How El-Sayed plans to turn a primary upset into a Senate win
Plus: Democrats seek Pentagon watchdog probe, Senate confirms CDC director and Chuck Edwards calls it quits amid House Ethics fallout.
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THE LINEUP
How El-Sayed plans to turn a primary upset into a Senate win
Democrats seek Pentagon watchdog probe
Senate confirms CDC director
Chuck Edwards calls it quits amid House Ethics fallout
THE LEAD
👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.
Michigan Democrats moved quickly to unite behind Abdul El-Sayed after the progressive physician defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in Tuesday night’s Senate primary, with retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) telling me this morning that the party’s immediate task is bringing Democrats together before a closely watched general election against Republican Mike Rogers.
“The party has to all come together right now,” Peters said. “We don’t have a lot of time, but everybody has to come together and understand that as Democrats, whatever differences we have between us as Democrats are minor compared to the differences between our Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate.”
Peters told me he spoke to El-Sayed first thing this morning and described the conversation as “very positive.”
Asked whether Stevens’ supporters will ultimately coalesce around the nominee, Peters replied: “We’re going to work hard to make sure that happens.”
Pressed on whether El-Sayed should moderate any of the positions that helped him win the primary, Peters declined to offer campaign advice.
“I’m not going to speak for the candidate,” he said. “Obviously, he has to make those kinds of decisions as to how he approaches his campaign in the general [election]. It’s going to be up to him.”
Peters’s comments came as national and state Democratic leaders rapidly consolidated behind El-Sayed…
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THE POWERS THAT BE
Democrats seek Pentagon watchdog probe: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) joined House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) in asking the Defense Department’s inspector general to investigate reports that more than $3.2 billion in Pentagon contracts, loans and other awards have gone to companies with ties to President Trump’s sons…
THE POLICY DESK
Senate confirms CDC director: The Senate voted 51-44 to confirm Erica Schwartz as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ending nearly a year without a Senate-confirmed leader at the nation’s top public health agency…
THE TRAIL
GOP loses another incumbent: Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) ended his reelection campaign, becoming the latest House Republican to step aside after the House Ethics Committee recommended he be censured over findings that he engaged in inappropriate conduct toward two female staffers…