The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Gen Z enters the political chat

Your designated DNC guide

Understanding Schumer’s crypto gamble

Behind the Power Matrix

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Gen Z enters the political chat

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.

Mel, take it away… There has been an unmistakable vibe shift in the Democratic Party ever since President Joe Biden jumped out of the race, passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. And we’re not just talking about those lime green brat and coconut memes!

Democrats in some of the toughest battleground races in the country say they have seen a dramatic surge in enthusiasm on the ground – particularly among Millennials and Gen Zers – when it comes to volunteers, fundraising and organizational efforts.

Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), who represents a coastal swing district and called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race after the debate, said young volunteers have really helped turbo-charge his field operation. Here’s more Levin:

Levin is hardly alone. One long-time Democratic consultant, who is involved with several key California House races, told me they recently organized a film shoot for one of their candidates and “had more volunteers than I knew what to do with. I never really had that problem before.”

Of course, one of the biggest concerns among Democrats was that their base would stay home in November if Biden remained atop the ticket. And in critical swing races where the margins are already expected to be tight, Democrats can’t afford to not have their key constituencies activated.

But with a new generation of voters now fired up and ready to go, Democrats are feeling far more bullish about their chances in competitive House races in deep blue states like California and New York, where the path to the House majority likely runs.

GOP view: It’s clear Republicans are feeling the pressure in a way they weren’t just weeks ago. House Republican leaders held a call with their members Thursday telling the rank-and-file to get their head in the game.

“If we’re going to accomplish our goal of growing our majority, I need you to want it,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson said on the call.

What I’m watching: The Challenge, season 40, Battle of the Eras. I am a huge fan of competition reality shows and have been watching this one since its inception. Let’s go Johnny Bananas!

– Melanie Zanona

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.

Your designated DNC guide

I spent most of this week preparing for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week. (No, that doesn’t mean I have packed yet.)

This will be my first convention, so I’m not entirely sure what to expect. I’ve covered CPAC before, the annual conservative gathering. But obviously, the quadrennial presidential nominating conventions are much, much bigger. From what I heard, it’s a lot of waiting in line to get through security, chaotic schedules, all-night socializng and not-so-great arena food.

Obviously, the events of the last month have massively shifted everyone’s expectations going into the DNC. With Vice President Kamala Harris now atop the ticket, many Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief with not having to worry about President Joe Biden’s poor polling numbers.

But Harris still has to make a clear case of what she would do if she wins the White House. The vice president has done little to articulate that so far — shunning media interviews and news conferences.

Harris is closely tied to the administration’s policies as Biden’s No. 2. As a result, she’s already faced Republican attacks linking her to unpopular White House policies, including ongoing issues at the U.S.-Mexico border, and the war in Gaza. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to gather in Chicago to demonstrate outside of the convention.

I’m interested to see what Harris proposes and if she addresses these issues head-on during the convention.

Last week, Max Cohen and I also wrote about the attendance gap at the convention with dozens of vulnerable Democrats planning to skip Chicago to campaign. Some Frontliners I spoke with who are attending aren’t making their plans public yet to avoid political attacks.

I’m looking forward to being on the convention floor and talking to lawmakers outside of the Hill environment. Notice how members let loose when they’re not inside the Beltway!

I’ll be your eyes and ears along with Andrew Desiderio and Jake Sherman in Chicago, so give us a shout if you’re around.

What I’m listening to: This week I’ve been listening to a lot of Chappell Roan’s signature album. Between Chappell and Tim Walz, it’s a big year for Midwest representation!

— Mica Soellner

Understanding Schumer’s crypto gamble

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer committed to an electoral gamble this week that could have significant consequences for the U.S. financial system.

The New York Democrat made waves on Wednesday during a virtual town hall hosted by “Crypto4Harris,” a loose group of entrepreneurial Democrats united under the idea that maybe Vice President Kamala Harris won’t be as tough on the digital assets sector as the Biden administration has been.

It would have been significant enough for Schumer to simply show up at the event and say a couple of nice things about innovation and jobs before slipping away.

But Schumer went further and embraced the industry — really, truly embraced it — in these remarks. Two lines that stuck out to us: Schumer said that crypto was “here to stay no matter what,” and that Congress could “help crypto reach its full potential.”

