POLITICO NIGHTLY: RNC chair race gets messy

 

View in browser   BY CALDER MCHUGH  MORE KOCH FUNDED PROPAGANDA!  DON'T BELIEVE IT! Presented by Americans for Prosperity Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel is running for re-election. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images PARTY CRASHER — On the eve of the vote for Republican National Committee chair, a potential 2024 presidential heavyweight weighed in on the race: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it’s time for a change in leadership. With DeSantis riding a wave of popularity within the GOP following his 2022 reelection, the Florida governor’s imprimatur is no small thing in an election to lead the national party. But he carefully stopped short of a formal endorsement, underscoring the advantage held by current RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel. “I like what Harmeet Dhillon has said about getting the RNC out of D.C.,” DeSantis told conservative talk show host Charlie Kirk, referring to McDaniel’s only serious challenger for the post. “I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC .” The contest will be decided on Friday by a secret ballot of the RNC’s 168 members at its winter meeting in Orange County, California. The Dhillon camp argues that Republicans have underperformed in three straight election cycles, which calls for a change at the top. McDaniel counters that she brings experience, solid leadership, relationships with donors and is the only one who can shepherd the party through the coming Republican presidential primary and 2024 general election. In the past week, Dhillon has brought high-profile surrogates — including former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and country music artist John Rich — to California in an attempt to sway RNC voters who might be on the fence. After a long campaign that has included public attacks from both sides, McDaniel has over 100 public endorsements from RNC members — including two more as recently as Wednesday. That’s more than enough to win against Dhillon, who has listed just 30. But it’s a secret ballot, and Dhillon’s surrogates argue that they are swaying voters this week. Whomever comes out victorious will be responsible for building the party’s infrastructure after a disappointing midterm performance and holding the party together during what could be a messy nomination fight ahead of the 2024 election. Nightly spoke with Natalie Allison , a national political reporter who’s in Orange County covering the race for POLITICO, about the chair fight and the challenges ahead for the next Republican Party leader. This interview has been edited. Who are the main contenders and why might one or the other look like a better option to RNC members? The race for RNC chair is officially a three-way contest, between incumbent Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, the RNC’s California national committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, but it really comes down to Dhillon’s bid to oust McDaniel. (Lindell has the public support of just a single RNC member.) McDaniel’s pitch has been that she knows how to run the organization and is prepared to jump in straight away and guide the party through the presidential primary process already underway. Dhillon and her allies, folks largely representing the party’s activist class, argue McDaniel had her chance to lead the GOP to victory over her last three terms as chairwoman. It’s out of the norm for an RNC chair to serve for eight years, and Dhillon’s team is trying to put the pressure on RNC members to explain how they can justify sticking with the status quo after multiple election cycles that brought disappointment for the GOP. What are the big challenges facing the next RNC chair? A massive challenge for the next chair is how to handle what could be a disaster of a presidential primary for the Republican Party, which is beginning to test the waters for a post-Trump GOP. Both McDaniel (who Trump picked to lead the RNC after his 2016 victory) and Dhillon (who is Trump’s lawyer on some cases related to the 2020 election) have ties to the former president and have each said they’ll be neutral in the process. The next chair will likely have to lead the party into embracing mail-in voting, and supporting get-out-the-vote concepts like “ballot harvesting,” which many conservatives have spent the last couple years demonizing. But some Republicans now realize they need to embrace to compete with Democrats’ voter mobilization efforts, and the person at the helm of the GOP will need to help spearhead these strategies. And she (assuming Lindell will not be the next chair) will need to boost the GOP’s small-dollar donor operations, which have suffered in the Trump era as the former president has sucked up most of those monthly $25 activist donations for himself, leaving other Republican committees and campaigns to rely on a limited pool of big donors. What’s McDaniel’s argument for why she’s equipped to deal with those challenges? What’s Dhillon’s? McDaniel says she’s equipped for this because she has spent the last six years running the organization. She argues it’s too late to have a fresh chair come in and have to learn the ropes as the 2024 presidential race is already underway. Dhillon, in contrast, says the GOP can’t afford to continue down the same path. On the news of the day: Why do you think DeSantis indicated support for Dhillon? What about her — or McDaniel — makes him inclined to appear to throw his support behind Dhillon ? One theory, of course, would be that it’s a diss of Trump, who hasn’t publicly taken sides in the race. His top advisers have been behind McDaniel (who Trump originally picked to be his RNC chair while in the White House), so DeSantis making these comments today is a point of contrast. It’s also worth noting that Dhillon this afternoon insisted DeSantis’ remarks — which came in response to an interview question about the race — did not amount to an endorsement, and maintains she would be neutral in the 2024 primary. