May 3, 2024 Press Releases

DSCC FRIDAY TAKEAWAYS: SENATE GOP CANDIDATES “FEELING THE HEAT” OVER “CANDIDATE QUALITY,” SCOTUS ANNIVERSARY HAS GOP “ON THE DEFENSIVE OVER ABORTION”

REPUBLICANS’ “CANDIDATE QUALITY” DÉJÀ VU… → This week, as Senate Republican candidates are “feeling the heat” amid another round of reports exposing their deep flaws and critical vulnerabilities, even Mitch McConnell started raising concerns (AGAIN) about Republicans’ “candidate quality” issues.

Nathan Gonzales at Roll Call reported that “top Republican candidates have been feeling the heat in the media in the past few weeks,” as a series of reports make their recruits “look unqualified for the job,” and “give Democrats an opportunity to shift key races into personal contrasts.”

MSNBC reported, “Senate GOP leaders were right to worry about ‘candidate quality’ in recent years. There’s little to suggest, however, that they’ve solved the problem.”

… BECOMING A PRIMETIME PROBLEM → This week, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show detailed the pattern of scandals, biographical lies, and damaging vulnerabilities that have emerged about Republican Senate recruits in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Montana, Michigan, and Arizona.

On Eric Hovde in Wisconsin: “He lives in Laguna Beach, California, where indeed his bank is named a co-defendant in a nursing home elder abuse lawsuit. And he is running for Senate in Wisconsin, where 18% of the population is over the age of 65. He’s running there by saying repeatedly that people in nursing homes shouldn’t be allowed to vote.”

On David McCormick in Pennsylvania: “Here’s the AP headline on the Republicans’ U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania: David McCormick is gearing up for a Senate run in Pennsylvania, but he lives in Connecticut. That seems bad…He’s going to describe himself as someone who started with nothing, who grew up on a family farm in Pennsylvania…David McCormick largely grew up at what is now Bloomsburg University in the president’s sprawling hilltop residence, which students call the ‘President’s Mansion.’”

On Tim Sheehy in Montana: “Republicans have decided to run someone…in Montana…who grew up in the suburbs of St. Paul…This follows another quite unusual controversy for this Montana Senate candidate in which he either dropped a loaded gun in a parking lot at Glacier National Park, and the gun went off when it hit the ground, and he thereby shot himself in the arm. Or he didn’t really shoot himself in the arm by dropping a gun…but he nevertheless went to the hospital anyway.”

On Mike Rogers in Michigan: “Cue the headlines out of Michigan: Michigan Republican candidate caught living in Florida…Mike Rogers again wants to be the senator from Michigan, but he does appear to be registered to vote in Florida at his very nice house in Cape Coral, Florida, where he is registered with the Republican Party of Florida, voter status active. Where is Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood indeed?”

On Kari Lake in Arizona: “Kari Lake is the Republican Party’s best idea of who they should run for the United States Senate seat…she wants individual sheriffs in Arizona to start enforcing the state’s 1864 abortion ban.”

SAM BROWN’S NUCLEAR-SIZED BACKLASH AS HE GRABS THE “THIRD RAIL OF NEVADA POLITICS” → Sam Brown is facing major criticism from Nevadans after a report from the LA Times uncovered his support for the controversial Yucca Mountain project that would create a “graveyard for nuclear detritus” in Nevada. Brown called the failure to open the facility an “incredible loss of revenue” for Nevada, putting himself on the wrong side of a “third rail in Nevada politics.”

Las Vegas Sun: “Nevada representatives and local policy advocates gathered Thursday to criticize Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sam Brown for his endorsement two years ago of plans to store the nation’s nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.”

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS… SPELLS TROUBLE FOR REPUBLICANS → Republicans are also facing new concerns over their primary problems, as McConnell conceded this week that GOP favorite Sam Brown is facing a “tough primary,” despite support from national Republicans.

