What Hakeem Jeffries told us

IN THIS EDITION

What’s happening this week? Plus, what Hakeem Jeffries is thinking

House GOP outside groups raised record $60M in first half of 2025

Dems outspend GOP on reconciliation ads

Stelson seeks rematch against Perry

Scalise, Stefanik and Young Kim’s Q2 hauls

THE TOP

What’s happening this week? Plus, what Hakeem Jeffries is thinking

Happy Monday morning. And Happy Bastille Day!

The House is back (for “Crypto Week”) and the Senate is in session with another vote-a-rama on tap. President Donald Trump is in Washington and will meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte today.

Trump told reporters Sunday night that he would be sending Patriot missiles to Ukraine, as well as other “very sophisticated military” equipment, in response to continued Russian attacks on the embattled country. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy, is in Kyiv.

The Senate is set to begin voting Tuesday on a $9.4 billion rescissions package. This could have a huge impact on the FY2026 government-funding fight. And we have an interview with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Rescissions roundup: The White House-drafted rescissions package cuts foreign aid while also slashing more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund PBS and NPR. Congress must complete work on the package by July 18.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) has made clear she doesn’t want cuts to PEPFAR, the George W. Bush-era program to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS. Other GOP senators worry about cuts to public broadcasting.

So the rescissions package is likely to be amended or a substitute package will be offered, although it’s not yet clear what will be changed. This is a little tricky procedurally and will require consultation with the parliamentarian.

There’s also intense pressure from Trump, who said last week that he won’t endorse any Republican who opposes the rescissions package.

The action is expected to begin Tuesday with a motion to discharge the package from the Senate Appropriations Committee. Next is a vote on the motion to proceed, which could also occur on Tuesday but may slip to Wednesday. This triggers 10 hours of debate, equally divided, followed by a vote-a-rama and a vote on final passage.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, have warned that passage of the rescissions bill could doom any chances of an FY2026 spending deal. That boosts the chances of a government shutdown this fall.

After the rescissions package, the Senate is likely to vote on more nominations to close out the week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune wants to confirm as many nominees as possible by August. This could mean some Friday or weekends in session during July, and maybe even the first week of August.

What Jeffries says: We spoke with the House minority leader on Friday as he appeared at a Louisiana press conference to bash the GOP’s “One Big Ugly Law,” especially huge cuts to health care, SNAP and other social programs.

Going to Louisiana was Jeffries’ way of tweaking Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who along with Trump, masterminded House passage of the massive reconciliation bill despite concerns from GOP moderates and conservatives.

“In the state of Louisiana and across the nation, hospitals will close, nursing homes will shut down, community-based clinics will no longer be able to operate and people will die,” Jeffries said, noting that hundreds of thousands of Louisiana residents will lose health coverage.

This stark language shows just how much is at stake for the 54-year-old Jeffries. He’s declared repeatedly that Democrats will win the majority in 2026. Jeffries also garnered national attention for his record-breaking House speech in opposition to the OBBB.

Yet those theatrics didn’t change the final outcome of the House vote, which gave Johnson and House Republicans a signature legislative win. Trump is running rampant too, doing pretty much whatever he wants without worrying about how a GOP-run Congress is going to react. The Democratic base has demanded that party leaders do something about Trump – anything – but there’s not much that can be done from the minority.

“My track record in pushing back against Donald Trump speaks for itself, including as impeachment manager during the very first Trump impeachment,” Jeffries pointed out. Jeffries said Democrats will hold more speeches, rallies and marches, plus town hall events in GOP districts. Jeffries is planning to visit districts in New York, New Jersey, California and the Midwest.

We asked Jeffries if the reconciliation vote changes the size of the House battlefield by bringing redder districts into reach for Democrats. The DCCC has identified 35 GOP-held districts on their target list. Jeffries said the bill would “further complicate” Republicans’ efforts to hold the House but declined to say if it would change the map.

“That vote will haunt them and we’re gonna tattoo their support for the One Big Ugly Law on the forehead of every single vulnerable House Republican in America,” Jeffries asserted.