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on Twitter at @calder_mchugh .    MORE KOCH FUNDED PROPAGANDA!                      DON'T BELIEVE IT! A message from Americans for Prosperity: Dear 118th Congress: How will you be defined? Like those before you, will you be known for partisanship and political theater? Or, will you help solve the economic crises of our time? For too long, conventional wisdom has been that divided government is a free pass for gridlock. You can be the Congress that bucks that trend and makes life more affordable. Americans need you to succeed. Will you? Learn more at www.Dear118Congress.com.   WHAT'D I MISS? Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced his bid for Senate today. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images — Schiff kicks off California Senate bid: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) kicked off a long-awaited campaign for Senate today , entering a crowded field against an incumbent, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who still hasn’t announced her reelection plans. Schiff’s announcement came just days after Speaker Kevin McCarthy officially blocked the Californian from his spot as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee — a reflection of Republican animosity toward Schiff after his high-profile roles on the select panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection and in the first impeachment investigation against former President Donald Trump. — Justice Department disrupts group behind thousands of ransomware attacks: The Justice Department announced it disrupted a notorious cybercriminal group behind ransomware attacks on more than 1,500 victims worldwide and millions of dollars in extorted payments . The announcement came amid a larger ongoing effort by the Biden administration to clamp down on ransomware attacks, which have surged in recent years and have held hostage the data of critical organizations like hospitals, governments and schools. Justice Department personnel used a court order last night to seize two back-end servers belonging to the Hive ransomware group in Los Angeles and took control of the group’s darknet website, Attorney General Merrick Garland said. — Biden grants Hong Kong residents in the U.S. a 2-year deportation reprieve: The Biden administration extended a program today that protects Hong Kong residents in the U.S. from deportation , less than two weeks before it was set to expire. The two-year extension of the program — the Deferred Enforced Departure for Certain Hong Kong Citizens — means that Hong Kongers who would otherwise be deported for having overstayed the duration of their original visas can remain in the U.S. until Jan. 26, 2025. — Change to Covid vaccine formulation signals start of FDA pivot in immunization strategy: The FDA’s expert panel on vaccines voted to recommend that anyone who gets a Covid vaccine going forward will receive a bivalent shot instead of the original formula, signaling the start of a pivot to a longer-term immunization strategy. The measure is an important first step in a process that could result in millions of Americans getting an annual Covid booster, similar to the flu vaccine .   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 .     AROUND THE WORLD EU PRESSES ‘MIGRANT RETURNS’ — European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson stressed that more rejected asylum-seekers should be reaching their own countries today as she unveiled a tougher approach in the face of surging irregular migration, writes Wilhelmine Preussen and Gregorio Sorgi . “We can do significant progress to increase the numbers of returns, and have it more effective and quicker,” Johansson said ahead of the informal meeting of EU interior ministers in Stockholm. With three times more asylum applications than irregular arrivals, reception capacities are overloaded, she said. And many applicants are not actually in the need of international protection, according to the Swedish commissioner. To prove the point, she pointed out an increase in migrant flows to Europe from “safe” countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cuba and India. At the conclusion of the meeting, Johansson pointed to “strong commitments from the ministers” in favor of using article 25a “to a greater extent than we have done so far,” which refers to a clause in the EU visa code that would allow the bloc to apply visa restrictions for countries with low rates of migrant returns as an incentive for them to cooperate more. Diplomats indicate that this mechanism could be potentially far-reaching — member states could additionally use trade restrictions as a bargaining chip — although ministers discussed only the use of visas in the meeting. This issue could prove divisive for EU leaders in the next European Council, slated for Brussels in early February.             