The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

On the ground in Nevada and Arizona

When a competitive Senate race is in your own backyard

What it’s like to talk taxes with Thune

The center-left Harris appeal

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On the ground in Nevada and Arizona

Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week — 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.

Hitting the road out west… Who in their right mind would go to Arizona and Nevada in August, where temperatures have been hitting 115 degrees?

Punchbowl News would, of course!

This past week, I traveled to both states as part of our coverage of the country’s marquee Senate races this year. While the outcomes in Montana and Ohio are top-of-mind, Arizona and Nevada aren’t just battlegrounds for the Senate — they’re also battlegrounds for the presidential race. Both states’ races have their own unique set of dynamics, while also being ground zero for one of the biggest national issues — abortion rights.

Let’s get into it.

The world according to Kari Lake: The Arizona GOP Senate candidate has grabbed attention over the years for being one of former President Donald Trump’s most passionate supporters, as well as a top booster of his false claims about the 2020 election. Lake is even still challenging the results of the 2022 gubernatorial race that she lost.

To put it bluntly, this is not the type of Republican that Arizonans are used to having as a Senate nominee. Remember that Arizona very recently had Doug Ducey as its governor and John McCain and Jeff Flake as its senators.

So during a 20-minute interview aboard her campaign bus in Phoenix on Monday, we pressed Lake on how she’s going to win over the disaffected Republicans and independents who have explicitly rejected her brand of politics and propelled Democrats to victory in statewide races the last four years.

Lake’s response made clear that she doesn’t think she needs to moderate herself at all. She doubled and tripled down on her MAGA brand, emphasizing the border and crime while haranguing her opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), as a fraud.

Arizona is unique in that it has a significant cohort of McCain-era Republicans who aren’t comfortable with the direction of the GOP under Trump and have voted accordingly. The conventional wisdom was that Lake would try to tack to the center to try to appeal to them.

Lake rejected that notion wholeheartedly. Moments after our interview, Lake headlined a Trump campaign office opening party during which she proclaimed that “no Republican is my enemy.” The next day, after our story ran, Meghan McCain had this to say.

To be sure, it isn’t easy for Gallego to appeal to moderate Republicans and conservative-leaning independents, either. Gallego has a progressive voting record and is being portrayed by Republicans as the most liberal candidate running in any of the battlegrounds this year.

But Gallego this week launched a “Republicans for Ruben” initiative, which has already won over several locally elected Republicans in the state as well as some former top McCain staffers. Unfortunately, Gallego wasn’t made available to us for an interview during our visit.

Sin City: A very, very different race is happening in neighboring Nevada. The Democratic incumbent, Sen. Jacky Rosen, is touting bipartisanship and infrastructure projects, while the GOP nominee, Sam Brown, is one of the NRSC’s top recruits and, personality-wise, is nothing like Lake. We spoke with both this week.

Brown is also embracing a more moderate position on abortion — which will be on the ballot in November — despite some of his past comments. And Rosen is telling voters that contrary to what Brown says, only a Senate Democratic majority will prevent Republicans from enacting a national abortion ban.

When we visited Nevada this time last year, the war of words between Rosen and Brown was pretty tame. Brown had not yet clinched the GOP nomination and Rosen’s campaign was trying to capitalize on the far-right attacks on Brown.

But what we saw this week in Nevada was on a whole new level.

Rosen took every opportunity possible to criticize Brown on the issue of abortion, even saying at one point that he “can go back to Texas” — a reference to the fact that Brown used to live there and once ran for office there.

And Brown, who’s very mild-mannered, attacked Rosen as a liar with an “abysmal record.” Brown has yet to have a big breakthrough moment in the race, but Republicans here in Washington have been high on Brown for a long time now, especially given his inspiring backstory as a wounded combat veteran.

What I’m watching (and reading): Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman recently missed a week to be with his son who’s battling an autoimmune condition that required him to be on a ventilator. Freeman got a standing ovation during his first game back earlier this week, which came against my Philadelphia Phillies.

Nick Castellanos, the Phillies’ right fielder, made a beautiful gesture to Freeman during the standing O. And Bryce Harper gave Freeman a hug at the first base bag after the Dodger hit a single. Harper also stayed in touch with Freeman while he was out to check in on him and his son.

“It’s so much bigger than the game is,” Harper said. “And I love Freddie as a human being, as a person, and his whole family, Chelsea and all of his kids.”

— Andrew Desiderio

You can find The Readback in your inbox every Saturday at 10 a.m. And don’t hesitate to reach out to readback@punchbowl.news with feedback. Enjoy The Readback.

When a competitive Senate race is in your own backyard

It’s not always easy or practical to travel across the country to cover the battles for the House and Senate. So, it’s a whole lot easier when the fight is in your own backyard.

This week, I traveled to Upper Marlboro, Md. — an easy 30-minute drive from the Nation’s Capital — to cover the Maryland Senate race. The deep blue seat is typically not competitive but has become a closer-than-usual contest thanks to the entrance of popular former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan in the race.