But Jeffries declined to say if House Democrats would meddle in primaries in battleground seats to ensure the strongest candidate wins. That decision, Jeffries said, lies with DCCC Chair, Rep. Suzan DelBene and he said they “haven’t had those conversations to date.”

There are a couple other interesting 2026 nuggets from Jeffries:

– Asked if Democrats might try mid-decade redistricting in blue states such as New York or Illinois to combat Republican attempts to redraw maps in Texas and Ohio, Jeffries said, “All options are on the table when it comes to winning back control of the House.”

– Jeffries will meet this week with Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor. Jeffries hasn’t endorsed Mamdani yet.

Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the Intifada” will “be part of our discussion,” Jeffries said, adding that Mamdani needs “to reassure” the Jewish community and others “that he’s going to stand up for their safety and security.”

Correction: In this edition, we previously wrote that Mamdani had said “globalize the intifada.” He has not said that, but he has refused to condemn the phrase. We regret the error.

— John Bresnahan, Ally Mutnick, Andrew Desiderio and Jake Sherman

Join us on Tuesday, July 22, at 9:30 a.m. ET for a conversation with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Punchbowl News Technology Reporter Ben Brody will sit down with Markey to discuss the news of the day and online safety for kids. RSVP now!

MONEY MOVES

House GOP outside groups raised record $60M in first half of 2025

News: The Congressional Leadership Fund and the American Action Network, two groups with close ties to Speaker Mike Johnson, brought in more than $60 million during the first six months of 2025.

CLF, a super PAC, raised $32.7 million between January and June. AAN, its affiliated non-profit, raised $28 million.

That is an off-year fundraising record for the groups. At this point in 2023, CLF and AAN had raised a combined $35 million.

CLF has $32.7 million in cash-on-hand, which includes a $7 million transfer from AAN. But the group says that they did not double count the fundraising.

These two groups play a massive role in helping Republicans defend their House majority during what could be a punishing political environment. CLF is often the largest single spender in many House races.

Battle for the House. The House Republican outside groups beat their Democratic counterparts by $20 million. House Majority PAC, a super PAC endorsed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and its sister nonprofit House Majority Forward, raised $40 million during the first half of 2025.

HMP and HMF also described that total as their “best start to a non-election year ever.”

It is worth noting, however, that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has fairly consistently outraised the National Republican Congressional Committee. CLF will play a major role in closing the gap.

“This $60 million milestone shows our conservative coalition is energized by House Republicans’ success and ready to fight so we can keep winning in 2026,” said Chris Winkelman, the president of CLF and AAN.

This is Winkelman’s first year at the helm of CLF and AAN. Winkelman, a former executive director of the NRCC, took over for Dan Conston after the 2024 cycle.

In recent weeks, CLF and AAN have dropped millions of dollars on ad campaigns to sell voters on the One Big Beautiful Bill before Democrats can turn voters against it. That effort includes a $7 million ad campaign on Medicaid and a $5 million ad blitz touting the bill’s tax cuts.

Liberal groups have been advertising on Medicaid and energy tax credits. More on that below.

– Ally Mutnick

THE AIRWAVES

Dems outspend GOP on reconciliation ads

Democrats have vastly outspent Republicans in broadcast ads trashing the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Democratic groups have spent nearly $1 million on ads trashing the sprawling package from July 4 until July 11, per data from AdImpact. That’s almost double the amount — just under $600,000 — that Republican groups have spent to sell their signature legislation.

The numbers reveal the issue facing Republicans as they try to convince the American public that the One Big Beautiful Bill is a good thing for them. Democrats have gotten the word out early and often across the airwaves that the package will cost jobs while ripping health care and nutritional benefits away from millions of Americans. Polling for the bill is underwater.

The Republican counter-argument focuses on massive tax cuts and the increase in border funding. But it can be difficult to break through as Democratic groups flood the zone.

The Democratic ads. Democrats are relying on two main lines of attack in their ads: Medicaid cuts and clean energy rollbacks.

Protect Our Jobs has spent heavily since July 4 targeting vulnerable House Republicans.