MORE KOCH FUNDED PROPAGANDA!                      DON'T BELIEVE IT! A message from Americans for Prosperity:     NIGHTLY NUMBER 2.9 percent The annualized rate at which the U.S. economy expanded in the fourth quarter of 2022 , once again defying predictions of a dramatic slowdown as consumers kept spending and companies continued hiring. For the year, the GDP grew at a 2.1 percent pace, shaking off negative growth in the first half of the year even in the face of rapid interest rate hikes by a Federal Reserve bent on stamping out 40-year-high inflation, the Commerce Department reported today. RADAR SWEEP FUSION OF THE FUTURE — New research from the National Ignition Facility signals that widespread use of nuclear fusion, an energy source that works by slamming light atoms together to form heavier atoms, is closer to reality than ever before. In fact, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that the NIF achieved a milestone when researchers were able to generate power using a process called inertial confinement, which required close to 200 high-powered lasers to bounce around a capsule containing hydrogen fuel. Within seconds, the capsule created an explosion of energy. Scientists say the results could be a significant step towards a more sustainable energy future if they are able to properly harness the potentially self-sustaining fuel. Omar Hurricane, the chief scientist of the fusion program behind this result, said the most recent trials “demonstrate that there is no physics obstacle standing in the way of fusion power generation.” Read Sarah Wells’s report into the rise of this sustainable power source for VICE.   JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE .     PARTING WORDS Maryland Governor Wes Moore embraces Oprah Winfrey after she introduced him during his inaugural ceremony. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images DEEP BENCH — Democrats nervous about whether they have any young stars that can cut national profiles would be wise to look towards the inaugurations of Pennsylvania and Maryland’s new governors , writes Jonathan Martin . Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro made headlines for taking the oath of office last week on a stack of scripture that included a Hebrew bible from Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, site of the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. The next day, outside Maryland’s history-drenched State House in Annapolis, it was Oprah Winfrey who left many attendees (and perhaps even a few local pols) starstruck. Winfrey introduced Gov. Wes Moore, the state’s first Black governor and only the third-ever elected African-American governor. However, the more revealing presence on stage may have been that of somebody few recognized, Lt. Col. Jamie Martinez (Ret.). Martinez took the microphone to remind an audience that included Eric Holder, Chris Tucker and Cal Ripken that the 44-year-old Moore isn’t just a political phenom: he was also a fellow soldier from the 82nd Airborne who led troops in Afghanistan. Both new governors reached deep into their states’ past to evoke America’s promise and trumpet their own. Shapiro recalled William Penn’s credo of religious tolerance and Moore reminded his audience that while they stood just up the hill from docks where slaves were brought the inauguration was no “indictment of the past” but rather “a celebration of our collective future.” If it all felt like a highly-choreographed preview of future ambitions, campaigns and perhaps swearing-ins, well, maybe it was. “This won’t be the only inauguration with him we go to,” Holder said before the festivities to get under way in Annapolis, saying of Moore that “he’s got that thing.” Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .     MORE KOCH FUNDED PROPAGANDA!                      DON'T BELIEVE IT! A message from Americans for Prosperity: Congress at a Crossroads: Americans are facing a cost-of-living crisis. Divided government can’t be an excuse to do nothing. The 118th Congress can drive a policy agenda to make life more affordable by reining in spending to get inflation under control, cutting red tape to bring down energy costs, and expanding opportunities for fulfilling work. But to do that, Washington needs to rise above the political dysfunction to get things done. Americans can’t afford to wake up two years from now to a country on the same path. Learn how we can change course at www.Dear118Congress.com.     Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh Katherine Long @katherinealong Ari Hawkins @_AriHawkins   FOLLOW US

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December 29, 2022 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

