GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, February 23, where it's really just a countdown of minutes until Huddle Trivia Night!
CUELLAR V CISNEROS UP CLOSE — In Laredo, Texas, Jessica Cisneros and Henry Cuellar are fighting it out in the final week before the Democratic primary that could yield a big shakeup for border district politics. Cuellar is hammering his challenger with the same jabs that Republicans across the country are using to try and defeat Democrats: Saying she wants to defund the police and slash border enforcement. "But Cisneros is largely depriving her foe of that red meat, running a progressive campaign in a tough district that sounds starkly different from liberal icons like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Bernie Sanders," writes Sarah, from Laredo. "I think people have this preconceived notion of what it means to be running as a progressive," Cisneros, an immigration attorney based in Laredo, said in an interview. "It's healthcare and jobs. That's literally our bread and butter, and what we're talking about at the doors." TRUCKER TROUBLES? — Several convoys of truckers are expected in D.C. this week and continuing into March. They're protesting coronavirus restrictions and following the lead of truckers in Canada who occupied Ottawa for three weeks. Troops move in: The Pentagon has approved a request for 400 members of the DC National Guard to support traffic posts and 24-hour command and control operations, ASAP through Monday, March 7 at 11:59 p.m. The same authorization approved a request for 300 National Guard members from outside the District of Columbia. According to DCNG, the guard will not carry firearms or take part in law enforcement or domestic-surveillance activities. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) will be briefed this afternoon by Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger about security precautions and the possibility of fencing being reinstalled around the Capitol. Her team has promised an update after the briefing. PARTY FOUL — The DCCC is putting some distance between itself and Democratic congressional candidate Abby Broyles after she reportedly became intoxicated at a Valentine's Day weekend party with middle school-aged girls, insulted the children, and vomited on a girl's shoes. "The DCCC is not working with Abby Broyles' campaign and we condemn her abhorrent behavior," spokesperson Chris Taylor told POLITICO. The race was already an uphill climb for Broyles, an attorney and former journalist who also lost to Sen. Jim Inhofe in 2020 by about thirty percentage points. She was running against Republican Rep. Stephanie Bice in Oklahoma's 5th District, which has grown redder after the most recent round of redistricting. Broyles responded to the controversy Tuesday evening in a series of tweets, calling the controversy a "painful attack on my character" and saying "the things I'm accused of saying are not who I am, nor do they depict the entirety of the situation that occurred." RASHIDA'S REBUTTAL — Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) will deliver a formal response to resident Joe Biden's State of the Union address next week and is expected to hammer moderate Democrats in a moment where the president's party typically tries to project unity. This type of critical rebuttal is usually championed by the party out of power and Republicans have Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds tee'd up to tear down Biden's speech. Tlaib will be representing the Working Families Party and focus both on progressive victories and the intransigence of centrist Democrats. Holly Otterbein has more on Tlaib's talking points, obtained exclusively by POLITICO. | 
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