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The other side of trail reporting
Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week. Here, we share a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — I love campaign reporting. Nothing beats interviewing candidates, traveling across this beautiful nation and hearing from people on the ground directly involved with the top races.
But sometimes things don’t quite go as planned.
When I arrived in Detroit on Wednesday morning, I was ready to hit the ground running with a busy day of reporting. I picked up my rental car from the airport and headed out to Macomb County to interview Democrat Carl Marlinga in a local Democratic campaign office. This one, like most you encounter on the trail, is a pretty unassuming building in a strip mall that’s filled with every campaign sign under the sun. And two life-size cutouts of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz!
Marlinga is running to knock off freshman Rep. John James (R-Mich.) in a rematch of a 2022 contest that James won by just under 2,000 votes. It was a great conversation, which you can read more about here.
Buoyed by a successful first stop, I headed to Ann Arbor, Mich., for a quick bite before a late afternoon rally in Grand Rapids, Mich. I enjoyed a sandwich at the famous Zingerman’s Deli — a must-go for any Michigan trip — and headed back to my car. But as soon as I pulled out of my spot, I heard the sound that every motorist fears.
My front right tire was completely flat. I quickly pulled over, called roadside assistance and realized there was no way I could make it to Grand Rapids in time for GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers’ rally now.
After getting the spare tire on, I carefully drove all the way back to the airport to exchange my Kia for a Ford, a fitting switch considering I was in Detroit. When I told my Michigan GOP sources what had happened, I predictably received a response poking fun at Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s plan to “fix the damn roads.” That’s politics for you!
Luckily, I found another time to hear Rogers make his campaign pitch to voters. And with my trusty Ford leading the way, I’m crisscrossing the entire state to cover the Senate race and competitive House elections.
I picked the right time to be in the Great Lakes State. Just in the short period I’ve been here, former President Donald Trump and Harris have held rallies in Michigan. GOP Sens. Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) swung by. Speaker Mike Johnson is here today. Democratic Govs. Josh Shapiro (Pa.), Tony Evers (Wis.), Wes Moore (Md.), Maura Healey (Mass.) and Whitmer hit the trail on Thursday.
It’s surrogate heaven. Or, as Moore put it during an event on Thursday at Michigan State University, like the Avengers.
Keep an eye out for more campaign reporting early next week from my time here.
What I’m reading: When I was home for Yom Kippur last weekend, my mom recommended I read one of her favorite novels, “Crossing to Safety,” by Wallace Stegner. It’s been a great recommendation so far!
– Max Cohen
Listen to The Readback Podcast! Enjoying a behind-the-scenes look at how the biggest stories of the week came to be? Punchbowl News’ Max Cohen takes you even further behind the scenes in our newest podcast: The Readback. Listen now!
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Buckeye Blitz: Sherrod Brown’s quest for ticket-splitters

It might be a foreign concept inside the Beltway, but ticket-splitting is still more common than you might think. It also happens to be Democrats’ only chance, albeit a slim one, of hanging on to their Senate majority.
With West Virginia almost guaranteed, Republicans would only need to pick up one additional seat to win the majority. Montana and Ohio are their best chances to do that. Any victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada would just be gravy for the GOP.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) will likely draw a lot of ticket-splitters, but it may not be enough to overcome the massive margin by which former President Donald Trump is expected to win there.
That means much of the attention has shifted to the Buckeye State, where Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is looking to beat back a challenge from Republican Bernie Moreno in a state that Trump could win by as many as 10 points.
I traveled to Ohio last week to see firsthand how one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents is trying to hang on to his seat and give his party even a tiny chance of holding the Senate majority.
More likely, though, it would be an opportunity for Democrats to limit the damage. If Democrats keep every seat except Montana, Republicans would have a 51-49 majority. That’s not the worst outcome in the world for Democrats given how difficult their 2024 map is. More importantly, it would give Republican leaders the tiniest of cushions as they try to advance their agenda.
On the ground: Vice President Kamala Harris is spending a lot of time in the Rust Belt, and the Democratic Senate candidates and incumbents in those states are eager to appear with her.
But Harris won’t step foot in Ohio. And that’s good for Brown, who’s embracing a reelection strategy that involves bashing both parties for, in his words, “selling out” Ohio.
Brown has been in Congress for 30 years. So it might sound odd that he’s blaming everyone else for issues like Ohio’s manufacturing decline and the fentanyl crisis.
But what I found during my reporting trip was that this actually resonates with voters who see Brown as someone who’s tried to stop the federal government from implementing policies that have negatively impacted Ohio. Brown noted, for example, that he whipped against NAFTA and has pushed presidents of both parties to undertake more aggressive trade enforcement.
This allows Brown to not only separate himself from national Democrats — a must in Ohio — but also to appeal to the same working-class voters who have gravitated toward Trump the last two elections. Enter ticket-splitters.
“I don’t look at what they’re going to do with the presidential [race],” Brown said of union workers who back Trump but are willing to vote for him as well. “My job is to continue to fight for these workers.”
Brown said this after speaking at a United Auto Workers union hall last Friday where he was practically a celebrity when he walked in. Many of the voters who fit this profile will likely go for Trump in the presidential race.
You won’t hear Brown try to convince them otherwise.
What I’m watching: I’ve been fascinated by the different documentaries about the Menendez brothers lately. I highly recommend “The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All,” which is available on Amazon Prime.
— Andrew Desiderio