December 29, 2022 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON DEC 30 Today, President Joe Biden signed into law the bipartisan year-end omnibus funding bill passed by the House and the Senate before lawmakers left town. The $1.7 trillion measure addresses key goals of both parties. It funds the military and domestic programs. It funds public health and science, invests in law enforcement, and funds programs to prevent violence against women. It funds veterans’ services, and it provides assistance to Ukraine in its struggle to protect itself against Russia’s invasion. It updates the Electoral Count Act to prevent a president from trying to overturn a presidential election, as former president Trump did. Biden said, “This bill is further proof that Republicans and Democrats can come together to deliver for the American people, and I’m looking forward to continued bipartisan progress in the year ahead.” But on his social media platform, Trump took a stand against the bill that funds the government. “Something is going on with [Senate minority leader] Mitch McConnell [(R-KY)] and all of the terribly and virtually automatic ‘surrenders’ he makes to the Marxist Democrats, like on the $1.7 Trillion ‘Ominous’ Bill,” Trump wrote. “Could have killed it using the Debt Ceiling, or made it MUCH better in the Republican House. Nobody can be this stupid.” Then he went on to blame the deal on McConnell’s wife, Trump’s own Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, using a racist slur. This exchange reveals the dynamic dominating political leadership at the end of 2022. Biden and the Democrats are trying to show that the government can produce popular results for the American people. They are joined in that effort by Republicans who recognize that, for all their talk about liberty, their constituents want to see the government address their concerns. Together, they have passed the omnibus bill, as well as the CHIPS and Science Act, the bipartisan infrastructure law, and gun safety legislation. This cooperation to pass popular legislation is an important shift in American politics. But Trump and his cronies remain determined to return to power, apparently either to stop this federal action Trump incorrectly calls “Marxism” or, in the case of extremist Republicans, to use the government not to provide a basic social safety net, regulate business, promote infrastructure, or protect civil rights—as it has done since 1933—but instead to enforce right-wing religious values on the country. They reject the small-government economic focus of the Reagan Republicans in favor of using a strong government to enforce religion. The determination of Trump and his team to dominate the government, and through it the country, has been illustrated powerfully once again today with the release of more transcripts from testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Former White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Griffin recalled how Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, dismissed the idea that the Trump administration should coordinate with the incoming Biden officials over the coronavirus pandemic. “It was the first COVID... meeting that Jared led after [Biden won],” Griffin recalled, “& Dr. Birx... said, "Well, should we be looping the Biden transition into these conversations?" & Jared just said, ‘Absolutely not.’” Similarly, in an extraordinarily petty exchange, the chief of staff to former first lady Melania Trump, Stefanie Grisham, recalled that Trump wanted to fire the chief White House usher, Tim Harleth, for being in contact with the Biden team about the presidential transition. (Secret Service agents told Trump about the contact, raising more questions about the role of the agents around Trump.) Melania Trump stopped the firing out of concern for the stories Harleth could tell about the Trump family, but he was let go just before Biden’s inauguration, leaving the Biden’s standing before the closed doors of the White House for an awkwardly long time when they entered for the first time. This determination of far-right Republicans to bend the country to their will presents a problem for the Republican Party. Establishment Republicans came around to backing Trump in 2017 after he promised them lower taxes and less regulation, the goals they had embraced since the presidency of Ronald Reagan. But Trump managed to stay in power by feeding the reactionaries in the party: those who reject the idea of American equality. Trump’s base is fiercely opposed to immigration and against the rights of LGBTQ Americans, while also in favor of curtailing the rights of women and minorities. Rejecting the equality at the heart of liberal democracy, many of them hope to enforce religious rules on the rest of the country and admire Russian president Vladimir Putin and Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán for replacing democracy with what Orbán has called “Christian democracy,” or “illiberal democracy” that enforces patriarchal heterosexual hierarchies. As Trump encouraged them to, many of them reject as “fraudulent” any elections that do not put their candidates in power. Now, as Republican establishment leaders recognize that Trump’s star is fading and his legal troubles seem likely to get worse—his tax returns will be released tomorrow, among other things—they seem eager to cut Trump loose to resurrect their anti-tax, anti-regulation policies. But those Americans who reject democracy and want a strong government to enforce their values are fighting for control of the Republican Party. The far right has turned against Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, whom Trump hand-picked and who helped arrange the false electors in 2020. Trump loyalist Mike Lindell, the pillow magnate, is challenging McDaniel. Of more concern to her is the challenge of Harmeet Dhillon, a prominent election denier who has provided legal counsel for Trump in his struggles against the January 6th committee, calling it “a purely political witch-hunt, total abuse of