WASHINGTON — If it’s Tuesday ... A Federal judge approves Trump’s request for special master. ... Legal experts criticize the judge’s ruling, calling it an “unprecedented intervention.” ... President Biden meets with his cabinet after hitting the campaign trail on Labor Day. ... Liz Truss takes over as Britain’s newest prime minister. ... Democrat Josh Shapiro questions Republican Doug Mastriano’s focus in new TV ad in the Pennsylvania governor's race. ... And it’s Primary Day in Massachusetts (yes, the day after Labor Day).
But first: After a summer of leaders infighting, a key party committee squandering its financial advantage and its nominees struggling on the campaign trail, Senate Republicans are looking for a reset.
With 63 days until Election Day — and control of the U.S. Senate completely up for grabs.
“Across eight key states, Republican-aligned groups plan to bombard the airwaves with a nine-figure ad blitz that begins Tuesday,” NBC’s Henry J. Gomez, Jonathan Allen, Natasha Korecki, Sahil Kapur and Adam Edelman report.
(Some important context, though: Much of this nine-figure ad blitz was announced back in April as part of the Senate Leadership Fund’s ad reservations for the fall.)
More: “In interviews with more than 20 Republicans working with or closely monitoring the midterm campaigns, there was a wide acknowledgement that the candidates in these hotly contested races needed a reset, with Democrats heading into a critical stretch of the cycle buoyed by strong fundraising and indicators that abortion rights may be galvanizing voters.”
And: “The GOP strategy is similar in most of the races: Tie the Democratic candidates to an unpopular president, Joe Biden; highlight inflation and other worrisome economic trends; and go on offense about their opponents’ policy views. The strategy also includes leaning in on immigration and border security, school curriculum and culture issues, with a healthy dose of attacks specific to each candidate.”
But what should worry the GOP is that Democrats don’t just have the momentum on their side right now.
They also have the overall spending advantage when it comes to advertising that’s already booked — even with this upcoming nine-figure ad blitz.
Data Download: The number of the day is … $1.4 billion
That’s how much money’s worth of advertising time has been booked from Tuesday through Election Day for all political races across the country, per AdImpact.
With the return from the Labor Day holiday marking the unofficial final sprint to the end of the election season, Democrats have the spending edge over Republican in advertising time booked at this point — more than $658 million to $554 million, with another $183 million booked by other groups.
Georgia’s Senate race, with more than $115 million booked from Tuesday through Election Day, has more booked spending than any other race. The top governor’s race for ad spending is Michigan’s gubernatorial race, with $49 million booked, and the top House race for future ad-spending is Minnesota’s 2nd District, where there’s about $17 million booked.
Other numbers to know:
95%: How much the NRSC has spent of what it raised through July, per New York Times report detailing the group’s controversial spending that has caused some heartburn inside the party.
$1.1 billion: The price tag of a potential U.S. arms sale to Taiwan that’s drawn the ire of China.
39%: The percent of women in the Defense Department who say they would trust the military system to treat them with dignity and respect if they were sexually assaulted, a significant decline since 2018 per a new Department survey, released alongside an annual report on sexual assault in the military.
19: How many school board candidates backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., have won their races so far, per the Associated Press.
$47 billion: The amount of emergency funds Biden’s administration is requesting from Congress to be used to assist Ukraine, respond to the Covid pandemic and the monkeypox outbreak, and assist states that have experienced natural disasters.
Tweet of the day
Midterm roundup: Bay State battle
Voters in Massachusetts head to the polls today where the main race to watch is the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary. None of the state’s nine Democratic members of Congress are facing primary challengers, and none of those House districts are expected to be competitive in November.
GOP Gov. Charlie Baker is not running for re-election, making this race a prime pickup opportunity for Democrats. His retirement announcement came nearly two months after former President Donald Trump endorsed Geoff Diehl, a conservative former state legislator, in the GOP primary.
Diehl co-chaired Trump’s Massachusetts campaign in 2016 and ran unsuccessfully against Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2018. Diehl also has the state party’s endorsement in the primary, where he’s facing a self-funding businessman Chris Doughty, who co-owns a manufacturing company.
Whoever wins the GOP primary will face Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey in November. Healey built a national profile suing the Trump administration over a wide range of issues and has proven to be a strong fundraiser.
Read more about the race on the Meet the Press Blog.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail:
New Hampshire Senate: The Senate Leadership Fund is placing a $23 million television advertising buy in New Hampshire today. The fall advertising will begin on 9/13 and run through Election Day targeting Senator Maggie Hassan. These will be the first New Hampshire advertisements of the 2022 cycle from the Senate Leadership Fund.
Pennsylvania Senate/Wisconsin Governor: Biden hit the campaign trail on Labor Day, appearing with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in Wisconsin and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who is running for Senate, in Pennsylvania. Trump also traveled to the Keystone State for a rally on Saturday with Senate hopeful Mehmet Oz and state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who is running for governor.
Arizona Governor: Arizona Democrat Katie Hobbs’ campaign wants her and Republican Kari Lake to sit for separate interviews instead of a debate run by the Citizens Clean Election Commission and Arizona PBS.
New York Governor: Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is up with a new negative ad against GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, painting the congressman as “extreme and dangerous,” citing his objections to some states’ Electoral College votes after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and his views on abortion.
Florida Governor: While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration arrested 20 people for voter fraud last month, activists claim they didn’t know they were committing crimes and that some were told by government officials they could vote.
Iowa-03: The National Republican Congressional Committee is up with a new ad that attacks Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne over last year’s Afghanistan withdrawal, while the Democratic House Majority PAC has a new ad criticizing Republican state Sen. Zach Nunn over support from a Chinese agribusiness PAC.
Oregon-04: Republican Alek Skarlatos is up with a new spot focused on a single mom who says rising costs have her feeling “forgotten” by Washington, while Democrat Val Hoyle is running a new ad hitting Skarlatos as too extreme on abortion rights.
Ad watch: Shapiro camp questions Mastriano’s 'focus'
Pennsylvania Democrat Josh Shapiro’s gubernatorial campaign kicks off a new, $16.9 million fall ad buy with a new ad shared first with NBC News, which argues Shapiro’s Republican opponent, Doug Mastriano is focused “on all the wrong things.”
“Like making abortion illegal and overturning elections,” the narrator explains, before framing Shapiro as the candidate focused on common-sense issues like a gas tax rebate, vocational training and removing “the requirements for a college degree to get thousands of state government jobs.”
It’s all part of the Shapiro campaign’s monthslong effort to bombard the airwaves with tens of millions of dollars to define Mastriano as too far to the right, and pitch Shapiro as the consensus choice. Since the start of the race, Shaprio has spent and booked more than $30 million on TV ads to Mastriano’s $250,000.
ICYMI: What else is happening in the world
Outside groups and experts warn the rollout of Biden’s student debt cancellation plan could get messy.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr told Fox News Friday that Trump may have “deceived” the government over classified records.