Slouching towards an FDIC subpoena

The House Financial Services Committee is weighing an unusual subpoena to compel cooperation from Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Martin Gruenberg. That sentence says more about the FDIC’s longtime leader than House Republicans.
I won’t pretend that all congressional investigations are created equal. They’re not. Plenty are transparently partisan.
But I believe there is a role for substantive congressional oversight at the FDIC right now. That’s become even more apparent as Gruenberg appears to slow-walk House investigators who’ve requested his voluntary cooperation.
We’ve written plenty about the agency’s workplace misconduct and harassment problems — deep ones — that were first reported in late 2023 and corroborated by the law firm Cleary Gottlieb in May.
Gruenberg’s leadership was implicated in the investigations published since late 2023, including his temper and alleged ignorance of the agency’s long-running culture woes.
Gruenberg is still in place almost a year after the Wall Street Journal started publishing bombshell reports about the FDIC’s problems. Gruenberg said he’d resign in May after the Senate confirmed a successor, but that didn’t happen this summer. A successor may not be cleared in the lame duck, either.
His stay could be protracted if Republicans take the White House, ironically. The FDIC chair is never front of the line for Senate confirmations, which means Gruenberg could remain chair as late as the summer of 2025 or beyond. Former President Donald Trump’s FDIC pick, Jelena McWilliams, didn’t get confirmed until almost 18 months after his inauguration.
So understanding what’s happening at the FDIC right now — as the agency institutes changes to make employees safer under the watch of a chief regulator who was a well-documented part of the problem — is a textbook opening for congressional oversight.
HFSC Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is not itching to use his committee’s subpoena authority, based on our conversations with members and senior staff around the panel this week. But there is a growing sense that something may have to give as Gruenberg keeps his distance.
To be sure, Republicans have an obvious political imperative to try and axe Gruenberg as long as the FDIC chair holds a crucial vote over President Joe Biden’s financial agenda. But this is a rare instance where a partisan impulse could lead to meaningful accountability at an important government agency.
What I’m reading: I read just about everything Bloomberg Businessweek’s Amanda Mull writes, but her recent dive into the world and economy of secondhand clothing was especially fascinating. The demand for clothing resale is huge, but the companies leading this industry are constantly on the verge of collapse. Read about why here.
– Brendan Pedersen
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A Dem-leaning Maryland race could be a toss-up
This week, I did a vibe check on a very under-the-radar race in Maryland that’s causing some eleventh-hour concerns for Democrats as it gets tighter than anticipated.
Maryland’s 6th District — an open-seat race between Democrat April McClain Delaney and repeat Republican candidate Neil Parrott – is starting to heat up. The seat is currently held by Rep. David Trone (D-Md.), who surrendered it for an unsuccessful Senate run.
Senior Democrats and those in the Maryland political circles have expressed concerns about McClain Delaney as a candidate, particularly around her lack of self-funding and what they view as her attempts to ride on name ID alone over real issues.
Delaney, the candidate is the wife of former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), who held the seat for three terms before he ran for president in 2020. She is running as a centrist New Dem-style candidate.
Delaney’s campaign has forcefully pushed back on these attacks, citing her fundraising ability. Her team has also targeted Parrott as too extreme for the Democratic-leaning district.
She will get some reinforcements in the coming weeks from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Trone and others to help boost her chances.
Meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus’ campaign arm has endorsed Parrott. He’s also received help from the conservative group in his campaign, especially in the primary. The House Freedom Fund gave Parrott — who lost twice to Trone in 2020 and 2022 — roughly $30,000 in the primary.
HFC Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) has been instrumental in helping Parrott’s campaign. He held a fundraiser for him over the summer, and aides are being asked to doorknock for Parrott in the coming weeks. Harris, of course, is the only Republican member in the Maryland delegation.
A Parrott victory — although still an uphill climb — would be huge for House conservatives. HFC already lost its former chair, Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), in a contentious primary over the summer. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), another former chair, is also on the verge of losing his R+5 seat.
We will keep an eye out for any outside money entering this race in the next few weeks.
What I’m reading/watching/listening to: I’ve been binging “90 Day Fiancé” this week because we all need some trash TV before the election.
– Mica Soellner
Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. Political ads courtesy of AdImpact.

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