The tangled strategy to save Dan Newhouse
Dan Newhouse, a Republican congressman from Washington State, was ranked second in the state’s primary in late July. It was all part and parcel of the plan.
Newhouse, one of the two House Republicans still voting to impeach Donald Trump for the attack on Capitol Hill in 2021 that occurred on Jan. 6, Newhouse finished 15 000 votes behind conservative Jerrod SESSLER after a hotly contested five-way primaries. He’ll now appear on the November ballot against the candidate that he wanted to run against.
It wasn’t just luck. His allies at the Republican Main Street Partnership were secretly working towards this outcome. The GOP centrist group, which has not been reported before, spent $35,000 in the last four days of the primary on a text messaging campaign that targeted specific groups to encourage MAGA support for Sessler.
Newhouse’s future was hazy until recently as he sought his sixth term. In the top-two, all-party primary, the GOP incumbent faced two Trump-backed opponents: Sessler who is backed by Freedom Caucus and Tiffany Smiley a well known Republican with strong D.C. ties after her failed Senate bid last cycle.
|
Sarah Chamberlain (President and CEO of the Republican Main Street Group) wanted to ensure that Newhouse faced Sessler in order to have the best chance to win in November.
Chamberlain stated in an interview that Tiffany would have been a problem to Dan. They devised their own strategy. “We had 35 000 MAGA (voters) that we knew to be hard-core supporters of Trump. We had their contact information, so we kept sending them texts.
Main Street and its supporters had to devise a complex strategy to win the Washington State primary. They chose to spend money against their preferred candidate, while also supporting the candidate who was more “MAGA”.
Sessler ended up winning 33 percent of votes and the top spot in the two-person primary. Newhouse beat Smiley to the second spot, 23 percent to 19. The Democratic candidate who received the most votes, 14 percent, was the leading candidate.
Smiley was the worst possible opponent for Newhouse. The district is overwhelmingly Republican so Newhouse would easily beat a Democrat. He would also be able to defeat a Republican who is far right, as he could pick up votes from Democrats and independents.
His supporters were worried that Smiley, who took moderate positions when she ran for statewide office two years ago, could defeat him. The Republicans were surprised that Smiley chose to run this year against Newhouse, instead of waiting for him retire or looking at a nearby district like Washington’s highly competitive 3rd District.
Avoiding Trump backlash: The Main Street group was taking a risk by interfering in a Trump primary. Trump is personally involved in the race. In a Truth Social posting, Trump, who was backing Sessler at the time, endorsed Smiley a second time and called Newhouse a “weak, pathetic RINO”. Chamberlain, however, said that they avoided any negative reaction from Trump’s team and the Sessler campaign because one of their own GOP House Members had informed them early about their strategy.
“Before spending a single dollar, the president — not his staff — received a call from the company saying: ‘This is our plan, this is why we are doing it and we ask that you not criticize.’ He understands, ‘Oh, and by-the-way, when you become president, you will need Main Street members in order to push your agenda. He’ll never like Dan. Chamberlain stated that we didn’t expect Dan would be close to him. However, it was possible to accomplish this without the MAGA crowd reacting negatively.
Trump’s name will be mentioned a lot in the general elections: Sessler attended the Trump-backed protest at the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2020, but he claimed he did not go inside. Newhouse voted for impeachment of Trump because he was responsible for inciting the riot on that day.
Sarah Ferris, Ally Mutnick
GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, your play-by-play guide for all things Capitol Hill. We’re giving out a pizza to the last “hallway intern” (more on this in Hotdish).
BIDEN’S EXTRA FINANCING ASKS
Next week, when they return from their long August break, lawmakers will only have three weeks to pass an emergency spending bill that prevents a shutdown of the government on October 1. The White House, however, has a list of 30 pages of additional funding requests – routine requests that are known as anomalies.
A continuing resolution, as it is called, would result in stagnant budgets of most federal programs until at least Election Day. Biden administration argues that the additional requests need an extra spending boost.
Biden’s administration wants an additional $12 billion to cover veterans’ medical costs, a huge shortfall that is looming. Officials also want $7.7 billion for women, infants and kids to continue to receive federal food assistance. Another $15.4 billion is needed to avoid serious staffing problems and poor customer service at the Social Security Administration.
The White House also wants to spend nearly $2 billion on Navy shipbuilding and $2.4 billion managing Federal Student Aid. It is also asking for $1 billion in assistance for Haitian, Cuban, and Ukrainian refugees.
The list of “anomalies,” essentially, kicks off the discussion over which federal programs will get a boost above the static spending levels in a possible stopgap. Other priorities, such as disaster aid and funds to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge are included in that continuing resolution.
Caitlin and Joe Gould
There are ABORTION ad everywhere… except for one house district
House Majority PAC is the largest super PAC of the Democratic caucus. It has a dozen ads that focus on abortion, except for one.
In Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), the super PAC focuses instead on general attacks against GOP challenger Austin Theriault. This is based on both his attendance record at Maine’s State House and on anticipated support for GOP leaders in Congress. Trump won the district in 2020 by approximately 6 points.
This is a significant departure for Democrats, who have long attacked abortion access. It’s early in the ad campaign, but every other ad released by House Majority PAC today in challenging districts throughout the country is focused on abortion. This includes California, Washington, Iowa, Ohio, and New York. Theriault, a first-time Republican candidate with a bio that is less well-known than other GOP candidates who have been in office for many years, has an interesting story.
