| | | | | | | | | | | Axios Sneak Peek | | By Alayna Treene, Hans Nichols and Zachary Basu · Jun 30, 2022 | | Welcome back to Sneak. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,048 words ... 4 minutes. 👀 Situational awareness: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) will face off in a primary debate against her Trump-backed opponent and three other challengers tonight at 9pm ET. C-SPAN stream. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Attack-resistant Dems | | Photos: Paras Griffin/Courtney Pedroza via Getty Images Republican strategists have discovered a problem: Personal attacks on two of the most vulnerable Democratic senators are falling flat because of their likability, Axios Atlanta's Emma Hurt and Axios Phoenix's Jeremy Duda report: - Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) is the pastor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church.
- Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is a former astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, a gun control activist who survived an assassination attempt in 2011.
Why it matters: In a broadly unfavorable national environment for Democrats, control of the Senate may rest on a pair of incumbents with two of the most compelling backstories in politics. - That's prompted the GOP to change tack: The National Republican Senatorial Committee is now spending most of its money trying to tie Warnock and Kelly to President Biden and his dismal approval rating.
- "Whatever you think of them as people — you may like Mark Kelly, you may like Raphael Warnock — they have interesting stories, personal biographies," Chris Hartline, the NRSC's director of communications, told Axios. "But the reality is they both went to Washington and became part of the problem."
Flashback: Republicans in Georgia unsuccessfully sought to portray Warnock as a "radical liberal socialist" in the 2020-21 special election, while also targeting his personal history by dredging up old sermons and taking a 2002 arrest out of context. - In Arizona, Republicans hit Kelly over his business record— in one NRSC ad, an animated astronaut dances as a narrator accuses Kelly of taking money from dangerous Chinese companies.
- That "attempt to sort of portray them as too liberal, extreme, shady cronies and whatever else, didn't cut through," Hartline acknowledged.
This year, the NRSC and other national Republican groups, including Senate leadership-aligned One Nation, are making a concerted effort to spend earlier in the cycle and hammer Democrats for supporting Biden at every opportunity. The other side: Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee communications director David Bergstein said Kelly and Warnock's identities transcend the national climate — pointing out that the two candidates both outperformed Biden in the last election. Share this story. |     | | | | | | 2. 📝 New juice for DeSantis '24 |  | | | Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photo: Ronda Churchill/Getty Images | | | | A new political group led by a veteran Republican strategist is plotting to jump-start a potential presidential bid by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with a legally extraordinary attempt to beef up his donor contact list, Axios' Lachlan Markay has learned. Why it matters: Ed Rollins' group, Ready for Ron, says it plans to gather the names and contact information of more than 1 million DeSantis supporters nationwide by the end of the year — then provide that potent political asset, free of charge, to the DeSantis camp. - Campaign finance experts say its proposed tactics are legally questionable, and, if accepted by federal regulators, would remake how candidates "test the waters" before runs at public office.
Driving the news: Ready for Ron, which Rollins founded in May, is gathering petition signatures urging DeSantis to run for the White House — boosted by digital and TV ads and plans for other promotions via billboards, blimps and even skywriting. - Ready for Ron told the FEC it expected to collect names, ZIP codes, email addresses and phone numbers for nearly 60,000 people by the end of June, and "well over a million" by the end of the year.
- If DeSantis doesn't run, the group says it will give the information to the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
The intrigue: Ready for Ron's proposed approach would test the bounds of campaign finance laws. - Ordinarily, any independent group that wants to give such a list to a candidate must either report it as an in-kind contribution or receive a fair market value payment.
- Ready for Ron told the FEC neither should be required, as the petition it plans to share with the DeSantis camp would merely be a public communication in support of DeSantis' candidacy — and thus unbound by campaign contribution limits.
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | 3. 🐘 McConnell's reconciliation threat |  | | | Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images | | | | In a tweet that ricocheted from Washington to Wall Street, Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-Ky.) declared his intent to hold hostage a major China competition bill that he and 18 other GOP senators voted for last June, Axios Hans' Nichols reports. - "Let me be perfectly clear: there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill," McConnell said, referring to the bill's Senate acronym.
Context: Senate Majority Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have been making quiet progress on rescuing parts of President Biden's Build Back Better agenda and cobbling together a smaller package on climate, energy and taxes. - A spate of headlines over the last 24 hours led to speculation that a deal could be close — until McConnell's aggressive intervention.
What they're saying: "Senate Republicans are literally choosing to help China out compete the U.S. in order to protect big drug companies," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. - "We are not going to back down in the face of this outrageous threat."
| | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | Start a new morning habit | | |  | | | | Every weekday morning, host Niala Boodhoo catches you up quick on the latest news and interesting stories you won't hear anywhere else. In 10 minutes, you'll hear the latest scoops, smart analysis, and insights into the trends shaping our world. Listen now for free. | | | | | | 4. 📈 Mapped: Which districts are Googling "abortion" |  Data: Google Trends. Map: Jacque Schrag and Will Chase/Axios "Abortion" landed in the top five most-Googled midterm topics in every single congressional district in America the week the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Axios' Stef Kight writes from our interactive midterms dashboard. - Five districts had "abortion" as their No. 1 most-searched issue: Arizona's 1st, California's 16th and 32nd, Massachusetts' 5th and Maine's 1st. All are rated solid Democratic districts by FiveThirtyEight except for Arizona's 1st, which leans Republican.
Go deeper. | | | | | | | | 5. 🏛️ Parting shot |  | | | Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | | | | Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) was among more than 180 people arrested by Capitol Police for blocking an intersection near the Supreme Court during an abortion rights protest. - Chu is the lead author of a bill to codify Roe v. Wade, which House Democrats plan to pass for a second time as part of a series of symbolic measures.
| | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | Start a new morning habit | | | | | | | | Every weekday morning, host Niala Boodhoo catches you up quick on the latest news and interesting stories you won't hear anywhere else. In 10 minutes, you'll hear the latest scoops, smart analysis, and insights into the trends shaping our world. Listen now for free. | | | | 📬 Thanks for reading and enjoy your holiday weekend! We'll be back next Tuesday. |  | It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here.
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