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ATLANTA — Trailing in the polls, Stacey Abrams is attempting to tie her GOP rival, Georgia Gov. Vance and his allies are taking the same approach with voters who are considering supporting GOP Gov. In the case of Fetterman, “It’s saying a vote for Oz is a vote for Mastriano,” Horwitt said. In Georgia, Walker’s internal polling and other GOP polls shared with NBC News show Warnock doing better among Democratic voters than Walker is among Republican voters. “There is a concerted effort to target Republican households where someone voted in 2018 but another family member didn’t.

WASHINGTON — One week from Election Day, the race for Senate control remains neck and neck in an unusually volatile political environment, with small margins carrying high stakes for the future of President Joe Biden's legislative agenda and judicial nominees. Kyle Kondik, an election analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said the battle for the Senate looks like a coin-flip. “Polling for the Senate is still real close in a lot of these states.”The Senate is split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote giving Democrats control. The FiveThirtyEight Senate projection is dead even, giving both Republicans and Democrats 50% chances of winning control. A perception that GOP control would threaten democracy is also motivating liberal-leaning voters.

☆ Schumer says Warnock's Senate race against Walker is 'going downhill' in remarks to president
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Rebecca-Shabad-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Rebecca Shabad | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., expressed concern Thursday about Sen. Raphael Warnock's re-election race against Republican Herschel Walker during a conversation with President Joe Biden. The private discussion was picked up on a microphone and camera while they stood on an airport tarmac in Syracuse, N.Y., with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Democratic Gov. During the conversation, Schumer brought up the Pennsylvania Senate race and the debate Tuesday between Democratic Lt. Gov. The Democratic leader could also be heard mentioning the Senate race in Nevada, where Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is running for re-election against Republican Adam Laxalt. Asked about Schumer’s remarks to Biden, Justin Goodman, a spokesman for the majority leader, told NBC News, "Schumer believes the Democratic candidates will win."

ATLANTA — Former President Barack Obama is set to headline a rally Friday for Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and the Democratic candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, in the closing stretch of the 2022 election in this highly competitive battleground state. Georgia played a determinative role last cycle and could likely be in the same position two years later,” Obama adviser Eric Schultz said ahead of the event. Warnock, who was first elected in a 2020 special election, is polling neck and neck in recent surveys with Republican challenger Herschel Walker. "The state where we’re going downhill is Georgia," Schumer could be heard telling Biden. Asked about the remarks, Justin Goodman, a spokesman for the majority leader, told NBC News: “Schumer believes the Democratic candidates will win.”

ATLANTA — The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is launching a new TV ad in Georgia on Friday ripping into Republican candidate Herschel Walker. The ad, called “Cacophony,” relies on news footage to highlight Walker’s tumultuous past, covering allegations of “domestic violence” against him, with a reporter at one point saying: “Walker took out his anger by punching a hole in the door.”With somber music playing in the background, it goes on to question Walker’s honesty, with accusations of “lies” including from his son Christian Walker. It ends with an announcer asking: “Can he really be our senator?”The ad, first reported by NBC News, is set to run on Georgia broadcast TV starting Friday with plans to air it over the final 11 days of the midterm election, said a DSCC spokesperson, adding that the campaign arm is putting “significant money” behind it as part of a $7 million ad buy in Georgia this fall. It comes as Walker is running neck-and-neck with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in recent surveys of the hotly contested race.

ATLANTA — Democratic strategists are agonizing about headwinds in the closing stretch of the 2022 campaign, with some fearing the election will be worse for the party than polls indicate. Now comes the moment of truth: Can they pull off one final act of levitation in the sprint to Election Day? “I definitely think that the political gravity is starting to reinforce itself,” said Sean McElwee, executive director of the Democratic-affiliated polling firm Data For Progress. “Maybe they can stretch it to 6 or 7 [points], but I think somewhere gravity kicks in.”“There’s a tightening happening,” Taylor added. The recent NBC News poll found that Democrats led Republicans by 1 point on which party voters prefer to control Congress.

Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker denied a new allegation from a woman Wednesday that Walker, who is running on an anti-abortion Republican platform, drove her to a clinic to have an abortion while they were engaged in a romantic relationship decades ago. Walker has admitted the check was his but has said he did not know what the money was used for. NBC News has not independently verified the abortion allegation. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., campaigning with Walker in Dillard on Wednesday, suggested a political motive was behind the latest allegation. Herschel Walker shouldn’t be representing Georgians in the U.S. Senate.”