process & power serving no legitimate legislative purpose.” Orbán supporter and Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson and Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk are backing Dhillon. Kirk, who is a prodigious fundraiser, has warned the RNC that the party must listen “to the grassroots, our donors, and the biggest organizations and voices in the conservative movement” or it would lose in 2024. “If ignored, we will have the most stunted and muted Republican Party in the history of the conservative movement, the likes of which we haven’t seen in generations.” The far right is also challenging the bid of House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for House speaker, creating such havoc that today former Republican representative, senator, and secretary of defense William S. Cohen and former congressional staff director and presidential senior fellow emeritus at the Council on Foreign Relations Alton Frye published an op-ed in the New York Times warning that “the Republican caucus is dominated by campaigns and commitments that gravely encumber efforts to define common ground in the political center.” They urged House members to recruit a moderate speaker from outside the chamber and to “fortify those Republicans who seek to move the party beyond the corrosive Trump era.” They called for a secret ballot, so Republican members won't have to fear retaliation. Cohen and Frye suggested that organization of the House by an outsider would allow for “meaningful coalition building,” but the Republicans about to take control of the House have so far indicated only that they intend to investigate the Biden administration before the 2024 election, a throwback to the methods party leaders have used since 1994 to win elections by portraying the Democrats as corrupt. Representatives James Comer (R-KY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), who are expected to take over the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, respectively, have already demanded records from the White House. When White House Special Counsel Richard Sauber said the White House would respond to those committees after the Republicans were in charge of them—a position administrations have as taken since the 1980s—Comer and Jordan took to social media today to complain that “at every turn the Biden White House seeks to obstruct congressional oversight and hide information from the American people.” (Jordan, of course, refused to respond to a subpoena from the January 6th committee.) The year 2022 has seen an important split in the Republican Party. The party’s response to voters’ dislike appears to be either to reject democracy altogether or to double down on the old rhetoric that has worked in the past, although you have to wonder if they have gone to that well so many times it’s drying up. In the meantime, the Democrats have worked with willing Republicans to demonstrate that lawmakers in a democracy really can accomplish big things for the American people, and for the world. Which vision will win out will be a key political story of 2023. — Notes: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/12/23/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-passage-of-the-bipartisan-year-end-omnibus/ Angela McGuire💙🌊🌊🌊🌊 @angelaretail Dang! Cheato Von Tweeto be all up in Mitch's business! 12:56 AM ∙ Dec 29, 2022 222Likes27Retweets Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVance Alyssa Griffin transcript: “It was the first COVID, like, morning meeting that Jared led after [Biden won]..& Dr. Birx..said, "Well, should we be looping the Biden transition into these conversations?" & Jared just said, "Absolutely not." & then we just moved on.” 9:38 PM ∙ Dec 29, 2022 13,484Likes3,602Retweets https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/28/transcript-jan-6-panel-interviews-00075698 https://www.businessinsider.com/bidens-reportedly-left-outside-white-house-trump-sent-staff-home-2021-1 https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/20220518_Stephanie%20A.%20Grisham%20%281%29.pdf https://www.axios.com/2022/12/29/trump-fire-usher-bidens-white-house-ex-press-secretary https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/us/politics/biden-white-house-usher.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/us/politics/ronna-mcdaniel-harmeet-dhillon-rnc.html Paul Bedard, “Trump lawyer: Subpoena was ‘assault’ on Constitution,” Washington Examiner, December 29, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/23/charlie-kirk-rnc-ronna-mcdaniel-harmeet-dhillon/ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/conservatives-look-curtail-ballot-measure-process-rcna62484 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/29/jim-jordan-james-comer-oversight-requests-00075710 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/opinion/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-vote.html

POLITICO NIGHTLY: Scenes from a doomed Senate campaign

