 | BY STEVEN SHEPARD | Presented by |  |
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Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) greets attendees at the first Republican primary debate for the 4th Congressional district seat on Jan. 25, 2024, in Fort Lupton, Colorado. | David Zalubowski/AP | PRIMARY POLITICS — You might not know it at first glance, but Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) — both of whom face challenging primaries today — actually have a lot in common. Both were first elected after toppling longtime incumbents in primaries during the Covid summer of 2020. Before coming to Washington, both dallied with conspiracy theories . Since joining Congress, both have associated with the most extreme factions of their parties — Boebert with the House Freedom Caucus, Bowman as part of “The Squad.” And both became national punchlines last year, whether it was Bowman pulling a fire alarm at the Capitol, or Boebert pulling, er, something else at a musical theater production in Denver. But largely because they’re from different parties, their careers in Washington are likely to diverge this evening: Bowman is a decided underdog in his Democratic primary in the immediate suburbs north of New York City, while the carpetbagging Boebert is strongly favored to win the Republican nomination. The two races — along with hundreds of other congressional primaries already conducted this year — demonstrate that GOP primary voters mostly like their bomb-throwing members, especially when they’re aligned with former President Donald Trump. But if Bowman loses, it will show that even if extremism is no vice in Republican primaries, it’s not what Democratic voters want. Polling shows Democrats aren’t just more likely to want a more expansive and activist government — they are far more likely than Republicans to say the government often does a better job than people give it credit for, and they are significantly more likely to say they want their leaders to compromise with Republicans than Republicans are to want theirs to compromise with Democrats. In other words, the same dynamics that led to Trump nearly sweeping the Republican presidential primaries despite his legal woes, and the lack of any real opposition to President Joe Biden’s renomination on the left, are on display at the congressional level — and are framing the choice voters will face up and down the ticket in November. Bowman’s opponent, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, has attacked Bowman for positioning himself to Biden’s left and not supporting the president’s agenda. Latimer’s slogan in his TV ads is “Real Progressive Results. Not Rhetoric.” Boebert’s messaging, meanwhile, focuses on red-meat Republican issues like immigration and touts her Trump endorsement . She’s banked her candidacy on running to the far right. Boebert does have some structural advantages: There are five other candidates in her district, compared to Bowman, who faces a head-to-head challenge from Latimer, who also has a significant cash advantage over Bowman. But in other ways, a Boebert victory would be even more noteworthy than Bowman holding on given her district switch. She currently represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District, which comprises much of the state’s Western Slope. But after a close shave in the 2022 midterms — Boebert defeated Democrat Adam Frisch by only 546 votes — she moved across the state to the Eastern Plains in the 4th District when then-Rep. Ken Buck announced late last year he wouldn’t seek reelection. It was a cynical ploy: Buck’s district is more solidly Republican than Boebert’s current seat, which is mostly rural but also includes blue areas like the city of Pueblo. While voters don’t generally respond well to that sort of carpetbagging, Boebert’s name recognition and far right conservatism has her poised to win the primary. Boebert and Bowman’s diverging fortunes aren’t just markers of an organic political moment. The Bowman primary is the most expensive in American history; the United Democracy Project, the super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Political Affairs Committee, shelled out $14.8 million to defeat the incumbent. Boebert doesn’t face that level of opposition, and the Republican establishment — led by Trump — is in her corner. But the AIPAC-funded attack ads against Bowman underscore Democrats’ aversion to his brand of politics. United Democracy Project’s final ad in the district, which was still airing on primary day, says Bowman “refused to compromise” and support the debt-limit deal Biden reached with House Republicans last year. Yes, money matters. But no matter how much money was spent, it’s hard to imagine an ad criticizing a Republican congressional candidate for refusing to compromise would ever work. And that’s the difference between the parties on display in these two primaries. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at sshepard@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @Politico_Steve .
