Inside the most expensive House primary in U.S. history
Trumpworld tries to finish off Thomas Massie. Plus: House GOP leaders pull SCORE Act, Pelosi picks her preferred successor and the DWC opposes MAGA-fied women’s museum bill.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Sunrise. I hope your morning is off to a wonderful start.
In this morning’s edition:
Inside the most expensive House primary in U.S. history
House GOP leaders pull SCORE Act
Pelosi endorses Chan as successor
Blumenthal demands Patel probe
DWC opposes gop women’s museum bill
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First Things First
The next stop on Donald Trump’s revenge tour runs through northeastern Kentucky, where the president is trying to take out Rep. Thomas Massie, the eight-term incumbent who’s drawn MAGA’s wrath for opposing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, pushing to release the full Epstein files and breaking with the administration over the war in Iran.
Massie is facing retired Navy SEAL and businessman Ed Gallrein, who was effectively recruited and elevated by Trump-aligned forces as a credible conservative challenger willing to run against Massie as an anti-establishment apostate rather than from his ideological right.
Trump endorsed Gallrein early, and MAGA-aligned super PACs and donors have since poured millions into the race, transforming what would normally be a sleepy, safe-red primary into a national proxy battle over whether there’s still room in the Republican Party for members willing to openly defy Trump.
The race is expected to end as the most expensive House primary in U.S. history, with outside groups and campaigns combining to spend north of $30 million. The previous benchmark was the 2024 Democratic primary in New York between former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and then-Westchester County Executive George Latimer, where spending topped roughly $25 million.
Public polling suggests a genuinely tight race, which helps explain why Republicans and outside groups have continued pouring money into it.
A Quantus Insights survey released last week showed Gallrein leading Massie, though exact toplines varied across reporting on the poll.
But a separate Big Data Poll tracking survey released days later showed Massie narrowly ahead, 50.6% to 49.4%, suggesting the race may effectively be within the margin of error heading into Election Day.
There are also revealing crosscurrents beneath the toplines. The Big Data tracking poll found Massie performing better with early voters, while Gallrein led among Election Day voters, a potentially important signal in a race increasingly nationalized by Trump and MAGA media.
Trump has enjoyed recent success in his retribution campaign.
In Louisiana, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) failed to make the runoff this weekend after Trump backed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and targeted Cassidy over his vote to convict Trump following Jan. 6. Letlow and Louisiana State Treasurer and former Trump administration official John Fleming advanced, while Cassidy became the first sitting senator to lose a primary since 2012.
Trump has also gone further down the ballot in Indiana, endorsing challengers against Republican state senators who refused to redraw the state’s congressional map to help the GOP pad its House majority. Seven Republicans who voted against the map faced Trump-backed challengers, and almost all of them lost.
HOUSE GOP LEADERS PULL SCORE ACT: House Republican leadership has pulled the SCORE Act from this week’s floor schedule following unified opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus in a significant victory for the caucus and college athlete advocates, while dealing another setback to the Trump administration and the Power Four conferences pushing for a federal framework governing college sports.
The decision came just hours after CBC members announced they would unanimously oppose the legislation, due in part to what they view as silence from major college athletics institutions and governing bodies, as Republican-led states redraw congressional maps in ways Democrats say weaken Black political representation after the Supreme Court’s Callais decision. The caucus said that silence made support for the SCORE Act politically and morally untenable.
CBC Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and CBC members announced a press conference this afternoon with NAACP President Derrick Johnson before the bill was pulled from the schedule.
Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), who has emerged as one of the House’s leading Democratic antagonists to the SCORE Act and arguably the central congressional voice pushing an alternative vision for college sports reform, also has a press call scheduled for later this morning with current and former college athletes who are opposed to the bill.
PELOSI ENDORSES CHAN AS SUCCESSOR: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi officially endorsed Connie Chan as her preferred successor in California’s 11th Congressional District, a major intervention in the crowded race to replace the longtime Democratic leader after months of staying publicly neutral. Pelosi said Chan would continue San Francisco’s progressive legacy in Washington and praised her ties to labor and immigrant communities.
The endorsement gives Chan a potentially critical boost in California’s top-two primary as she competes with California state Sen. Scott Wiener and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, for a spot in the general election. Recent polling has shown Wiener ahead, with Chan and Chakrabarti battling for second place.
BLUMENTHAL DEMANDS PATEL PROBE: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called on the Justice Department inspector general to investigate FBI Director Kash Patel over allegations that Patel’s excessive drinking, unexplained absences and broader inattentiveness have compromised the bureau’s readiness and public safety mission. Blumenthal also urged DOJ watchdogs to examine recent reports that Patel manipulated FBI arrest statistics and the bureau’s Most Wanted list to inflate the appearance of enforcement successes under his tenure.