View in browser   BY CALDER MCHUGH Presented by TSMC Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker greets supporters as his wife Julie Blanchard Walker looks on during a campaign stop in Marietta, Georgia. | Alex Wong/Getty Images SACKED FOR A LOSS — So much for the Herschel Walker experiment. The celebrity former football star recruited and endorsed by former President Donald Trump failed to offer a compelling case in his bid to oust Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and fell short in Tuesday’s Senate runoff, marking the official end of a disappointing election cycle for the GOP. As it turns out, the first-time candidate’s campaign was plagued by problems from the start. There was public scandal: Walker reportedly paid for an abortion though he espoused pro-life views, and there were questions surrounding his principal residence . He also struggled to articulate his views or show a command of the issues. Behind the scenes, Walker’s staff were frustrated with Walker and his wife Julie — both political neophytes — and their understanding of Georgia’s political landscape. Natalie Allison conducted an early autopsy of Walker’s losing campaign and spoke with Nightly about what she found. Even though he won the Republican primary easily, the Walker campaign had issues for months. What were some of the problems that doomed him? There are the obvious issues, and those have been thoroughly documented. But beyond the scandals , the campaign operation was dealing with a clash between staff and Herschel Walker and his wife, Julie, about how to run things. It’s certainly not unusual for a candidate to take interest in the decision-making and provide input or require some level of accountability, but I heard similar stories from various levels of staff about being hamstrung, particularly by her. Everything from comms staffers being berated if they were seen talking to a reporter at a rally, or staff scheduling recommendations being ignored in favor of going to areas where they’d likely see little payoff. There’s no reason to think Herschel and Julie Walker didn’t mean well, but they probably had little-to-no business calling the shots on a major political campaign. On that note, you did some fascinating reporting about how Julie Walker hoped to win around 50 percent of the Black vote in Georgia, a level that would’ve been completely at odds with any reasonable historic performance. How did that sort of thinking affect the campaign’s strategy? Walker’s belief that he could win a sizable chunk of the Black vote in Georgia was part of his motivation to enter the race. He and Julie believed he was uniquely qualified to take on Warnock, a well-liked African American pastor. And that may have been true in theory — that Walker, a well-liked African American celebrity in Georgia who was also faith-minded — had a unique biography to challenge Warnock. As we all saw, it did not work out that way. But even a year into the race, when the couple were by then familiar with how a campaign works, demographic data, the concept that you can only invest so much time and money into a particular path to victory, Julie was still insistent that her husband could and should be making sweeping gains among Black voters, people involved with the campaign told me. Sometimes staff pushed back, and sometimes they just gave in, adding stops in Democratic strongholds with larger Black communities. You mention staff pushing back. What were some specific frustrations of Walker’s staff?  From a reporter’s perspective, this dynamic is tricky to talk about. It sounds rather cliché to just say, “oh, it was all the wife’s fault.” Of course the buck didn’t stop at the candidate’s wife. But that was largely how staffers on the campaign said they felt. If Walker had a bad idea, they could usually move past it pretty easily and he wouldn’t push it. But they said Julie was much less likely to take “no” for an answer. It also seemed like Walker’s personality and genuine interest in staffers and their families made him easy for them to like. They just didn’t get along as well with his wife, I was told. Again, some of this seems cliché and sexist, but these were widely held opinions among people involved with the team. Is it possible that the problem was less with this infighting — including how and where the campaign stops were distributed — and more with Walker’s quality as a candidate?  Yeah, let’s be clear. Walker’s campaign schedule was not his undoing. It illustrates some of his strategy missteps as a political novice and provides some insight into his problematic campaign operation. His downfall, as I quoted a person very close to the campaign saying, was that he was unprepared to run for this level of office and made everything more difficult for himself, his staff and other allies by not being forthcoming about what was in his past. And in conversations with those people, many of them truly believe Walker just didn’t understand how closely he would be scrutinized, how brutal campaigns are, and how damning details from his past were going to be brought to light either way. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on Twitter at @calder_mchugh .   A message from TSMC: TSMC is proud to share that in addition to its first fab in Arizona, which is scheduled to begin production of N4 process technology in 2024, the company has also started the construction of a second fab which is scheduled to begin production of 3nm process technology in 2026. The overall investment for these two fabs will be approximately US$40 billion, one of the largest foreign direct investments in the history of the United States.   