The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Ambition, power and Jim Jordan

Marlinga plots a comeback against James

FTC’s Slaughter backs Khan for chair as tech eyes her for the role

ICYMI: Tillis on hurricane recovery, GOP leadership, taxes and private equity

THE TOP

Ambition, power and Jim Jordan

Happy Thursday morning. There are 19 days until Election Day.

CANTON, Ohio — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) may be the only one who doesn’t see his ambition.

Members of the House Republican Conference — from the leadership down to the most junior of rank-and-file lawmakers — are obsessed with Jordan’s every move. Each city he goes through and every dollar he gives to his fellow Republicans sets off a fresh round of questions.

What is Jordan doing, what does he want and will he run for House minority leader if Republicans come up short in three weeks?

This angst is especially acute among allies of Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both of whom could lead the GOP in the minority.

Take a look at the evidence:

– Jordan has dramatically stepped up his giving to the NRCC, sending $2.5 million to the committee this cycle.

– Jordan’s leadership PAC, Buckeye Liberty PAC, raised nearly five times as much this election cycle as last. And it spent 10 times as much money as it did in 2022.

– Jordan is showing up in districts to campaign for GOP incumbents and candidates even when he’s not asked to be there. Several lawmakers told us Jordan offered to campaign for them without an explicit request for a visit.

Let’s start with this: Jordan is very eager to talk about what he’ll do if Republicans keep the majority — run the Judiciary Committee, where he has a massive staff and wields tremendous influence.

But when we asked — repeatedly — whether he’d run for the minority leader position if Republicans lose the House, Jordan dodged. This response is sure to torture Johnson and Scalise’s orbit.

Here’s Jordan:

If Republicans win the trifecta. Jordan is the most powerful non-elected leader in the House. During a Wednesday night event, GOP challenger Kevin Coughlin, who is running against Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio), called Jordan a “de facto member of the leadership team in the House.”

That was true when Kevin McCarthy was speaker, but it is less true now. Jordan tried twice on the floor to become speaker only to be denied the gavel by moderates and Scalise allies.

Jordan remains wildly popular with hardline conservatives; that’s his soft power. His hard power comes by dint of chairing the Judiciary Committee and the related weaponization subcommittee. He has legions of staffers, unilateral subpoena power, a big fundraising operation and is a constant presence on Fox News.

But if Republicans take the White House, Jordan’s power will grow exponentially. He’s very close to former President Donald Trump, who he talks to all the time. Jordan has no doubt that Trump will win.

That’s why it’s important to pay attention to Jordan’s legislative priorities. The Ohio Republican said he has three basic priorities: changes to immigration policy, extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts and passing energy legislation.

Jordan said he wants a full pause on all immigration — including legal immigration — at the beginning of a second Trump administration.

“A little pause would make sense, get it fixed,” Jordan said. “Of course, we’re for legal immigration. … But right now, maybe we need to just pause that.”

Jordan wants to extend the 2017 tax cuts immediately. Notably, Jordan said he’s open to a compromise on the state-and-local tax deduction.

At times, Jordan was frustrated with how House Republican leaders — especially former Speaker Paul Ryan — handled Trump during his presidency. But now, Jordan believes Trump has a better idea how to navigate government.

“I think he’s coming in with the attitude: Fire everyone you’re allowed to fire,” Jordan said. “Fire some people you’re not allowed to fire. Make them sue you, just to prove a point. And we’re going to get things done for the American people.”

Will he do it? It’s tough to find a person these days who doesn’t think that Jordan is angling for something bigger than the Judiciary Committee.

Sources in the House Republican Conference say they think Johnson will run for minority leader if Republicans lose their majority. Could Jordan beat him? Many in the GOP leadership orbit think it would be a real race.

Jordan simply won’t entertain questions about this issue right now. But during his address to the Stark County Republican Party, Jordan said this:

We’ll have much more from Jordan, including how he sees his legislative priorities on Judiciary in the Midday edition.

— Jake Sherman

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Marlinga plots a comeback against James

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — Two years ago, Democrat Carl Marlinga lost to Rep. John James (R-Mich.) by just 1,600 votes while being dramatically outspent in a race that wasn’t on the radar for national Democrats. This time around, Marlinga is confident that increased outside investment and the boost of a presidential year can put him over the top.

As Democrats seek to flip the House, races like the James-Marlinga rematch will determine whether a potential Democratic majority is razor-thin or a little more comfortable.

James’ 10th District seat encompasses the suburbs of Detroit. It also resembles areas that have shifted away from the GOP in recent years. While former President Donald Trump won the seat by five points in 2016, his margin of victory in 2020 was just one point.

This cycle, both House Majority PAC and the DCCC are spending millions of dollars on ads attacking James in the hope that Democrats can flip the seat.