This could put Schumer on a collision course with his left flank. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has made no secret of her derision for the crypto sector, and she represents a significant and influential segment of like-minded Democrats.

Also, it’s hard to imagine a Democrat as senior as Schumer saying anything like this less than two years ago, when the rapid collapse of crypto firm FTX soured lawmakers significantly on digital assets.

But the majority leader has been drifting in this direction for a while. Schumer publicly supported a long-shot effort from the Senate Agriculture Committee that would significantly restructure federal financial regulation for the sake of crypto. That came in response to a House market structure bill from Republicans that passed in May with 71 Democrats voting in favor.

Still, this kind of endorsement from Schumer was different, surprising and a meaningful shift.

Schumer appears to be taking an electoral gamble on the crypto sector. It’s a risky one. This industry, despite the promise and potential, has a well-documented record of consumer harm and legal trouble. The sector’s most used products function as either a means of loosely regulated speculation or a cumbersome payments system. A hard look at recent polling data shows that crypto continues to be more unpopular than not.

Crypto advocates say there are voters who care enough about digital asset policy that a Harris embrace of the sector would turn out swing state supporters. Sure! Maybe! A lot of things turn out voters.

But the more obvious force that Schumer is contending with is money. The crypto sector has organized a massive campaign finance effort — more than $169 million to date — and they’ve only just started to pour money into critical Senate races for the general election.

Last week, the Fairshake super PAC network announced an initial $12 million ad buy supporting Bernie Moreno, who’s running to unseat Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio.). Brown’s race could very well be the margin of Senate control come 2025.

So maybe, if Schumer can convince the industry’s leaders that Democrats are willing to work with crypto and pass laws it doesn’t hate, the industry will stop drowning critical Senate races with outside spending. That’s a big maybe, though the gamble will get a boost from having a new face atop the Democratic presidential ticket.

Then again, Republicans embraced crypto a long time ago. It will be hard to be more pro-industry than former President Donald Trump.

What I’m listening to: I’m testing the upper limits of my newfound audiobook habit with “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: a History of Nazi Germany.” William Shirer’s almost 1,300-page tome translates to about 55 hours of listening, or about half that time at 1.5x speed.

Something I didn’t fully understand until this listen was the role that German industrialists played in cementing Adolf Hitler’s rise in the early 1930s, particularly as his party teetered on financial ruin. Hope you’re enjoying recess!

— Brendan Pedersen

Behind the Power Matrix

It’s my distinct honor to be the main author of the Punchbowl News Power Matrix, our weekly register of who’s up and who’s down in politics. This is an exclusive offering for our Premium community, appearing every Friday in our Midday or PM edition.

Today, I’ll take you behind the scenes of how one of our most engaging features comes to be.

Toward the end of the week, I send a Slack message into our reporter group chat that is guaranteed to solicit strong opinions: “It’s time for Matrix brainstorm!”

Everyone chimes in with their takes on whose stock is rising and falling. As with everything at Punchbowl News, our North Star is power. That governs how we view the Matrix selections more than anything else.

We have some unwritten rules — there needs to be a mix of Democrats and Republicans amongst the ups and downs. We try to avoid putting the same politician either up or down successive weeks in a row — but of course, sometimes circumstances intervene. We’re looking at you, former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.).

What’s surprised me the most is how seriously many members and their staff take the Power Matrix. Every week, we receive a decent amount of feedback from aides making the case why their boss deserves to be up.

Sometimes, we even get stopped by members in the Capitol pitching themselves. We take these with a healthy grain of salt, given the clear bias here. And as in most things in the world of Punchbowl News, our fearless leader Bres has the final say.

After we decide on the list, it’s up to me to craft the short blurbs explaining the choices. Using the informal Matrix tone is a highlight of my week. There’s no better way to mark a Friday.

The production value is decidedly low-tech. Either I or our senior producer Robert O’Shaughnessy plug the caricatures into a Google Slide and export it to our newsletter document. The rest is history!

If you’re wondering who our most popular caricature is so far, it’s probably West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s bulldog, Babydog.

Feel free to drop us a note on what you enjoy about the Matrix or what you’d like to see us do differently.

What I’m reading: A great social and political history of the 1990s: “When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s,” by John Ganz. My friend got it for me as a birthday gift, and it’s an intriguing read! I just finished the chapter on David Duke, which delved into Louisiana’s political history.

— Max Cohen