In this Protect Our Jobs ad against Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), the spot’s narrator says the lawmaker’s vote is directly to blame for higher electricity bills. The messaging is part of a left-wing push to connect the phasing out of clean energy tax credits to increased costs.

House Majority Forward — the group associated with the top House Democratic super PAC — is also airing ads bashing the OBBB while simultaneously boosting their vulnerable incumbents.

“’When corrupt politicians cut Medicaid to pay for billionaire tax breaks, Harder voted to protect our Medi-Cal,” the narrator says in a spot supporting Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.).

As we’ve covered extensively, other liberal groups like Unrig Our Economy are going after GOP lawmakers for cutting Medicaid.

The GOP sell. The biggest Republican spender in the aftermath of the bill’s passage has been Americans for Prosperity, the GOP group aligned with the Koch family.

In a nationwide ad, AFP hails the package as a “historic win” that “makes tax cuts permanent, strengthens the middle class, supports border security and unleashes American energy.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters last week that “the individual components of [OBBB] are incredibly popular.” But Thune admitted damage has already been done to the bill’s optics.

“The way it’s been characterized now is this big bill where the people are picking out the parts of it and the Democrats are attacking the parts they don’t like,” Thune said.

— Max Cohen

2026 CYCLE

Stelson seeks rematch against Perry

Democrat Janelle Stelson, who lost a close race to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) last year, is looking to take on the former House Freedom Caucus chair again.

Stelson is officially launching her campaign today and will hold her first fundraiser with Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro Wednesday.

The former local news anchor has been attacking Perry on social media over his support for President Donald Trump’s agenda and the GOP reconciliation law.

“Scott Perry has spent more than a decade in D.C. taking votes that hurt us instead of delivering results — and he just sold us out again by casting the deciding vote for the largest Medicaid cuts in history, all to fund more tax cuts for billionaires,” Stelson said.

Last cycle, Stelson was backed by the DCCC, the Pennsylvania delegation and other members of the centrist New Democrat Coalition.

In response, Perry’s campaign attacked Stelson for having had a residence outside of the state’s 10th District — a controversy last cycle. Stelson’s campaign confirmed she has now moved into the district.

Down South. Nashville Metro Council Member Mike Cortese is challenging Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) in Tennessee’s 5th District.

Cortese, a Democrat, announced his campaign on Saturday. Ogles’ district leans Republican, but the seat has gotten more Democratic in recent years.

Ogles is one of the most conservative Republicans in the House and is an active member of the House Freedom Caucus.

– Mica Soellner

… AND THERE’S MORE

Scalise, Stefanik and Young Kim’s Q2 hauls

News: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise raised $10 million in the second quarter, which brings his tally to $22 million for the cycle.

Scalise transferred $5 million to GOP candidates and committees.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the chair of House Republican leadership, raised $4 million across all her campaign accounts, the largest off-year take for a New York Republican, her team says. Stefanik has more than $11 million in the bank across her political committees, which her team says is also a record for New York Republicans.

Kim’s haul. Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) raised $2 million in Q2. That’s a massive number for Kim, who is facing a competitive reelection campaign in her Orange County-area seat. Kim has just under $4 million on hand.

Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) raised $1 million in Q2.

Behind the scenes. Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s (D-N.J.) office held a briefing on the GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act Friday with the Chamber of Progress, the Blockchain Association and the Crypto Council for Innovation. Eighty-five staffers attended ahead of this week’s crypto action in the House.

The CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act — two major digital asset bills — will be on the floor this week, as will the FY2026 Defense spending bill. The House Rules Committee, which will meet tonight, has a cool 570 amendments to sift through.

A Bush on the Hill. George P. Bush will be on Capitol Hill Tuesday to meet with lawmakers about voting for the rescissions package. Bush, the son of former Florida GOP Gov. Jeb Bush, will meet with House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) and Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Byron Donalds (R-Fla.).

Bush’s Restore Trust PAC will host a fundraiser Tuesday night at Old Ebbitt Grill. Restore Trust will support candidates who vote for cuts.

– Jake Sherman

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