September 20, 2024 Press Releases

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: KNOCK, KNOCK → DSCC’S $25 MILLION INVESTMENT IN DIRECT VOTER CONTACT PROGRAMS, MCCORMICK “THREATENED…SEXUAL HARASSMENT VICTIMS”

KNOCK KNOCK, WHO’S THERE? SOMEONE REMINDING YOU TO VOTE: DSCC ANNOUNCES NEW MULTI-MILLION INVESTMENT IN DIRECT VOTER CONTACT PROGRAMS → The DSCC announced a new $25 million investment in direct voter contact programs across 10 states: AZ, FL, MD, MI, MT, NV, OH, PA, TX and WI. The investment will fund programs that reach voters directly about the stakes of the election, information about how to vote and the importance of participating. See what they’re saying and hearing about the investments.

SENATE GOP BLOCKS IVF PROTECTIONS…AGAIN → Senate Republicans AGAIN voted against protecting access to IVF treatment, underscoring the grave threat they pose to women’s right to make their own decisions about their health care and families.

📣 DSCC: “Reproductive freedom will be a defining issue of the 2024 Senate election, and their vote against IVF protections will give voters another reason to reject Cruz, Scott and GOP Senate candidates in every state.”

Senate Republicans’ latest move to block reproductive freedom generated a wave of negative headlines.

DAVID MCCORMICK “REPORTEDLY THREATENED, RETALIATED AGAINST SEXUAL HARASSMENT VICTIMS” → Jezebel details that, as a senior official at Bridgewater, David McCormick “directly participated in retaliation” against a former employee following a sexual harassment complaint the employee filed against their supervisor. The report also finds that McCormick’s “Senate campaign has also paid more than $600,000 to a consulting firm that faced a sexual harassment suit.”

ERIC HOVDE “DOESN’T MIND DOING BUSINESS” WITH BANK LINKED TO “MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL” → Reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals that Banco Azteca, a bank with alleged “links to the Mexican drug cartel” and several “risk and compliance concerns,” “sent $26.2 million in cash” across the U.S.-Mexico border to Eric Hovde’s bank in California. This bombshell report comes after Hovde refused to disclose which foreign banks and governments his bank has done business with.

WHILE TV STARS WON BIG AT THE EMMYS, SENATE REPUBLICANS MADE HEADLINES FOR THEIR STARRING ROLES AS FLAWED CANDIDATES →

ONLY FOREIGN INTERESTS IN THE BUILDING (SEASON 1): MCCORMICK’S “IRAN-LINKED INVESTMENTS” → Reporting by American Journal News finds that as CEO of Bridgewater, David McCormick “oversaw investments in companies that did business with Iran,” including “companies [that] were divested from by Pennsylvania” over “concerns about terrorism and human rights violations.” The report details that the investments included a company that was “sanctioned three times by the U.S. State Department for allegedly assisting Iran with its ballistic missile program.”

ONLY FOREIGN INTERESTS IN THE BUILDING (SEASON 2): MCCORMICK “INVESTING IN CHINA” → The Associated Press details how David McCormick’s time as Bridgewater CEO “were big years for investing in China” and how his firm “forged a reputation among foreign firms as an aggressive investor in Chinese companies” and “reputedly handled money for the Chinese government.”

SHADY SHEEHY WINS FOR SPECIAL EFFECTS AFTER APPEARING TO “DOCTOR” HIS AD TO HIDE SUPPORT FOR PRIVATIZING LAND → After “Sheehy explicitly called for federal lands to be ‘turned over’ to states,” reporting by HuffPost reveals how Sheehy “appears to have doctored a recent TV advertisement to remove a logo of the Property and Environment Research Center from the shirt he was wearing.” The report details that “PERC is a Montana-based think tank with a history of advocating for the privatization of federal public lands.”

TOP BACKER OF SHADY SHEEHY HACKS HIS AD WITH B-ROLL OF…WYOMING? → Reporting from National Journal finds that one of Tim Sheehy’s top backers, Americans for Prosperity Action, used a “wide shot of the Sunlight Basin in Wyoming,” apparently confusing it for Montana in a recent ad for Sheehy.

REVOLVIN’ DOOR ROGERS WINS THE CROWN FOR “QUESTIONABLE FINANCIAL TIES” → The American Journal News details how “Mike Rogers used campaign cash to promote defense contractor interests,” adding to “a growing list of questionable financial ties that have dogged Rogers’ campaign” and his “history of using his political connections to further the agendas of private businesses.”