“The fact that we have money now that we didn’t have in ‘22 could be enough to overcome that 1,600 vote deficit,” Marlinga told us in an interview.

Marlinga also said his electoral performances are strong in presidential years because of his support among “independents and ticket splitters.”

“We don’t like political parties very much in Macomb County,” Marlinga said.

At 77 years old, Marlinga cuts a different figure from many House challengers. Marlinga has served as a longtime prosecutor and judge in eastern Michigan, an experience he likens to Vice President Kamala Harris.

The top of the ticket: Recognizing his fate is tied to the top of the ticket, Marlinga predicted “the Harris vote is going to be surprisingly big” in Michigan. The optimism is based on the coordinated Democratic campaign, which Marlinga described as a juggernaut that’s “as active as I’ve ever seen in Michigan.”

Marlinga wasn’t afraid to slam Trump, saying Harris “played him” during the debate and arguing it showed how easily U.S. adversaries like China and Russia could take advantage of the GOP nominee.

Republican attacks: When discussing the auto industry in 2022, Marlinga claimed James wanted to “stick with a dying industry” instead of investing in the “future of the new green industrial revolution.”

James and outside GOP groups have spent heavily this cycle accusing Marlinga of belittling the car industry, a potent argument in the Detroit area. Marlinga told us the ads are a “deception.”

“What I was talking about is that the days of the big gas-guzzling cars of the 50s and 60s are gone. We have to adapt to a new world in which people are worried about climate change,” Marlinga said.

Taking on James: James, one of the few Black Republicans in Congress, is a favorite of GOP leadership and recently secured a prized spot on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Despite that, Marlinga labeled James’ first term in the House “pretty much a big nothing.”

“He’s a good-looking guy. He’s very articulate, but when it comes to policy — look, he refused to debate me this time around,” Marlinga said of James. “If you are ducking debates, it means you don’t want to be questioned. The reason is probably because you’re not doing anything.”

— Max Cohen

TECH REPORT

FTC’s Slaughter backs Khan for chair as tech eyes her for the role

Add one of Lina Khan’s fellow agency Democrats to the list of progressives calling for the Federal Trade Commission chair to keep her job.

The nod from Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter comes as some surrogates for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign signal they’d like to see Khan exit. But Slaughter’s praise also comes as some in tech whisper they’d prefer Slaughter take over the agency if Harris wins.

Here’s what Slaughter told reporters about Khan Wednesday evening:

Slaughter was speaking at the Capitol Hill townhouse of the Consumer Technology Association. During the Q&A, Slaughter said she loves opponents’ feedback, compromise and the boundaries of the FTC’s statutory authority.

Those qualities are ones that many in Big Tech and a good chunk of Senate Republicans complain Khan lacks. Whether the criticism of Khan is fair, there’s no doubt it’s made it tricky for the chair to secure confirmation to another term.

Slaughter, by contrast, was just reconfirmed by voice vote in March. A President Kamala Harris wouldn’t even need to use up precious Senate floor time to designate Slaughter as chair. In fact, Slaughter already served as chair on an acting basis for the first six months of the Biden administration.

To be clear: Slaughter insisted the portrait of Khan as dismissing industry feedback, ignoring Republican commissioners and scoffing at the law is off the mark.

Plus, Slaughter’s a reliable vote for Khan’s agenda. Any preference tech has for Slaughter is one of style, rather than her record.

Still, that style was on full display. “Compromise is a good thing,” Slaughter declared at one point.

There’s the new rule, from Wednesday, making it easier to cancel online subscriptions, for instance. Slaughter said she’d have wanted a warning from companies when they’re about to start charging consumers for a subscription. Slaughter didn’t think the record justified such a provision, though, which she said shows the agency knows it can’t just implement random policy dreams.

Slaughter also made clear some things must be punted over to the Hill, where she once worked as a counsel to then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Slaughter said, not at all subtly, that a law mandating the subscription alert would be “an excellent consumer protection bill for someone in Congress to introduce.”

— Ben Brody

PUNCHBOWL NEWS EVENTS

ICYMI: Tillis on hurricane recovery, GOP leadership, taxes and private equity

Did you miss our event with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) Wednesday focused on investing in local communities? Tillis discussed how private equity encourages innovation, provides jobs and strengthens small businesses in North Carolina.

Tillis also spoke about North Carolina’s recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene’s devastation and key issues driving Washington, including the Senate GOP leader race.

Watch the full conversation now.

— Elvina Nawaguna

THE CAMPAIGN

Former President Donald Trump appears in a new ad for Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) as she tries to beat back an unusually strong challenge from independent Dan Osborn. The spot includes a clip of Trump sitting on his plane saying that Osborn is a “radical left person” and a “Bernie Sanders type Democrat.”

— Jake Sherman

MOMENTS

CLIPS