DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: GOP PLAN WOULD SPIKE HEALTH CARE COSTS – REPUBLICAN ATTACKS ON JUDGE JACKSON REINFORCE MIDTERM STAKES – MCCORMICK’S BAD WEEK

ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF ACA, SENATE REPUBLICANS WANT TO SPIKE HEALTH CARE COSTS & STRIP COVERAGE PROTECTIONS. This week during the twelve-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, Senate Democrats called out the Republican Party’s pledge to overturn the law – which would strip critical coverage protections from millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions and spike costs for working families.

• Florida Phoenix: FL Dems highlight protection of Obamacare as an issue in 2022 elections. “For 12 years, the Affordable Care Act has saved lives and made it possible for millions of Floridians — including those with pre-existing conditions — to get affordable health care. With Senate Republicans vowing to repeal the ACA, Rubio is once again on board with a disastrous agenda to make health care more expensive for hardworking people across our state.”

• Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Does the GOP want to repeal Obamacare? Take them literally and seriously. “The head of the Senate Republicans’ campaign wing, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, of Florida, already has rolled out a stupendously wrong-headed policy agenda that takes a sledgehammer to the nation’s social safety net, even as it raises taxes on the poorest Americans.”

• UpNorthNews: Wisconsin’s Republican Senator Still Wants to Take Away Health Insurance. “Twelve years after the Affordable Care Act became law, Sen. Ron Johnson still wants to repeal it, even though it made health care more affordable and accessible to millions of people in Wisconsin.”

→ DSCC, DNC, DSCC Joint Statement: “As we celebrate the 12th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act — legislation that secured health care coverage for over 30 million Americans, lowered costs, and is more popular today than it’s ever been — the Republican Party continues to attack and push to repeal it, which could increase Americans’ health care costs.”

SENATE REPUBLICANS’ ATTACKS ON JUDGE JACKSON UNDERSCORE STAKES OF PROTECTING DEM SENATE MAJORITY.  As news coverage highlights how “Republicans struggle for an effective attack on Ketanji Brown Jackson,” Senate Republicans are now attacking interracial marriage, contraceptives, Roe v. Wade, and same-sex marriage – sketching a “terrifying vision for America” that reinforces the stakes of protecting and expanding our Democratic Senate majority. 

• HuffPost: Beyond Roe: With SCOTUS Hearings, GOP Sketches Terrifying Vision For America. “Republicans have made clear they’re rooting for the court to strike down Roe v. Wade. But what’s been new in the past week has been GOP senators starting to talk about other landmark cases they’d like to see overturned ― outcomes that would radically restrict Americans’ rights.”

• DSCC Statement On GOP’s Relentless Attacks: “Republicans have shown they will use every tired and offensive excuse to try and block Judge Jackson’s historic and qualified nomination to serve on the Supreme Court. Their relentless attacks on Judge Jackson and Americans’ most basic freedoms reinforces the stakes of this year’s election and why we must defend and expand our Democratic Senate majority with the power to confirm Supreme Court justices.”

“FINANCE BRO” MCCORMICK’S TOUGH WEEK – HE CUT PA JOBS & FORCED TEACHERS TO PAY MORE. It was another no good, very  bad week for McCormick: A new fact check from Pennsylvania’s WGAL rated ‘True’ statements that McCormick “cut Pittsburgh jobs”; new reporting from the Capital-Star slammed McCormick for forcing “Pennsylvania teachers and taxpayers” to pay more; and Mehmet Oz hilariously mocked McCormick as a ‘finance bro’ who “has more ties to Wall Street and China than to Pennsylvania.” See for yourself:

• WRAL: “The first part of that claim that you hear, that ‘McCormick cut Pittsburgh jobs,’ is true.”

• Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Pennsylvania Capital-Star: How Pa. teachers’ pensions fit into the feud between Oz, McCormick. “Arthur Steinberg, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that it’s “despicable that a vulture capitalist billionaire is using our members’ retirement money to flood broadcast and cable news with dishonest ads and try to buy an election.”

