Our most recent book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. It includes a chapter on congressional and state elections.
ADAM WREN, DASHA BURNS and WILL STEAKIN at POLITICO:
House Republicans are hurtling toward August recess and a 105-day sprint to midterm elections, and President Donald Trump is showing little interest in boosting their prospects.
"Zero," a person close to the president told Playbook when asked about his engagement on the Hill.
Trump "doesn't care about anything beyond SAVE, Iran, and the ballroom,” another White House ally put it.
Republicans are staring down Election Day with a short list of accomplishments to sell, forcing them to reconcile two truths: The president doesn’t appear interested in helping Speaker Mike Johnson ram legislation over the finish line, and one of the only cases they have to make back home is to frame Democrats as communists.
Rep. Lisa McClain (Mich.), the GOP conference chair, who not long ago shared Republicans’ midterm messaging strategy with Playbook, told us she’s whittled that down to something simpler: Democrats are crazy.
“We voted for capitalism,” McCLain told Playbook. “We voted to lower your taxes: every Democrat voted to raise your taxes, and they are crazy. They want communism. They hate this country. They hate what this country stands for. That’s crazy.”
Never mind the president pitching federal stakes in private companies himself, McClain said. “He’s doing that to level the playing field for America.”
Is the White House leaning into their agreed-upon messaging enough? “No,” she said.
“We need to use it, and then when we think we've exhausted it, we need to use it some more,” McCLain said.