The Connecticut Democrat cited reporting from The Atlantic, MS NOW and The New York Times alleging Patel’s security detail at times struggled to wake him because of apparent intoxication and that the FBI changed internal arrest-cataloging practices in ways that artificially boosted arrest numbers. Blumenthal argued the allegations raise serious concerns about Patel’s fitness to lead the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency, writing that the FBI director “must be on call and ready to perform at all hours.”
DWC OPPOSES GOP WOMEN’S MUSEUM BILL: The Democratic Women’s Caucus formally announced opposition to the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act, after Republicans amended the previously bipartisan bill ahead of an expected House floor vote this week.
Democrats’ core objection centers on a GOP amendment adopted during a March House Administration Committee markup led by Mary Miller. The amendment added “scope of mission” language specifying the museum would focus on the experiences of “biological women” and prohibiting the museum from depicting transgender women as women.
DWC argues the language could also affect depictions of intersex women and create what they describe as a politically driven standard for determining who qualifies for inclusion in the museum.
Democrats are also criticizing the amendment for removing the National Museum of the American Latino from the broader legislative package. The women’s history museum and Latino museum initiatives have historically advanced in tandem since Congress authorized both institutions in the FY2021 omnibus spending law.
DWC leaders are now urging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to restore the bill to its earlier bipartisan form and reincorporate the Latino museum legislation before bringing it to the floor.
What Paid Subscribers are Reading
Last night’s Congress Nerd Sunset took a look into the increasingly tense House-Senate standoff over the bipartisan housing package moving through Congress, including fresh comments from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) signaling growing frustration that the House is advancing yet another rewrite instead of simply passing the Senate’s bill that passed by an 89-10 margin in March. I also broke down the key provisions the House restored, the Senate priorities lawmakers stripped out and why Republicans worry the political and legislative window for a bipartisan affordability deal may be closing faster than either chamber expected. Still on the free plan? Upgrade your subscription for full access to this report and all future editions of Congress Nerd Sunset.
On the Floor
The Senate will meet at 10 a.m. and vote at 11:45 a.m. to limit debate on the nomination Sheria Akins Clarke to be U.S. District Judge for the District of South Carolina. The Senate will recess until 2 p.m. for weekly policy lunches and vote at 2:15 p.m. to confirm Clark and limit debate on the nomination of Evan Rikhye to be Judge for the District Court of the Virgin Islands. Additional votes are expected during today’s session.
The House will meet at noon. No votes are expected during today’s session.
ICYMI
— The Senate confirmed on a 46-43 party-line vote a package of 49 Trump nominees, including U.S. attorneys and marshals, ambassadors, and assistant and undersecretaries. Among those confirmed are nominees for judicial districts in Maine, North Carolina and Arkansas; diplomatic posts in Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the Philippines; and leadership roles across the Departments of Defense, State, Commerce and Transportation. While the package does little to address the cost-of-living concerns facing many Americans, it does install dozens of Trump’s executive-branch and federal-judiciary picks across the government, further entrenching his agenda.
— Democrats lead Republicans 50%–39% on the generic congressional ballot among registered voters, including leaners, according to the latest New York Times/Siena poll. That’s up from a 48%–43% Democratic edge in January and a near-tie last fall. Paired with President Donald Trump’s poor marks on the economy, cost of living and the war in Iran, plus a broader sense of national pessimism, the numbers are a fresh reminder of the headwinds Republicans face ahead of the November midterms despite recent redistricting wins across the South following the Supreme Court’s Callais decision.
— Senate Majority PAC—the primary Democratic-aligned super PAC focused exclusively on winning and protecting Democratic seats in the U.S. Senate—reserved $30 million in fall television advertising across Georgia and New Hampshire as Democrats move to shore up Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) in two of the cycle’s most competitive Senate races. The reservations, paired with significant digital spending and coming days after a separate $13.4 million Iowa buy, underscore Democrats’ early effort to counter an increasingly aggressive GOP Senate map offensive.
— House Democrats’ Litigation Task Force filed an amicus brief urging a federal judge to block President Donald Trump’s proposed settlement with the IRS, arguing the case is an unconstitutional “collusive lawsuit” because Trump effectively controls both sides of the litigation through the executive branch. The filing from 93 House Democrats led by House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (Md.), House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse (Colo.), House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (Mass.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) came hours after DOJ announced plans for a new $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” tied to the settlement agreement.