Here are five races where long-shot contenders could shock the nation on Nov. 8; we've also included how the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which analyzes elections and campaigns, rates the odds. Or skip that race on the ballot?”Cook Political Report rating: “Lean Democratic”North CarolinaRepublicans are favored to win North Carolina, but only slightly. Cook Political Report rating: “Lean Republican”IowaAt 89 years old, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is running for another six-year term. Cook Political Report rating: “Likely Republican”WashingtonSen. Patty Murray, the third-ranked Democrat and chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is the GOP’s white whale this cycle. Cook Political Report rating: “Likely Democratic”

“I think it’s going to be significant,” Chuck Coughlin, an Arizona Republican pollster, said of the third-party impact on key Senate races. Angela McArdle, the chair of the Libertarian National Committee, said it’s not her party's job to protect Republican candidates who are alienating voters. "If Republicans fear that Libertarians are going to be spoilers, Republicans need to run more liberty-minded candidates," McArdle told NBC News. Much attention has been paid to the level of support third-party candidates can wrestle from the major party contenders in recent election cycles, particularly on the presidential level. "We have to wait to see the melt on these third-party candidates," he said.

☆ DOJ says it needs more money for the Jan. 6 probe. The next spending bill may be its last chance.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Sahil-Kapur-Headshot.Jpg | Sahil Kapur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration says it is in critical need of more money to bring the Jan. 6 rioters to justice. The Justice Department has told Congress that more than $34 million in funding is "critically needed" to fund the investigation. “The cases are unprecedented in scale and is expected to be among the most complex investigations prosecuted by the Department of Justice,” the Justice Department wrote to the legislative branch. Before they broke for recess, lawmakers involved in the talks told NBC News that the fate of the Justice request was still unsettled. I don’t have any problem giving the Justice Department the resources it needs to do that,” he said.

☆ Microsoft, Apple, Meta, other big U.S. firms run ads urging Congress to protect 'Dreamers' as DACA fades
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julia-Ainsley-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Julia Ainsley | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

“Collectively, we represent the backbone of an American economy facing tremendous workforce challenges as a result of the pandemic. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that DACA was illegal but allowed more than 600,000 current DACA recipients to keep their status while a lower court reviewed a new DACA rule the Biden administration put forward. He is predicted to rule against the new DACA rule ultimately, because he found its previous iteration illegal. “Tragically, the 5th Circuit and courts have made it clear that not only did they rule the current DACA rule is illegal, but the new DACA rule will be illegal, too,” said Todd Schulte, the president and executive director of FWD.US, a group that has advocated for DACA to continue. “Now, no one trusts Democrats of the Biden administration to actually enforce the law and crack down on illegal immigration.

ATLANTA — Democratic candidates in the two marquee Georgia races are blitzing the airwaves with television ads — and making two markedly different pitches to voters. Another features testimonials from GOP-leaning voters who say they’re supporting Warnock this fall. Abrams is relying heavily on mobilizing the base, aiming to inspire and register disaffected Georgians and turbocharge progressive turnout. “They are running two very different campaigns,” said an adviser to Kemp, who was granted anonymity to candidly assess Democratic strategy. “There are some voters — many voters — that are already pretty much fixed in their opinions.

Brian Kemp and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams clashed in a debate Monday night over issues ranging from guns and crime to abortion and election laws. The debate came at a crucial time for Abrams as she seeks to gain ground after trailing in the polls all year. Kemp is leading Abrams by 5 to 6 percentage points in averages of recent surveys, with just three weeks to go until Election Day. Abrams hit Kemp for restricting legal abortion and backing permissive gun laws, which she said have made Georgia less safe. Kemp has rejected expansion, calling it a “broken government program,” while Abrams argued that it’s necessary to protect Georgians.

ATLANTA — Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock voted Monday at a polling place here on the first day of early voting in battleground Georgia, and dialed up his criticism of Republican challenger and former football star Herschel Walker. “My opponent Herschel Walker is not ready,” Warnock told reporters afterward. “The people of Georgia deserve a serious person to represent them at serious times.”“He claimed to be a police officer. He’s not,” he said, mocking the “fake badge” that Walker flashed during their Friday debate. So I guess he expects the people of Georgia now to hallucinate and imagine that he is also a United States senator.

Warnock defended his votes on a sweeping climate and health care bill and gun violence prevention legislation during his two years in the Senate. Heading into the debate, Walker called himself a “dumb country boy,” setting low expectations against Warnock, the eloquent pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. used to minister. Walker’s debate goal was simple: Go on offense, tie Warnock to unpopular President Joe Biden, rising gas prices and high inflation. Warnock hammered Walker for opposing the Inflation Reduction Act to defend himself against attacks that his votes fueled inflation. Walker appeared flat-footed when asked if he favors Medicaid expansion, saying that "people have coverage for health care" and that he wants Georgians to "get off the government health care and get on the health care he’s got," gesturing toward Warnock.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. “Thank you very much, Mr. vice president,” Pelosi says on the call. “Good news.”Trump privately knew he had lostPublicly, Trump insisted he was being robbed of an election he won. The president told chief of staff Mark Meadows “something to the effect of, 'I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. “Claims that President Trump actually thought the election was stolen are not supported by fact and not a defense,” Cheney said.