THE NEW CONGRESS POWER PLAY — The Senate GOP’s upstarts aren’t done yet, writes Burgess Everett . About a half-dozen Republican senators, most of whom publicly opposed Mitch McConnell as their leader last month, are getting more organized in a bid to exert their leverage . They’re pushing their colleagues for a formal legislative agenda and to extract more concessions from Democrats, according to multiple senators and aides. These GOP senators have been quietly meeting on a regular basis to strategize future battles worth picking within McConnell’s ranks, and they’re set to call a special conference meeting next week to start a broader debate within the Republican conference. It’s not the same sort of rebellion Kevin McCarthy is facing in the House as he tries to claim the speakership. But it’s a clear sign that the restive group of Senate Republicans isn’t going away just because their leadership fight with McConnell is over. “Democrats have done a pretty good job of picking issues that motivate their base and that have wider support among the public,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who voted against McConnell last month. “We need to be doing the same thing. I think a lot of people in the Republican Party don’t see us doing it as emphatically as Democrats.”   A NEW POLITICO PODCAST: POLITICO Tech is an authoritative insider briefing on the politics and policy of technology. From crypto and the metaverse to cybersecurity and AI, we explore the who, what and how of policy shaping future industries. We’re kicking off with a series exploring darknet marketplaces, the virtual platforms that enable actors from all corners of the online world to traffic illicit goods. As malware and cybercrime attacks become increasingly frequent, regulators and law enforcement agencies work different angles to shut these platforms down, but new, often more unassailable marketplaces pop up. SUBSCRIBE AND START LISTENING TODAY .     WHAT'D I MISS? — Zeldin won’t run for RNC chair, but says McDaniel should step aside: Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) said today he will not run for Republican National Committee chair, but took plenty of shots at party leaders and the RNC’s current head, Ronna McDaniel. Zeldin called the system preordained for McDaniel to win another term at the party’s helm — which he said the GOP leaders should reconsider, especially after Herschel Walker’s defeat in the Georgia Senate runoff on Tuesday. — White House bashes lawmakers over troop vaccine mandate repeal: The White House still believes that the Pentagon’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for troops should stay in place, even as lawmakers are preparing to overturn it, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said today. Speaking to reporters, Kirby defended the policy , which has come under assault from Republicans on Capitol Hill, and dinged GOP lawmakers who pushed the issue. — Supreme Court seems poised to reject robust reading of ‘independent state legislature’ theory: The Supreme Court today struggled to find consensus about a legal theory that could strip state courts’ ability to review election laws passed by legislatures, but a critical bloc of justices seemed likely to reject the most robust version of that theory that could unleash dramatic change in how states oversee elections. The case, Moore v. Harper, involves North Carolina’s congressional map. There, the state supreme court tossed the maps drawn by the GOP-controlled legislature as an illegal partisan gerrymander, with court-drawn maps ultimately being used for the 2022 election.   A message from TSMC:     AROUND THE WORLD Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, is greeted by Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Riyadh, after his arrival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia today. | Saudi Press Agency via AP RED CARPET TREATMENT — Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Saudi Arabia today to market China as a competitive alternative to longtime U.S. dominance in the region, writes Phelim Kine . Xi is expected to be in Riyadh through Friday, mingling with at least 14 Middle Eastern leaders at the Gulf-China Summit for Cooperation and Development and the first-ever Arab-China Summit for Cooperation and Development. The summits allow Xi to position China as a friendly and reliable ally in stark contrast to the frosty fist bump and stern lecture on human rights that President Joe Biden delivered to Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his trip to the country in July. It’s the latest in Xi’s diplomacy blitz that has included meetings with more than 25 heads of state since he secured a third term as China’s paramount leader in October. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning today described the Arab-China summit as “epoch-making” and said Xi will seek Arab support for his signature Global Development and Global Security Initiatives. Xi intends to use his one-on-one meeting with bin Salman to “elevate the China-Saudi Arabia comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level,” said Mao at China’s Foreign Ministry. That might include the two leaders sealing a deal to abandon U.S. dollar transactions for some of Riyadh’s oil sales to Beijing and switch them to China’s currency, the yuan. But veteran U.S. diplomats say China can’t replace the U.S. as a regional security guarantor as long as Beijing maintains close ties to Saudi Arabia’s nemesis, Iran. Beijing’s Iranian oil purchases give Tehran an economic lifeline and the two countries sealed a 25-year cooperation agreement last year to boost bilateral trade and cooperation. The U.S.