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| | A message from Ford Foundation: A lack of high-speed internet impedes economic growth across the U.S., especially in the heartland of the nation. With the support of the Ford Foundation, innovative leaders are expanding high-quality internet access to ensure farmers, educators, businesses, and all communities can thrive in modern day society. Learn more. | | | | | — Norfolk Southern withheld information during East Palestine emergency response, investigators say: Freight giant Norfolk Southern withheld information from local fire officials as they scrambled to respond to last year’s derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, federal investigators said today — saying the lack of disclosure “compromised the integrity” of the controversial decision to burn off toxic vinyl chloride from the tank cars. During a board meeting in East Palestine today to determine what likely caused the accident, the independent National Transportation Safety Board said the maker of the vinyl chloride, OxyVinyls, had told Norfolk Southern that there was no risk of explosion, because the chemical was being transported in modern tank cars designed to better withstand crashes. In addition, the vinyl chloride had been stabilized to prevent a runaway chemical reaction. But the railroad never conveyed that information to the local fire chief and as a result, its contractors proceeded to break open the cars with explosives and ignite the chemicals, investigators said. — Sale of big U.S. ammo business could hit antitrust snag: The controversial takeover of a leading U.S. ammunition business by a Czech conglomerate might hit a new hurdle: the Justice Department’s antitrust lawyers . The Czechoslovak Group’s purchase of Vista Outdoor’s ammunition business, first announced last October, has been under a lengthy national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., an interagency panel led by the Treasury Department, which can bar foreign purchases on national security grounds. But in recent weeks DOJ antitrust lawyers have been meeting with third parties, including law enforcement groups concerned that the deal will lock up the U.S. market for primer, the key ingredient in bullets, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter. — White House to appeal student loan repayment plan ruling: The White House said today that the Biden administration will appeal two court orders that blocked key parts of its student loan repayment plan known as SAVE. “The Department of Justice will be appealing both decisions to block key provisions of our SAVE Plan,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote on the social media platform X.” We will never stop fighting to lower monthly payments and help borrowers get out from under the burden of student debt — no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”
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| | THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY . | | | | | | | ON NOTICE — Former President Donald Trump may announce his vice presidential pick as early as this week , and potentially ahead of Thursday’s debate, according to four people familiar with the situation, NBC News reports. Trump has said publicly that he intends to announce his pick shortly before, or at, the Republican convention next month. But there have been high-level discussions in recent days within the Trump campaign about moving that timeline up and making a splash sooner, according to these sources, who requested anonymity to speak frankly. The sources also said the timing is not yet final. NARROWED DOWN — The judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial loosened the restrictions imposed by a gag order , allowing the former president to comment publicly on witnesses and jurors, but the judge left in place measures that bar him from speaking about prosecutors and others connected to the trial. Trump’s lawyers had requested that Justice Juan Merchan retract the gag order entirely, saying it violates his First Amendment rights and is no longer necessary in the wake of Trump’s conviction in late May of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star. Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, however, opposed lifting the restrictions except for those regarding witnesses. Merchan’s decision today comes as Trump prepares for Thursday’s debate against President Joe Biden, and paves the way for Trump to resume attacking some of his favorite targets, including Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, and Stormy Daniels, the porn star whom Trump sought to silence. Cohen and Daniels both testified against Trump in the hush money trial.
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Police remove ultra-Orthodox Jews blocking a road during a protest against military conscription outside the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem on June 2. | Saeed Qaq/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images | DRAFT DAY — Israel’s Supreme Court today ruled unanimously that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for compulsory service, a landmark decision that could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel continues to wage war in Gaza, reports The Associated Press. The historic ruling effectively puts an end to a decades-old system that granted ultra-Orthodox men broad exemptions from military service while maintaining mandatory enlistment for the country’s secular Jewish majority. The arrangement, deemed discriminatory by critics, has created a deep chasm in Israel’s Jewish majority over who should shoulder the burden of protecting the country. The court struck down a law that codified exemptions in 2017, but repeated court extensions and government delaying tactics over a replacement dragged out a resolution for years. The court ruled that in the absence of a law, Israel’s compulsory military service applies to the ultra-Orthodox like any other citizen. These exemptions have long been a source of anger among the secular public, a divide that has widened during the eight-month-old war, as the military has called up tens of thousands of soldiers and says it needs all the manpower it can get. Over 600 soldiers have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties, key partners in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, oppose any change to the current system. If the exemptions are ended, they could bolt the coalition, causing the government to collapse and likely leading to new elections at a time when its popularity has dropped. A NEW SNAG — Aid is now flowing reliably onto the beach in Gaza via the troubled U.S. military-built pier — but it is still not reaching any of the desperate Gazans inside the enclave . Tons of food and medical supplies are now piling up on the beach awaiting distribution, as the humanitarian organizations tasked with moving the aid refuse to resume operations due to security concerns, according to U.S. officials and aid group representatives. And there is increasing alarm about food going bad the longer it sits in the marshaling area, according to people involved in the project. WAKEUP CALL — The heat just cranked up on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau , following a surprise defeat to his party’s candidate in a special election for a seat long considered safe. The staggering loss that comes amid Canada’s affordability crisis and swelling desire for political change will only amp up the pressure on Trudeau to resign for the good of his party. The Liberals suffered a major blow to the Conservatives in the one-off race, losing the urban stronghold seat in Toronto — St. Paul’s that it had held since 1993.
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| | | UGLY IS IN — The sort of ideas and items that fashionable people once shunned — camouflage prints, garish graphic t-shirts and even stains on clothing — have swept through the fashion world in recent years, defining a new era in which a crumpled, slightly greasy style is dominant . In many ways, it looks like a response to the mass-produced, clean-lined look of the 2010s that was favored by millennials, and it also offers for more personal expressions of style. For The Guardian, Hannah Marriott investigates how this counterintuitive trend came to be and considers its future.
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On this date in 1989: E.G. Smith (left) and his mother, Norma Isaacs, sit under an umbrella with a sign that reads, "Grandma For Gays" in New York's Greenwich Village during the annual Pride Parade. A record 150,000 people marched down Fifth Avenue, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots which gave birth to the gay rights movement. | Sergio Florez/AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here .
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| | A message from Ford Foundation: Reliable, high-speed internet is no longer a luxury in the heartland or anywhere — it’s the foundation of a successful business, a necessity for sustainable farming practices and increased food production, a critical tool for education and health outcomes, and a key driver of community engagement and digital innovation. Indeed, access to broadband can determine an individual’s ability to thrive in modern-day society. And the solution is not one-size-fits-all, but a palette of ideas, individuals and institutions that, with support from groups like the Ford Foundation, can make high-speed internet access a reality. Learn more. | | | | |
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