☆ Democrats try to pre-empt the GOP's 'soft on crime' attacks. It may not work.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-09 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Jonathan-Allen-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Jonathan Allen | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The rush to flash pro-cop credentials shows that Democrats anticipated a fresh wave of Republican attacks on crime and policing that are landing in House, Senate and state-level races. During the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump warned voters that Democrats would be soft on crime and endanger communities. His aides said that the line of attack motivated base Republican voters and helped swing voters — particularly Latino voters in Florida and Texas — in the GOP’s direction. But some Democrats have decided the best answer this year is silence: Polls show crime just isn't a good issue for their party. Many Democratic candidates continue to focus on policy areas where more voters trust Democrats than Republicans to do a better job, including abortion, education and protecting democracy.

Walker spoke of getting his start playing football in Johnson County and then making his way to the University of Georgia and pro football. He said that if he is re-elected he will fight to expand Medicaid in Georgia. And I think the people of Georgia have a real choice about who they think is ready to represent them in the United States Senate," Warnock told reporters Thursday, without directly addressing the abortion story. Warnock's allies, meanwhile, see the question more as a battle between Walker and Georgia voters — why give his opponent a chance to bring him into the story? What’s “very important” to her is Democrats’ holding the Senate and fighting GOP "extremism."

A total of 42% of Republicans in the U.S. identify as “MAGA” Republicans, while 58% disavow the term, according to a new national poll by J. Ann Selzer and Grinnell College. Overall, 17% of respondents said they identify as MAGA Republican when told the phrase and asked if it describes them, the poll found. The survey offered a deep dive into the demographics of the Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who embrace the “MAGA” label. They are disproportionately male (59%), 55 and older (55%), white (77%), lacking a college degree (76%), and make more than $50,000 a year (60%). Substantial majorities identify as conservative (81%), strong Republicans (65%) and Protestant (61%).

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Tuesday to move forward with funding the government through mid-December ahead of a Friday deadline to avert a shutdown. The short-term funding measure includes money for Ukraine aid, Afghan resettlement, parolees and security enhancements for U.S. courts, among other provisions. Republicans, still angry about Manchin's vote for the Democrats-only bill in August, credibly threatened to tank the government funding bill if his permitting measure was tacked on. During the Senate vote, Manchin reached out to Republicans to discuss restarting negotiations over a permitting package, including Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Cassidy said. "The fact that Joe traded his vote for permitting reform doesn’t make permitting reform any less of a noble venture," Cramer said.

I'll proudly support the legislation, provided that nothing more than technical changes are made to its current form," McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor. The committee, which adopted minor revisions to the underlying bill, sent it to the full Senate for a floor vote. “The chaos that came to a head on January 6th of last year certainly underscored the need for an update” to the Electoral Count Act, McConnell said in his floor speech. "I think we need to get this right, and I think the Senate bill is what we can get behind." Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said in an interview he was warm toward the Senate bill.

The Democratic-led Senate confirmed four new circuit court judges in the last two weeks, most recently U.S. District Judge Florence Pan to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. By contrast, Trump had installed 69 judges at this point in his tenure. The most recent two-term presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, each secured 325 Senate-confirmed judges for district courts, circuit courts and the Supreme Court over eight years. McConnell's allies say a GOP-run Senate would force Biden to pick judges who are acceptable to conservatives in order to get floor votes. Republicans ended the tradition for circuit judges in the Trump era and some liberals want to end it for district judges so that GOP senators in red states cannot block Biden’s nominees for vacancies.

☆ Democrats are focus-grouping Fetterman’s health. Swing voters think he’s getting sharper.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Jonathan-Allen-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Jonathan Allen | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

The consensus, according to two people familiar with the responses given to Democratic operatives, was that persuadable voters believe Fetterman is fit to serve and getting sharper. Four months after the stroke, Fetterman has not released his medical records. But Oz has made sure that Fetterman’s health problems remain a top topic of political conversation. Michelle Gustafson / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesEarlier this summer, Pennsylvania Democrats privately expressed concerns about Fetterman’s health and lack of transparency, but Fetterman seems to have eased their fears. That helps explain why Republicans have been split on how much to focus on Fetterman’s health.

"If your aim is to prevent future efforts to steal elections, I would respectfully suggest that conservatives should support this bill," Cheney said on the floor. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chairs the Jan. 6 committee, called GOP opposition to the bill “sad.”“I’m not surprised at anything they do. The Senate bill includes some differences. The House bill also allows candidates to sue in federal court to enforce the lawful certification, which numerous Senate Republicans say is a nonstarter. “I think once people get an opportunity to see what our bill encompasses versus the Senate bill, I think you’d see people moving to our side,” Thompson told reporters.

There’s no palpable hunger for a shutdown so close to the Nov. 8 midterm elections, so Congress must pass a bill by midnight Sept. 30 to avert a lapse in funding. “The cleaner the bill is, the more likely” it is to pass quickly, said Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D. He wants tens of billions for Covid, and he says the pandemic is over,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician. Cases, hospitalizations, deaths, mental health aspects of Covid, long Covid. But conservatives are rebelling, saying Congress should push the issue into 2023 in the hope that the GOP will seize the majority and write legislation to its liking.

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