ROGERS FACES FALLOUT FOR HIS RECORD “LEADING ON LEGISLATION MAKING ACCESS TO OPIOIDS EASIER” → Michigan leaders are hammering Mike Rogers for “exacerbat[ing] the nation’s opioid crisis” and “leading on legislation making access to opioids easier,” Gongwer reports.

THE TRAITOR: HOGAN “REPEATEDLY FLIRTED WITH THE IDEA OF CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE” → The American Journal News details how Larry Hogan has “repeatedly said that all federal programs should be on the chopping block and frequently qualifies his remarks about protecting Social Security.” The report adds that his “unclear Social Security position could decide Maryland Senate race.”

HOGAN’S ACTING DOESN’T MATCH HIS SCRIPT → The Baltimore Banner reports that “Hogan’s words on Trump don’t match his record,” finding that there were “dozens of times where Hogan could have stood up to Trump but repeatedly chose to stand down.”

MORENO’S “SLEW OF LAWSUITS” KEEPS GETTING RENEWED FOR MORE SEASONS… → The Toledo Blade details Bernie Moreno’s long record of stiffing workers and the “slew of lawsuits for workers’ wages and workplace discrimination” he has faced. The report also highlights his lie that he “did not sell the China-made Buick Envision, which was later disproved.”

…WITH THIS MANY LAWSUITS, MORENO MAY EVEN GET A SPINOFF → Mother Jones reports that “Bernie Moreno owed a contractor $300K [and] then ignored legal rulings to promptly pay up,” the latest case in “a litany of…lawsuits claiming racial, gender, and age discrimination, as well as wage withholding.”

LOVE IS BLIND MAY BE COMING TO DC, BUT ERIC HOVDE CONTINUES TO PROVE WHY HE’S UNFIT TO SERVE HERE →

“HOVDE’S BANK FINANCED NURSING HOMES FACING ABUSE ALLEGATIONS” → American Journal News details that “a bank run by…Eric Hovde lent millions of dollars to nursing homes that have been accused of neglect and abuse.” This comes after Hovde’s bank faced a lawsuit over a wrongful death and elder abuse at a nursing home owned by the bank.

“HOVDE RECORDED SAYING YOUNG PEOPLE CANNOT ‘WRITE PROPERLY’ OR ‘UNDERSTAND GOOD WORK ETHIC’” → Reporting by The Badger Herald details new audio of Eric Hovde “stating that many college students cannot ‘write properly’ or ‘understand a good work ethic,’” adding to his list of offensive comments “targeting [groups like] single mothers, farmers and senior citizens.”

WHO WILL HOVDE FIGHT FOR IN THE SENATE? SPOILER ALERT: HIS OWN BOTTOM LINE → Up North News finds that Eric Hovde “reaped millions in tax cuts” from Trump’s 2017 tax law, detailing how Hode “stands to benefit significantly if he’s elected and Republicans are in control” and would be “greatly enriched by decisions he would make [in office].”

📺 WHAT WISCONSINITES ARE WATCHING: “ERIC HOVDE DOESN’T RESPECT US” → The DSCC released a new ad in the Wisconsin Senate race, “Respect,” featuring a Wisconsin worker calling out Hovde for being a rich California banker and “straight up jerk” who doesn’t respect Wisconsin workers.

THE COMPANY (AND COMPANIES) YOU KEEP →

THE HEADLINE SAYS IT ALL: “MORENO CAMPAIGNED WITH TWO INDIVIDUALS CONDEMNED FOR NAZI, HOLOCAUST COMMENTS” → Jewish Insider reports that Bernie Moreno fundraised with and accepted thousands of dollars in donations from a “member of a Nazi reenactment group” and an Ohio State Representative who suggested “that the Holocaust should be taught in part ‘from the perspective of a German soldier.’”

CRUZ “GRATEFUL” FOR SUPPORT FROM ACTIVIST THAT ENDORSED “EXECUTION OF ABORTION PROVIDERS” → Reporting by Mother Jones finds that “Ted Cruz touted the endorsement” of an anti-abortion activist who “argu[ed] that the US government should execute ‘abortionists’” and “co-wrote a book that endorsed the execution of abortion providers.”

