as he pledged ignorance on the Scranton-NYC rail project: “I’m not sure like the train, maybe the train, I don’t know the facts, the pros and cons,” McCormick said.
⛽️ AND AUTOMOBILES: While McCormick was “sipping coffee with veterans in Palmerton, a former Marine brought up the high cost of gas. ‘Dina’s on the board of Exxon,’ McCormick noted, gesturing to his wife.” The response was widely panned as “out-of-touch” and “quite possibly the worst” answer.

💥🤺 BUCKEYE BRAWL CONTINUES → New reporting details that “with less than two weeks until the primary, the [GOP Senate] race has turned increasingly hostile as it remains in a competitive haze.” The stories note that Bernie Moreno, Frank LaRose, and Matt Dolan “have turned on each other just weeks from a brutal primary.” The trio exchanged “damaging cross-blows” in a Wednesday night debate, when their infighting was on full display during the “hourlong clash.”

💳 CHECK, PLEASE → New reporting by the Copper Courier revealed that Kari Lake has used campaign donations to pay thousands of dollars to a business owned by Lake and her husband. The revelation surfaced the same day that the NRSC rolled out the red carpet for Lake with a Washington, D.C. fundraiser.

🐘TRUMP TROUBLE → Nikki Haley’s exit from the GOP presidential race makes it official: GOP Senate candidates have a problem on their hands. DSCC Communications Director David Bergstein said “Trump at the top of the GOP ticket is the worst outcome for Republican Senate candidates. He energizes Democrats, alienates independent voters, and demands GOP candidates prioritize allegiance to him over anything else. Republican Senate candidates will spend the next months twisting themselves into knots answering for every word that comes out of Trump’s mouth.”

🎙️TRANSPLANT TIM GETS TORCHED → In a new interview, Republican Great Falls State Senator Jeremy Trebas “swipes” at Tim Sheehy’s “base problem,” noting that the “NRSC has ‘forced’ Sheehy on Montana Republicans.” Trebas highlighted Tim Sheehy’s toxic position to transfer off public lands, a position that is deeply unpopular with Montanans of all political stripes.

HOVDE GETS AN “ICE-COLD” WELCOME → Hovde’s decision to jump “into ice-cold water” after facing “criticism that he’s not really from Wisconsin” didn’t go over so well. One Wisconsin columnist noted that “jumping into an ice cold lake — on purpose — does feel more like some new-age West Coast wellness treatment than anything real folks from Wisconsin do. We try not to fall through the ice while we’re skating, skiing or ice fishing.”

📚 HOVDE CAN’T HIDE HIS HISTORY → New reporting from the Daily Beast details Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde’s long history of backing MAGA candidates, plans to speak alongside divisive right wing figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and support for right-wing policies like banning abortion and repealing the Affordable Care Act.

👔ALL TIED UP → This week, a new Florida Senate race poll found that Sen. Rick Scott and Democratic candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell are “effectively tied” in the 2024 race.

📺 ADD IT TO THE WATCHLIST → Tammy Baldwin launched her first TV ad — “Wisconsin Jobs” — which will air on TV statewide and across digital platforms. “The 30-second spot features Wisconsin workers who ‘forge steel parts that hold up bridges, propel ships and send rockets into space’…‘We can’t let China steal Wisconsin jobs. So I wrote a law to require American infrastructure projects use American iron and steel,’ Baldwin says.” Watch it here.