How Speaker Johnson bolstered Dems’ closing message
With the Louisiana Republican publicly pledging to overhaul the ACA with Trump back in office, he’s given his opponents useful fodder for the campaign’s homestretch.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. Happy Halloween! The election is in five days. Here’s what’s happening today:
The House and Senate are out.
President Joe Biden will receive his daily press briefing this morning.
Vice President Kamala Harris will hold campaign rallies in Reno, NV, Las Vegas, NV and Phoenix, AZ. The Las Vegas and Phoenix rallies will feature performances by Maná in Las Vegas and Los Tigres del Norte in Phoenix. Jennifer Lopez will also speak at the Vegas rally.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) will speak at a campaign event in Bucks County, PA, to encourage Pennsylvanians to vote early for Harris and down-ballot Democrats. The governor will make a local stop this evening in Erie, PA before traveling to Detroit.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend the vice president’s remarks at the concert and rally in Vegas.
Mrs. Gwen Walz will hold events in four different media markets in Georgia. She will start the day with a reproductive freedom early voting event in Cobb County, GA with Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) and President of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill Johnson. Mrs. Walz will then hold canvass launch events in Macon, GA and Albany, GA, before ending the day at a Halloween “Trunk or Treat” event in Valdosta, GA, the southernmost media market in the state. She will personally knock on doors after the Macon canvass launch. On drives between stops, Mrs. Walz will be calling undecided voters in Georgia and into radio stations in Marquette, MI, Atlanta, GA, and Eau Claire, WI.
Several congressional Democrats will campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket today in key battleground states. Here’s a handy guide to who will be where:
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ): Kelly will be joined in Phoenix, AZ, by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), actor Lauren Dern, maternal health advocate and model Christy Turlington and former Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice for the Harris campaign’s reproductive bus tour.
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragán (D-CA): Barragán will be with Reading, PA Mayor Eddie Morán and state Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz (D-PA) in Reading for a press conference slamming Trump for downplaying his campaign surrogate’s “island of garbage” comments.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI): Baldwin, who’s up for reelection in a must-win seat for Senate Democrats, will be in Milwaukee, WI for a Get-Out-The-Vote event at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and in Grafton for a meet and greet.
The Politics Report
As congressional Democrats head into the final weekend of the campaign, they’ll hammer home a message to voters that emerged from an unlikely source: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
In case you missed it, Johnson was asked on Tuesday at an event for the GOP candidate challenging Democratic Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) in Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district if health care was a part of House Republicans’ first-hundred-day agenda.
Specifically, an attendee asked, “No Obamacare?” referring to the Affordable Care Act, the landmark law passed in 2010.
“No Obamacare," Johnson responded, rolling his eyes, according to NBC News. “The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”
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