July 5, 2024 Press Releases

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: GOP SENATE CANDIDATES FACING FIREWORKS IN THE PRESS, HOGAN HAMMERED

ROGERS, BROWN, LAKE, HOVDE, SHEEHY & MCCORMICK FACING FIREWORKS IN THE PRESS →

ROGERS HAS “SIGNIFICANT TIES TO SAUDI ARABIA” → Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers “has been linked to several Saudi companies […] which he has personally gained from,” “including one with questionable nuclear ambitions,” new reporting from Heartland Signal finds. These reports come as Rogers has a “history of supporting Chinese business interests, despite his campaign’s anti-China rhetoric.”

SAM BROWN CALLED OUT FOR “GASLIGHTING VOTERS” ON MAGA ANTI-CHOICE RECORD → New reporting this week from the Nevada Current details Brown’s blatantly false assertion that “[Dobbs] strengthened Nevada’s protections for abortion,” writing “[The Dobbs decision] has forced women from states such as Texas, where Brown says he would have worked to pass a restrictive abortion law, to seek medical care in other states, often under excruciating circumstances such as knowing a pregnancy is not viable.” The reporting highlights how Brown is “gaslighting voters” by refusing to “say how he will vote in November on a very real abortion measure on Nevada’s ballot.”

🚨 “RAISING THE ALARM” ABOUT ANTI-LGBTQ SAM BROWN → Sam Brown “embodies a particularly stark strain of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment that has become increasingly visible within the Republican Party,” according to a new piece in the Advocate. The piece details how, from his “tenure as president and chairman of the Nevada Faith and Freedom Coalition” to his record supporting “Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ legislation,” Brown “pose[s] a significant threat to equality.”

LAKE IS ANYWHERE BUT AZ, AND MAKING MONEY OFF OF IT → Reporting from Business Insider details how Kari Lake is “spending lots of time outside the state, much to the chagrin of Republicans — including former President Donald Trump.” The report also finds that Lake continues “making some extra money by doing it,” in addition to the $75,000 she pocketed “in the year before she announced her campaign,” contradicting her “campaign’s previous statement that Lake ‘doesn’t [charge] a speaking fee.’”

WHEN THE HEADLINE SAYS IT ALL: “ARIZONA BORDER MAYOR WHO CAMPAIGNED WITH LAKE ENDORSES GALLEGO FOR SENATE” → The Washington Examiner reports that Jorge Maldonado, “an Arizona mayor in a major border town who once campaigned alongside Republican Senate hopeful Kari Lake,” “is now endorsing […] Ruben Gallego,” “making him the third border mayor to back Gallego’s Senate bid.”

HOVDE: EXPANDED INSURANCE COVERAGE IS “STUPID” → Heartland Signal reports that, in a new audio recording, Eric Hovde “derid[ed] the Obamacare policy which allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health care plan until they are 26.” Hovde goes on to call the policy a “stupid idea” and instead suggests that young people “need to grow up and move on.”

SHEEHY ABRUPTLY RESIGNS AS CEO AMID STOCK LOWS, EMPLOYEE LAWSUITS, & $77 MILLION IN LOSSES → A wave of new local reports detail the unanswered questions surrounding Sheehy’s abrupt departure from his company.

NonStop Local: “Stock data for Bridger Aerospace shows a significant drop since 2022.”

Daily Montanan: “The company reported concerns about its finances at the end of the year and is facing a lawsuit from two former employees who claim Sheehy and Bridger’s former parent company breached a contract involving stock compensation.”

Helena Independent Record: “Bridger Aerospace has struggled in recent months, saying it may not be able to meet its financial obligations. Its stock has declined nearly 50% this year.”

FACT CHECK: TRUE, MCCORMICK NOT A PA VOTER FOR YEARS → This week, Fox 43 confirmed that David McCormick “did not vote in Allegheny County, where he’s registered, from 2007 to 2022,” failing to vote in Pennsylvania for “more than 15 years.”

MESSY IN MICHIGAN → Reporting from the Detroit News highlights the Michigan GOP primary’s “messy” infighting as “Republican rivals attack Rogers,” slamming him for “flipping [stances] […] when it served his electoral pursuits.”

📰 EXTRA EXTRA! HOGAN GETS HAMMERED BY EDITORIAL BOARDS →

Baltimore Sun: Hogan a Nonpartisan? History Tells a Different Tale. “As governor [Hogan] hewed to the conservative party line, vetoing expanded access to abortion, opposing a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights in the state and refusing just two years ago to release budgeted funds to train abortion providers […] So how can Hogan — with a straight face no less — claim he was a nonpartisan governor?”

Frederick News-Post Editorial Board: It’s a bumpy path for Hogan’s Senate bid. “For both Republicans and Democrats, the choice may turn on the third critical issue in this race, which may be the most important of all: control of the Senate. Hogan… was convinced to run by the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell. With control of the Senate expected to be very close, Hogan could be the 51st vote, giving the GOP control.”

GOP SENATE CANDIDATES “HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON: THEY OPPOSE ABORTION RIGHTS” → A scathing new commentary piece in Salon calls out Senate Republican candidates for their long records opposing reproductive freedom and for “be[ing] a vote for a national abortion ban.”

Florida Senator Rick Scott released a campaign ad saying, “You can count on this grandpa to always protect IVF.” The only problem? The day before, he voted against the Right to IVF Act, which would have done just that.

And then there’s Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who introduced legislation for a national abortion ban. Texas women have died because of abortion bans in Senator Cruz’s home state. Now, he wants to end reproductive freedom for Californians, Michiganders, and New Yorkers.

Republican candidates Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania, Tim Sheehy in Montana, Sam Brown in Nevada, and Bernie Moreno in Ohio all have one thing in common: They oppose abortion rights.

TEXANS CALL OUT CRUZ’S SUPPORT OF TX’S ABORTION BAN → Over the weekend, local coverage detailed how Texans are calling out Ted Cruz for supporting Texas’ extreme abortion ban.

Lone Star Politics: Gromer Jeffers: “This will be an election where we really see if there’s some backlash to the abortion laws that Texas lawmakers have passed here – and those laws, that Cruz supports.”

NBC 5 (Dallas-Fort Worth): Lauren Miller: Cruz “supports the [Texas] ban, calling it ‘perfectly reasonable.’ I’ll be honest, I don’t think it’s perfectly reasonable that I was forced to leave this state, leave the ER, and spend thousands of dollars to get medical care to keep me alive – especially since many other Texans can’t do that.”

Lonestar Live: “Two Dallas women who left the state for abortions amid health complications and later sued over Texas’ ban slammed Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for the state’s current reproductive health care landscape.”

NOT A SURPRISE, GOP ADS “FILLED WITH LIES, DISTORTIONS” → A group associated with Mitch McConnell was found pushing ads that are “filled with lies, distortions,” according to reporting from the American Journal News. In fact, “many of the claims in these ads are not new and have been debunked previously.”

IN THE STATES →