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Presented by Facebook: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | | PRIMARY DAY LATEST — In Georgia so far, the election has gone relatively smoothly today: There are “short lines and limited problems,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Niesse reports.
|  If Donald Trump’s endorsement hasn’t been a panacea in Georgia, they’re still dreaming of it in Arizona and Missouri. | Joe Maiorana, File/AP Photo |
TESTING TRUMP’S POWER — You’ve heard plenty by now about what today’s GOP primary elections will reveal about DONALD TRUMP’s endorsement, policy and messaging power in the Republican Party, via the high-profile Georgia gubernatorial race and the Alabama Senate contest. But there are plenty of other things to keep an eye on to gauge just how far a Trump endorsement can go.
— In Georgia: Down ballot from the BRIAN KEMP/DAVID PERDUE matchup, Georgia’s 6th Congressional District has been redrawn into a safe GOP district. (Incumbent Democrat LUCY MCBATH jumped ship for a different one.) In today’s primary, Trump-backed JAKE EVANS has landed support from SEAN HANNITY and NEWT GINGRICH while getting financial campaign support from his own family — including his father, Trump’s ambassador to Luxembourg. But he faces, among others, physician RICH MCCORMICK, who narrowly lost to Rep. CAROLYN BOURDEAUX two years ago, per NYT’s Azi Paybarah. — Former Democratic state Rep. VERNON JONES, who drew a lot of attention for his Trump support (and has in return received his endorsement), is now running for Congress as a Republican. But he’s struggling to clear the field in his primary, NYT’s Jazmine Ulloa reports. Jones has grappled with controversies and the lingering stigma of his former party affiliation. In a crowded field, trucking company owner MIKE COLLINS has raised the most money. — But if Trump’s endorsement hasn’t been a panacea in Georgia, they’re still dreaming of it in Missouri. The Kansas City Star’s Daniel Desrochers takes a look at the GOP Senate candidates’ efforts to land an elusive Trump endorsement in the August primary. Rep. BILLY LONG is pulling support from KELLYANNE CONWAY, ERIC GREITENS from DONALD TRUMP JR., ERIC SCHMITT from PAM BONDI and Rep. VICKY HARTZLER from Sen. JOSH HAWLEY. Despite allegations of domestic abuse, Greitens has remained the frontrunner in the race, but one GOP strategist tells Desrochers that a Trump surge could tip the tight race to Greitens, Schmitt or Hartzler. — And in Arizona, PETER THIEL has ponied up another $3.5 million behind BLAKE MASTERS in the Senate primary, WaPo’s Isaac Stanley-Becker scoops . (Thiel’s investment in Masters’ campaign: $13.5 million and counting.) That follows Thiel and Trump’s alliance to get J.D. VANCE across the finish line in Ohio, which they celebrated in a phone call after the primary. Still, there’s one thing Masters hasn’t gotten yet: “People close to Masters say the money helps make him viable, and provides a symbolic boost, but is nowhere near as consequential as what Trump decides to do.” — Related read: “Trump’s picks in Tuesday’s GOP primaries spent over $400,000 at Mar-a-Lago,” by CNBC’s Brian Schwartz
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Learn more about our work ahead. | | | THREE NOTABLE MEDIA NEWS BITES: — Former White House press secretary JEN PSAKI will officially join MSNBC as an on-air contributor this fall, with her own show launching on streaming in the first quarter of next year. Psaki said in a statement that she wants to “break down the facts, get to the bottom of what’s driving the issues and hopefully have some fun along the way.” MSNBC’s statement — CHRIS STIREWALT has landed at NewsNation as political editor. He previously (and famously) was politics editor for Fox News. — Votebeat is turning into a permanent newsroom today, with $3.1 million in funding raised by Chalkbeat, per Axios’ Sara Fischer . It will begin with nine staffers covering voting across Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas, but wants to eventually encompass all 50. Originally started as a pop-up venture in 2020, Votebeat is led by JESSICA HUSEMAN. The new site Good Tuesday afternoon. ALL POLITICS LATEST PENNSYLVANIA UPDATE — New guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of State advised counties to tally undated mail-in/absentee ballots that were received on time, but to keep them separate amid ongoing litigation. The ballots have emerged as a point of contention in the ultra-close tally of the GOP Senate primary between MEHMET OZ and DAVID MCCORMICK. More from The Philadelphia Inquirer POLL OF THE DAY — Sixty-one percent of Trump voters agree with a core claim of the false “great replacement” conspiracy theory, namely that “a group of people in this country are trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants and people of color who share their political views,” per a new Yahoo/YouGov poll. Thirty-four percent of Americans overall agree with that statement. BEYOND THE BELTWAY AT THE BORDER — An influx of migrants is straining the system near the U.S.-Mexico border, where a collection of small nonprofit shelters and others are forced to fill the gap by helping care for new arrivals and sending them on their way, NYT’s Eileen Sullivan reports from San Benito, Texas. In some ways, the Biden administration is dependent on these groups “to stave off politically explosive images of chaos and disorder” before the midterms, and it’s seeking to fund them directly for the first time. But the swelling numbers are now pushing many of them to their limits. MEGATREND — For the first time since 2014, the number of U.S. births rose last year, per new CDC data. More from ABC