ALSO MESSY IN MICHIGAN → POLITICO reported, “The Michigan Senate race is becoming more of a headache than Republicans had hoped,” as the primary between Sandy Pensler, Mike Rogers, and Justin Amash becomes more “expensive” and “messy,” much to the “chagrin of the Republicans.” Sandy Pensler is reportedly “gearing up to spend big bucks…to contrast with his opponents in the race, including the Trump-backed Mike Rogers.”

🏎️ MORENO’S ASTON MARTIN MESS → A new report from Mother Jones reveals the story of Bernie Moreno’s $3.4 million Aston Martin Vulcan, a car worth “90 times Ohio’s median per capita income:”

Moreno had a police escort him to drive the car on closed public roads, and “public records requests processed by the city of North Olmsted and obtained by Mother Jones did not return records indicating Moreno paid the city for its services.”

Moreno also appears to have lied about how he imported the car – with Aston Martin “contradicting” Moreno’s account.

“Brown, whom Moreno is running against, drives a Jeep Cherokee assembled in Toledo by union members.”

LIVING UNDER RICK SCOTT’S ABORTION BAN → This week, as Florida’s Rick Scott-backed six-week abortion ban went into effect, Scott faced backlash from local leaders and advocates from across the state. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign highlighted Scott’s support for the dangerous ban with a mobile billboard and digital ads. On the same day the abortion ban went into effect, Rick Scott said he would take the ban further, committing to sign “any anti-abortion bill.”

SCOTUS ANNIVERSARY “PUT REPUBLICANS ON THE DEFENSIVE OVER ABORTION” → This week, around the second anniversary of the leaked Republican Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Senate Democrats “put Republicans on the defensive over abortion” for their “anti-abortion stances.”

📣 DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters’ statement: “This anniversary is a stark reminder of the stakes of this election, and the importance of protecting Democrats’ Senate majority with the power to confirm or reject Supreme Court justices. In 2024, as Republicans continue using every tool they can to threaten women’s reproductive rights, Americans will protect Democrats’ Senate majority that is fighting to defend their freedoms.”

Democrats across Senate battleground states are holding GOP Senate candidates accountable for opposing women’s right to make their own health care decisions and standing in lockstep with their party’s dangerous agenda to ban abortion nationwide, without exceptions. Read more.

The DSCC relaunched GOPonAbortion.com this week, a website highlighting GOP Senate candidates’ own words and records opposing women’s right to make their own health care decisions. The site also includes an updated video, “In Their Own Words,” showing GOP candidates caught on tape supporting dangerous abortion bans.

The DSCC also launched a new digital ad detailing Kari Lake’s support for Arizona’s dangerous 1864 ban. The spot features Lake in her own words praising the 1864 abortion ban as a “great law,” doubling down on her support for it after the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the law, and calling for sheriffs to enforce the 1864 abortion ban.

SAY WHAT?… This week, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Sen. Steve Daines said that the NRSC’s polling shows abortion is “an important voting issue for single women in particular.”

📣 DSCC statement: “In case the NRSC is wondering, access to abortion is not just important for ‘single’ women. If that’s what their polling shows, it does help explain why Senate Republican candidates are so badly out of touch with voters on this issue in every state.”

TROUBLE IN PARADISE → A report from the Washington Post detailed how “tensions [are] grow[ing] between Trump and Lake,” as the former president worries Lake will “drag down his…numbers.” To make matters more embarrassing, as Lake campaigns everywhere but Arizona, “after grumbling for months that she was at his Mar-a-Lago Club too often, Trump gently suggested to Lake that she should leave the club and hit the campaign trail in Arizona.”

📹 LIGHTS, CAMERA, DISASTER → Tim Sheehy’s vulnerabilities were on full display during his first on-camera interview with a Montana media outlet since revelations emerged that he lied about his biography. The Montana Democratic Party released a video in response, using Sheehy’s own words refusing to answer about his inconsistencies around his military service and gunshot wound, his current staffer’s support for neo-Nazi social media posts, and his struggling taxpayer-funded business. Watch here.

IN THE STATES →