• WJET: Union members and Erie Democrats call out candidate Dave McCormick.“They say McCormick has profited from free trade globalization through the outsourcing of Pennsylvania jobs to China, when he was CEO of the company.”

• City and State: Dr. Oz taunts, parodies David McCormick in new ‘Always Sunny’-themed campaign ad. “In a new ad mimicking the comedic style of “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia,” U.S. Senate hopeful Dr. Mehmet Oz levied a number of accusations against his Republican primary opponent Dave McCormick, looking to frame the former hedge fund executive as a “finance bro” who has more ties to Wall Street and China than to Pennsylvania.”

NEW YORK TIMES: LAXALT WORKING TO OVERTURN ‘22 ELECTION – BEFORE A BALLOT HAS EVEN BEEN CAST.  Bombshell reporting from The New York Times this week details audio recordings of Adam Laxalt’s plan to overturn the results of the 2022 elections before even a single vote is cast.

→ New York Times: A Republican Fights Voter Fraud in His Race (231 Days Before Election Day)

• Nevadans still have 231 days until they head to the polls in November. But Adam Laxalt, the former attorney general of Nevada and a Republican candidate for Senate, is already laying detailed groundwork to fight election fraud in his race — long before a single vote has been cast or counted.

• In conversations with voters at an event at his campaign headquarters this month, Laxalt explained how he’s vetting outside groups to help him establish election observer teams and map out a litigation strategy.

• “I don’t talk about that, but we’re vetting which group we think is going to do better,” Laxalt told an attendee, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times from a person who attended the event and opposes Laxalt’s candidacy.

• Laxalt, who was one of the leaders of the Trump campaign’s effort to overturn the results in Nevada, has stated before that voter fraud is the “biggest issue” of the campaign and has publicly talked about establishing a large force of election observers and his plan to file election lawsuits early.

… WHILE LAXALT FIXATES ON BIG LIE, CORTEZ-MASTO RESERVES “RECORD SMASHING” AD BUY. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto this week made a $10 million ad buy for the last two months of the election, a record-breaking sum for a Nevada candidate..

• Nevada Independent: Cortez Masto reserves record-smashing $10 million for ads in election’s final stretch. “Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto will make $10 million in advertising reservations for the last two months of the election, a record-breaking sum for a Nevada candidate.”

“A VIABLE GOP CANDIDATE HAS YET TO EMERGE” – NEW HAMPSHIRE R’S STUCK WITH “ANONYMOUS” SENATE CANDIDATES. New reporting from National Journal highlights the “vacuum” in the current NH GOP Senate primary, as “a viable GOP candidate has yet to emerge.”

→ National Journal: The anonymous GOP primary in the Granite State

• [Sununu’s] decision to run for a fourth term in the governor’s office opened a vacuum from which a viable GOP candidate has yet to emerge.

• “With Sununu out of the race, we’re lacking that heavyweight candidate,” said Dante Scala, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. “So what we’re left with is three candidates, all of whom have significant weaknesses to overcome.”

• Read more from the New Hampshire Democratic Party HERE

… AND NH DEMS LAUNCH MITCHSTAKES DIGITAL CAMPAIGN – GOP CANDIDATES WOULD BE MCCONNELL RUBBER-STAMP. The New Hampshire Democratic Party launched “MitchStakes”  this week – a brand new website and digital ad campaign that highlights how GOP candidates would be a rubber-stamp for Mitch McConnell. See more from the New Hampshire Democratic Party HERE.

GEORGIA DEMOCRATS CALL OUT WALKER & GOP FOR TRUMP FIRST, GEORGIA LAST AGENDA AHEAD OF TRUMP RALLY. As Donald Trump prepares to stump with Herschel Walker in Georgia, Georgia Democrats are holding a press conference to call out Republicans’ ‘Trump first, Georgians last’ agenda: repealing the Affordable Care Act, increasing health care premiums, and gutting protections for pre-existing conditions. Read more from the GDP HERE.

