HOW GOP CENTRISTS MEDDLED IN A PRIMARY TO SAVE NEWHOUSE Some of GOP Rep. Dan Newhouse’s supporters were worried about his fate after he came in a distant second place in his Washington state primary last month. But it was all part of the plan. Newhouse — one of two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack — finished 15,000 votes behind conservative challenger Jerrod Sessler in a heated, five-way primary. Now, he’ll appear on the ballot in November against the candidate he actually wanted to run against. And it wasn’t just a stroke of luck: His allies in the Republican Main Street Partnership had been secretly working toward that outcome. In the four days before the primary, the GOP centrist group spent $35,000 on a micro-targeting texting campaign to drum up MAGA support for Sessler, a move that hasn’t been previously reported. Until recently, Newhouse faced a very murky future as he seeks his sixth term. The GOP incumbent had to go up against a pair of Trump-backed challengers in the all-party, top-two primary: Sessler, who’s backed by the Freedom Caucus, and Tiffany Smiley, a well-known Republican with strong D.C. connections after her failed Senate run last cycle. The Republican Main Street group, led by president and CEO Sarah Chamberlain, wanted to make sure Newhouse would go up against Sessler to have the best shot at winning in November. “Tiffany would have been a problem for Dan,” Chamberlain said in an interview. So they deployed their own strategy: “We had 35,000 MAGA [voters] that we knew were hard-core Trumpers. And we had all their contacts, so we just kept texting.” The messages, she said, were intended to promote Sessler as Trump’s preferred candidate in the race, since the former president had actually endorsed both candidates. A game of 4-D chess: Washington state’s primary system required a complex strategy by Main Street and its allies: They decided to pour money into the race to back the more “MAGA” candidate to keep Smiley off the ballot this fall — while actually spending against their preferred candidate. Ultimately, Sessler won 33 percent of the vote and nabbed the first spot in the top-two primary. Newhouse edged out Smiley for the second slot, 23 percent to 19 percent. The leading Democratic candidate got 14 percent of the vote. Smiley would have been the worst sort of opponent for Newhouse: The district is fairly Republican, so Newhouse could beat a Democrat easily. He is also likely to fend off a far-right Republican, because he would pick up votes from independents and Democrats. But his supporters worried that Smiley — who staked out moderate stances when she ran statewide two years ago — could beat him. (Republicans were baffled that Smiley decided to run against Newhouse this cycle, rather than waiting for him to retire or seeking out a neighboring district, like Washington’s competitive 3rd District.) Avoiding Trump blowback: It was a politically risky move for the Main Street group to meddle in a primary in which Trump himself is personally invested. Days before the race, Trump, who had been backing Sessler, added a second endorsement of Smiley and lashed out at Newhouse as a “weak and pathetic RINO” in a Truth Social post. But Chamberlain said they were able to avoid any blowback from Trump and his team because one of their own GOP House members clued them in early on their strategy. “Before we spent a dollar, he — not the staff — got the call saying, ‘This is what we’re doing, here’s why we’re doing it, and we’re asking not to criticize. Oh, and by the way, when you get elected president, to get your agenda through, you need the Main Street members to do this.’ And he understands that. ... He’s never gonna like Dan. We don’t expect Dan to be close to him, but we were able to do that without any blowback from the MAGA people,” Chamberlain said. Trump’s name is sure to come up plenty in the general election: Sessler, for instance, attended the Trump-backed demonstration at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, though he said he didn’t go inside the building. Newhouse voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the riot that day. — Sarah Ferris and Ally Mutnick GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, where we’re pouring one out for the last ever “hallway pizza intern.” (More on that in Hotdish) BIDEN’S EXTRA FUNDING ASKS When they return from the lengthy August break next week, lawmakers will have just three weeks to pass a short-term spending patch that averts a government shutdown on Oct. 1. That will be complicated enough, but the White House has a 30-page list of extra funding asks — routine requests known as anomalies. A so-called continuing resolution would mean stagnant budgets for most federal programs at least through Election Day. The additional requests are ones the Biden administration is arguing need a special spending boost. The big-ticket items: The Biden administration is pushing for an extra $12 billion for veterans’ medical care, meant to address a major looming shortfall. Officials are also looking for $7.7 billion to ensure that women, infants and children can continue receiving federal food assistance and another $15.4 billion to help the Social Security Administration avoid some serious staffing and customer service woes. Plus, the White House is asking for nearly $2 billion for Navy shipbuilding, $2.4 billion to help manage Federal Student Aid operations and $1 billion to assist Haitian, Cuban and Ukrainian refugees, among other priorities. The list of “anomalies” essentially kicks off the debate over what federal programs will receive a boost beyond the static spending levels included in a likely stopgap measure. A number of other priorities are also in the mix when it comes to that continuing resolution, including disaster aid and money to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. — Caitlin Emma and Joe Gould ABORTION ADS EVERYWHERE … EXCEPT ONE HOUSE DISTRICT House Majority PAC, the Democratic caucus’ largest super PAC, is hitting the airwaves in key districts today with a dozen ads focused on abortion — except in one. In Rep. Jared Golden’s (D-Maine) district, the super PAC is instead focusing on general attacks on GOP challenger Austin Theriault, both on his attendance record in Maine’s state house and anticipated support for GOP leadership in Congress. Trump won the district by about 6 points in 2020. It’s a notable departure, since abortion access has been a major attack line for Democrats. Although it’s still early in the ad cycle, every single other ad released today by House Majority PAC in challenging districts across the country are focused on abortion, from California and Washington to Iowa, Ohio and New York. (Worth noting: Theriault is a first-time candidate who has a lesser-known bio than many other GOP candidates, many of whom have already run for public office.) Interestingly, Golden himself has highlighted abortion access, drawing attention to Theriault’s votes against enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution and touting his own support for legislation expanding abortion rights. But Democrats have largely trusted Golden to handle his own messaging, given he outperformed President Joe Biden in the district by almost 14 points in 2020. — Katherine Tully-McManus
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