MCCORMICK “ACKNOWLEDGED HIS INVOLVEMENT” WITH WEBSITE THAT PLATFORMS “HOLOCAUST DENIAL” AND “ANTISEMITIC HATE” → In an interview with KDKA, David McCormick “acknowledged his involvement” and admitted that he invested in a social media website “known to spew violent and conspiratorial content, including Holocaust denial, far-right extremism and antisemitic hate.”

THE OP-EDS ARE IN…THEY SAY REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATES ARE OUT →

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING IN MT (PART 1) → Republican Former Gallatin County Commissioner Don Seifert hammered Tim Sheehy in the Billings Gazette, saying he “hasn’t earned [my] trust, and certainly hasn’t earned my vote.”

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING IN MT (PART 2) → Jim Alderson, former CFO of several Montana hospitals, criticized Sheehy in the Clark Fork Valley Press – Mineral Independent for his “plan to privatize hospitals in Montana [that] will have draconian effects” on “rural hospitals.”

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING IN OH → In the Toledo Blade, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain slammed Bernie Moreno for “screw[ing] workers time and time again.” UAW Local 1219 President Jeffery Adams hammered Moreno in the Lima News for “sid[ing] with corporate greed” and “show[ing] no respect for the sacrifices auto workers have made.”

MOO DENG MEMES AREN’T THE ONLY THING GOING VIRAL…SENATE REPUBLICANS’ CANDIDATE QUALITY ISSUES ARE MAKING WAVES, TOO → DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters joined MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports and SiriusXM’s The Laura Coates Show to discuss Senate Republicans’ “flawed to very flawed” recruits and how Senate “Republicans have extreme positions on [reproductive freedom] and are focused on taking those rights away, having a national abortion ban.”

🗞️ EXTRA EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT: “200 MONTANA FARMERS AND RANCHERS ENDORSE JON TESTER” → Montanans for Tester launched newspaper ads touting Tester’s efforts fighting for MT’s farmers and ranchers, running in 75 newspapers across Montana.

FACT CHECK CORNER →

❌ FALSE (THE SAM BROWN EDITION) → PolitiFact finds that Sam Brown made “false” claims about Nevada’s abortion ballot measure, adding that “legal and policy experts say Brown misstates what the constitutional amendment would do.”

❌ FALSE (THE SHEEHY EDITION) → PolitiFact finds that “Tim Sheehy wrongly blames [the] Inflation Reduction Act for higher inflation,” rating his statement “false.”

ADD IT TO THE QUEUE →

Angela Alsobrooks’ campaign released a new ad, “The Future Of The Supreme Court,” highlighting Larry Hogan’s praise for Trump’s justices on the Supreme Court, calling them “incredible” just months after they overturned Roe v. Wade.

Angela Alsobrooks’ campaign launched an ad highlighting how she will fight for Marylanders in the Senate.

Jon Tester’s campaign released an ad highlighting how he’ll fight to ensure veterans get all the benefits they deserve.

Jon Tester’s campaign launched an ad highlighting Tester’s work to protect Montana’s rivers, support small businesses, and defend Montana’s way of life.

Colin Allred’s campaign launched a new ad, “No Pain,” highlighting Allred’s background playing football and slamming Cruz for fighting to raise the retirement age and cut Social Security and Medicare.

Tammy Baldwin’s campaign released a new ad, “Nightmare,” featuring a Wisconsin woman who was forced to leave the state for necessary medical care and warns how electing Hovde would help Republicans reach the majority to ban abortion nationwide.

Ruben Gallego’s campaign released a new TV ad, “Real Voters React,” featuring Arizona women listening to Kari Lake, in her own words, oppose abortion and spread dangerous, out of touch views.

Ruben Gallego’s campaign released a new ad, “Lying Lake,” which underscores Kari Lake’s willingness to lie to Arizonans to distract from her dangerous views on abortion — all to get power for herself, even if it hurts Arizonans.

Jacky Rosen’s campaign released a new ad, “Caught on Tape,” slamming Sam Brown’s decade-long anti-abortion record and recent comments revealing his plans to vote against Nevada’s ballot initiative to constitutionally protect access to abortion.

Jacky Rosen’s campaign launched a new ad, “The Future,” highlighting how she is working with both parties to create new good-paying jobs, expand opportunities for Nevada, and diversify the economy.