“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” – COLORADO SENATE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE DISRESPECTS COPS.​​ News coverage is slamming Colorado GOP Senate candidate Gino Campana for refusing to cooperate with the police and asking officers, “do you know who I am.”

• AP: Colorado Senate hopeful ‘argumentative’ with police at party. “Gino Campana, a developer who is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Colorado, was warned by police that he risked being arrested for obstruction after he became argumentative with them about being cited for a noise violation during his daughter’s high school graduation party in 2013, according to police records.”

• Colorado Times Recorder: ‘Do You Know Who I Am?’ Reports Show CO Senate Candidate Campana Tried to Pull Rank on Police. “Campana, elected to city councilman less than two months earlier, asked one of the officers if the officer knew who he was, before telling them again to “be smart” about shutting down the party and telling them he didn’t want to read about it in the newspaper the next day.”

• Read more from the Colorado Democratic Party HERE

TROUBLE IN THE TAR HEEL STATE AS NASTY GOP “PRIMARY TURNS PERSONAL.” “Public bickering,” personal attacks, and “tensions” are rising in the “heated” GOP Senate primary. Between Ted Budd and Mark Walker’s bitter attacks, and the barrage of criticism against Pat McCrory’s losing record, the GOP field has devolved into one of the nastiest and most expensive primaries in the country. Read more from the NCDP here.

OHIO’S VERY OWN MARCH MADNESS – FALLOUT CONTINUES AFTER CANDIDATES NEARLY COME TO BLOWS. The Ohio Republican primary continues to escalate into chaos after a ​​confrontation between Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons went viral.

• NBC News: Ohio’s rowdy GOP Senate primary gets even messier after first debates. “The GOP candidates and super PACs advocating for them have already spent more than $31 million on advertising, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.”

• JUST THIS WEEK, THANKS TO SENATE DEMOCRATS

→ Senate Democrats Hold Hearings On Lowering Costs. This week Senate Democrats held hearings focused on addressing working families’ most pressing priorities, like cutting costs for working families, lowering home-care costs for seniors, and promoting American energy. It’s a clear contrast from Senate Republicans who are pushing the agenda of the ultra-wealthy and big corporations that get rich by keeping prices high. Read more from the DSCC here and here. 

IN THE STATES

CO – Colorado Times Recorder: Leading Bennet Challenger Doesn’t Believe in Climate Change: ‘It’s Called Weather’. “Hanks continued his answer by saying climate change is a plot by China to prevent the U.S. from expanding domestic manufacturing.”

FL – Fox 35 Orlando: Val Demings on key issues in race to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio. “’Groceries are too high at the stores, gas of course we know what’s going on at the gas pump over $4. We have to do everything that we can, certainly in the House of Representatives and the Senate to lower those costs,’ she said.”

GA – Savannah Morning News (Opinion): Herschel in hiding? Walker’s U.S. Senate campaign a disaster thus far, soon to worsen. “Walker isn’t so much running for U.S. Senate as he is running from it. He won’t debate his Republican primary opponents. He won’t appear for events that aren’t in a tightly controlled environment. He won’t speak to groups other than those guaranteed to be friendly to him. He won’t sit for Q&As with anybody other than Fox News, Newsmax or other fringe media.”

PA – Pennsylvania Capital Star: How Pa. teachers’ pensions fit into the feud between Oz, McCormick. “Arthur Steinberg, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American \  Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that it’s ‘despicable that a vulture capitalist billionaire is using our members’ retirement money to flood broadcast and cable news with dishonest ads and try to buy an election.’”

OH – Columbus Dispatch: Gender dominates GOP Ohio Senate debate as Mike Gibbons dismisses women’s oppression.“’I think when (women) weren’t allowed to vote, they were probably oppressed,’ Gibbons said during Monday’s debate.’

TWEET OF THE WEEK: 

David Bergstein
@DavidABergstein

Amanda Sherman
@asherman89

Pat Burgwinkle
@Burgwinkle

Nora Keefe
@norakatekeefe

Freedom Murphy
@F_AlexanderM

Eli Cousin
@elicousin

Claire Berry
@claireliseberry

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