Initially, I had just asked for a phone interview with Hogan. But when his team offered me the chance for some valuable face time — which tends to produce a richer interview than over the phone — I jumped at the opportunity.

I shadowed Hogan Thursday as he met with local union ironworkers and toured their facilities. We saw metal being welded and even dropped in on a CPR class. But, much to the relief of Hogan’s campaign aides, the former governor did not roll up his sleeves and join in on either activity (though it definitely looked like he wanted to).

Typically, the Iron Workers Union endorses Democratic candidates. So Hogan’s team was naturally excited when one of the local chapters invited him to come visit. Hogan has already picked up several notable union endorsements — a crucial part of the coalition Hogan needs to win. But it will take a lot more than that to put him over the finish line.

One other thing worth noting: Hogan’s team has been very friendly with the press and has offered a ton of access to a host of different media outlets — which, as reporters, we of course appreciate.

But it’s also probably a smart political strategy, given Hogan will need to reach independent and Democratic voters who aren’t watching Fox News. Case in point: After the ironworkers meeting, Hogan hopped in a car to D.C. and appeared for an in-studio interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.

Luckily, it was only a 30 minute drive away.

What I’m watching: HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” which is finally spotlighting my hometown team, the Chicago Bears, this season. There’s also an Olympics tie-in: Simone Biles’ husband plays for the Bears, and the team gave him special permission to attend the games in Paris! Excited to see that play out.

— Melanie Zanona

What it’s like to talk taxes with Thune

The next Senate GOP leader will undoubtedly be one of the biggest players in the 2025 fight over extending the Trump tax cuts. We just don’t know who that’ll be yet.

A fun wrinkle for me as a tax reporter is that both of the lead candidates to succeed longtime Republican leader Mitch McConnell — Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) — are senior members of the Finance Committee. They’ve both got plenty of experience when it comes to taxes.

So I leaped at the chance to sit down with Thune, the current Senate minority whip, recently to talk about his tax record and plans for 2025. Thune played a notable role when the Trump tax cuts passed back in 2017 as part of a group of GOP members dubbed the “Core Four” for their role in helping build the law.

Andrew and I told you all about what Thune had to say on taxes and how tax is factoring into his leadership in the Sunday Vault. Plus, we covered Thune’s thinking and role in preparing for a reconciliation bill next year if Republicans sweep the House, Senate and White House in November.

Reporter’s notebook: One thing we didn’t get to cover was Thune’s view on what happens if there’s divided government next year, meaning he could need to cut a major deal with Democrats.

“A lot of [Democrats’] equities are going to be built around preserving and protecting or expanding the child tax credit in terms of eligibility, income ranges, et cetera,” Thune said. “There are a lot of tweaks and dials that they would want to turn there.”

Thune added:

My personal favorite part of chatting with Thune was talking football. Andrew and I are both big Philadelphia Eagles fans. Thune is a Green Bay Packers fan, and he’s also got a wealth of knowledge about South Dakota players like star Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert. Go Birds!

What I’m reading: I’m headed to Portugal soon for vacation so I’ve been checking out restaurants and sites to see. Let me know if you’ve got recs!

— Laura Weiss

The center-left Harris appeal

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are shoring up a strong coalition of Democrats to help boost them to victory in November. This week we wrote both about progressives’ efforts to help Harris and her broad appeal to the center of the House Democratic caucus.

I talked to five members of the New Democrat Coalition about how they’re selling moderate voters on the Harris-Walz ticket, especially in swing states. It’s interesting to see the group that led a lot of the calls for President Joe Biden to step aside now coalesce around his No. 2.

In fact, New Dems Chair Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) wrote about the group’s strategy in a Newsweek op-ed this week. Here’s a link to that piece titled, “The New Dems are Harris-Walz Dems.”

Key findings from my conversations include a strong satisfaction with Harris tapping Walz as her running mate, a desire to have a strong ground game to boost the Harris campaign and making sure the top of the ticket prioritizes battleground states.

Here’s a tidbit of how Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) described Harris’ appeal in her home state of Michigan. Harris and Scholten spoke at her Detroit rally on Wednesday.

New Dems will also serve as surrogates to Harris’ campaign and make plans to travel with her when needed.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) has been phone banking for Harris. Other moderate Democrats like Reps. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) have held rallies to boost Harris in areas like Cincinnati.

We also touched on how Republicans are already looking to use New Dems’ enthusiasm for Harris against them. The NRCC has several ads and press releases out tying vulnerable House members to Harris, who they’re trying to paint as being too left for moderate voters.

Asked about these attacks, most members were dismissive, pointing to the Harris-Walz ticket in contrast to the Trump-Vance ticket, which many described as divisive.

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) put it more bluntly when asked about the GOP efforts to go after vulnerable Dems.

“I think that’s going to be expensive,” he said.

What I’m listening to: I have been listening to Megan Moroney’s latest album “Am I Okay?” to finish off the summer season. Also, her latest appearance on Call Her Daddy with Father Cooper. Iykyk.

— Mica Soellner