| | | | HAPPENING WEDNESDAY—A WOMEN RULE TALK ON THE MIDTERMS : Join POLITICO’S Women Rule for a conversation with the women running the midterm campaigns and how they are shaping messaging and strategy for their candidates. The program will look into what a win for either party could mean for access to reproductive health care, economic advancement of women, and how the final stages of the COVID-19 pandemic are managed. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | CONGRESS PELOSI SPEAKS — Speaker NANCY PELOSI pushed back on the Catholic archbishop in San Francisco who denied her communion over her abortion rights support, saying on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today, “Let’s just say that … I wonder about death penalty, which I am opposed to. So is the church, but they take no action against people who may not share their view.” Watch here THE ECONOMY WOWZER — New home sales in the U.S. plummeted way further — 16.6% — than economists expected last month, the biggest decline in almost nine years. More from Bloomberg FED UP — Meanwhile, the Fed will face a difficult set of decisions regarding “how far and how fast rates need to go up to make a dent in the housing market without triggering a painful economic slowdown,” report WSJ’s Nick Timiraos and Nikki Friedman. POLICY CORNER TALES FROM THE CRYPTO — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has become ground zero for a cryptocurrency lobbying battle, as SAM BANKMAN-FRIED’s FTX exchange seeks permission “to let investors use borrowed money to trade crypto around the clock,” reports Sam Sutton . That plan has set off alarm bells at the big establishment exchanges like the NYSE, which now “are leveraging deep ties in Washington to fight back.” AMERICA AND THE WORLD NO-GO ON NO KO — Though President JOE BIDEN was in the neighborhood this week, “the prospect for reengaging North Korea remains further out of reach than ever,” report WaPo’s Min Joo Kim and Michelle Ye Hee Lee from Seoul. The wait-and-see approach from the Biden administration marks a break from Trump’s closer engagement with KIM JONG UN, but a return to the Obama-era strategy, experts say.
| | | | A message from Facebook:   | | | WAR IN UKRAINE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS … — Winds of change? A new AP/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll clocks a slight shift in Americans’ willingness to sacrifice to help Ukraine: When it comes to sanctions on Russia, 51% of Americans want to prioritize limiting damage to the U.S. economy, while 45% prioritize the most effective sanctions. That’s a reversal from last month. — Russian forces continued to pummel Sievierodonetsk, the Donbas holdout whose fall would mark a victory for Russia in Ukraine’s east, overnight and into today. Four more civilians were reported killed, per the NYT. — Two hundred bodies were discovered in the basement of a Mariupol apartment building, per the AP. — “The only U.S. officials in Washington who are interested in talking to Russian Ambassador ANATOLY ANTONOV these days, he says, are from the FBI, who are blanketing him and his staff with targeted social-media ads, inviting them to spy on Moscow,” WSJ’s Alan Cullison and Ann Simmons report in a look at both countries’ ambassadors’ respective difficulties. — WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov explores the tactics of Ukrainian reconnaissance teams that push into no man’s land to try to help ambush Russian forces. (It’s worth clicking just for the camouflage photos.)
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS OUT AND ABOUT — The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies celebrated Lisa Cook’s swearing in at the Fed on Monday at Boqueria, just after she took her oath. SPOTTED: Spencer Overton, Barbara Johnson, Paul Thornell, Wade Henderson, Lisa Rice, Rob Nichols, Caitlyn Stephenson, Tanya Otsuka, Gautam Raghavan, Joi Chaney, Rodney Hood, Gisele Roget and Ashley Lewis. — SPOTTED on Day One of the APAICS Legislative Leadership Summit on Monday, co-chaired by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) at the Renaissance Hotel in D.C.: Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Vermont state Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, retired Maj. Gen. Sharon Dunbar, Madalene Xuan-Trang Mielke, Glenna Beach, Irene Bueno, Rachel Ramirez, Juliet K. Choi, Vikrum Aiyer, Vanessa Chen, Cynthia Choi, Won Palisoul, Lourdes Tiglao and Allister Chang. WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Thilee Yost is now scheduling coordinator in the Office of the Vice President. She most recently was deputy director of scheduling for Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). MEDIA MOVE — Rebecca Tan will be WaPo’s new Southeast Asia bureau chief. Announcement TRANSITIONS — Caitlin Reedy is now press secretary for Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). She most recently was press secretary for Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.). … Aimee Witteman is now VP for the states and regions program at the Energy Foundation. She most recently was deputy assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Energy. … Jana Lozano will be director of federal affairs for Denver International Airport. She most recently was acting deputy assistant administrator for government and industry affairs and senior congressional liaison at the FAA. … … Demian Ahn is now of counsel in Wilson Sonsini’s privacy and cybersecurity practice. He most recently was an assistant U.S. Attorney for D.C. … Chris Gober, Simone Ledeen and John Lappe have founded the due diligence and risk analysis consulting firm Vantage Point. Gober is the founder and managing partner of the Gober Group law firm, Ledeen was the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Middle East policy in the Trump administration, and Lappe ran a research and due diligence firm. … Martha Miller is now a senior associate at CGCN. She most recently was scheduler and executive assistant for Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). WEEKEND WEDDING — Delayne Smith, senior legislative assistant for Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), and Alexander Hyatt, assistant director of membership programs at the Heritage Foundation, got married this weekend in Dallas. They met while interning together at Heritage in 2019. Pic … Another pic
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