-Saudi relationship, meanwhile, is “a slow-moving train wreck and we shouldn’t be surprised to see consequences of that,” said Robert Jordan, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and diplomat in residence at Southern Methodist University. FAILED COUP — German police arrested 25 people from a far-right group on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government after unprecedented state-wide raids this morning, writes Wilhelmine Preussen . “The defendants belong to a terrorist organization founded no later than the end of November 2021, which has set itself the goal of overcoming the existing state order in Germany and replacing it with its own form of state,” a statement from the German attorney general reads. The statement added that the group was prepared to commit acts of violence to achieve its goals. The plotters include members of the extremist Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich) movement, which refuses to recognize the modern German state and aims to replace it with an authoritarian new system. The group’s plan was to violently overthrow the current government and replace it. The conspirators’ new government would have conducted foreign policy negotiations with Russia, the attorney general’s statement said, while presenting more detailed information on their plans for a new state.   POLITICO APP USERS: UPGRADE YOUR APP BY DECEMBER 19! We recently upgraded the POLITICO app with a fresh look and improved features for easier access to POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Starting December 19, users will no longer have access to the previous version of the app. Update your app today to stay on top of essential political news, insights, and analysis from the best journalists in the business. UPDATE iOS APP – UPDATE ANDROID APP .     NIGHTLY NUMBER 30 years The amount of time since the United Kingdom last built a deep coal mine . That will end this year, as the U.K. begins construction on a mine in Cumbria, in the northern part of the country. The project, a win for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, promises 500 new jobs in an important seat politically, but has angered climate activists. RADAR SWEEP ROBOT WARS — The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to pull back a controversial policy that would have enabled police to use robots for deadly force , reversing approval that was granted just last week. The policy was reversed after activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU launched a “No Killer Robots” campaign and signed a letter in opposition, which urged against the “escalation” and “militarization” of the American police force. Read Ron Amadeo ’s full investigation in online tech outlet Ars Technica. PARTING WORDS People attend the launch of the unaffiliated political organization known as No Labels in 2010 at Columbia University in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images INTERNAL STRIFE — Over the past year, the centrist group No Labels has spearheaded an ambitious $70 million project laying the groundwork for a unity ticket presidential campaign in 2024, writes Daniel Lippman . For that effort, its founder and CEO, one of Washington’s most successful fundraisers, Nancy Jacobson, has enlisted the help of a number of major donors and sought support in top political allies. Outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.), who is considering a presidential run, is the group’s co-chair. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently met with the group’s executives and donors in Dallas. But behind the scenes there is turmoil inside the organization . Interviews with 14 former employees—including five who left in the last few months—and four other people familiar with No Labels reveals a cutthroat culture, one where staffers are routinely fired or pushed out, have little trust in management, and believe the workplace environment can be difficult for minority and female colleagues. And while No Labels maintains that staff complaints, including by those seeking remuneration for the nature of their departure from the group, were simply the product of aggrieved ex-workers, the internal discord threatens to hamper the well-financed plans that the group has for the next election. Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   A message from TSMC: TSMC is proud to share that in addition to its first fab in Arizona, which is scheduled to begin production of N4 process technology in 2024, the company has also started the construction of a second fab which is scheduled to begin production of 3nm process technology in 2026. The overall investment for these two fabs will be approximately US$40 billion, representing one of the largest foreign direct investments in the history of the United States. In addition to the over 10,000 construction workers who helped with construction of the site, TSMC Arizona’s two fabs are expected to create an additional 10,000 high-paying high-tech jobs, including 4,500 direct TSMC jobs. When complete, TSMC Arizona’s two fabs will produce the most advanced semiconductor technology in the United States, manufacturing over 600,000 wafers per year, with estimated end-product value of more than US$40 billion. Learn more     Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh Katherine Long @katherinealong Ari Hawkins @_AriHawkins   FOLLOW US

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