| | | |  | | By Zack Stanton | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco Happy Saturday. I'm Zack Stanton. Get in touch.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | THE BLITZ BEGINS: If you’re a college football fan, rejoice: The long-awaited season-opening matchup between number one-ranked Texas and number three-ranked Ohio State kicks off at noon. POLITICO’s Gregory Svirnovskiy has a deep dive on how Washington — and President Donald Trump — could remake the sport. If you’re not a college football fan, there’s something in this story for you, too. Just outside of Ohio Stadium, the Senate Leadership Fund — the Senate GOP’s top super PAC — will begin a six-figure ad campaign using mobile billboards and airplane banners to target former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to face Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) in next year’s election, the Washington Examiner’s Rachel Schilke reports. First in Playbook: Senate Majority Leader John Thune will be in Columbus for the game, Playbook has learned. Politically, there is major action happening throughout the country.
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Republican Sen. Joni Ernst has told confidantes she plans to reveal next week that she won't seek reelection in 2026. | AP | IOWA: Republican Sen. Joni Ernst “has told confidantes she plans to reveal next week that she won't seek reelection in 2026,” CBS News’ Jennifer Jacobs scooped. An announcement is scheduled for Thursday. Successor watch: Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson is widely expected to run — and is perhaps a stronger candidate than Ernst would’ve been. “Hinson raised $854,000 in the most recent fundraising quarter, more than the $723,000 that Ernst brought in,” the Des Moines Register notes. Related read: “A GOP lawmaker aims to define Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill before Democrats,” by WaPo’s Katie Tarrant Another name to consider: “Matt Whitaker, now the US Ambassador to NATO, ran for the seat in 2014 and is seen as a potential candidate in a state that has shifted right since 2012,” Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Meanwhile, Democrats “see ruby-red Iowa as one of their best shots at mounting a conservative state comeback in the upcoming midterms,” POLITICO’s Liz Crampton and Holly Otterbein report. They’re buoyed by this week’s special election in Iowa, in which they flipped a state Senate seat Trump carried by 11 points, by their overperformance broadly in a series of special elections this year and by enthusiasm about state Auditor Rob Sand’s chances to win next year’s gubernatorial race. (Even so, it’s an uphill battle.) TEXAS: Gov. Greg Abbott signed Republicans’ new heavily gerrymandered congressional maps into law yesterday, likely assuring the GOP three more seats — and potentially as many as five — in the U.S. House. In a video on X, Abbott lauded what he termed the “One Big Beautiful Map” as a way to ensure “fairer representation in the United States Congress for Texans.” What comes next: “The battle now will go to the courts, where groups representing Black and Latino voters have already filed lawsuits asking that the maps be blocked from going into effect,” writes the Texas Tribune’s Eleanor Klibanoff. “A three-judge panel that is already considering challenges to Texas’ 2021 maps has set a hearing for early October.” MISSOURI: Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe announced yesterday that the state’s legislature will draw new congressional maps in a special session, reports POLITICO’s Aaron Pellish — likely netting the GOP one more House seat by targeting the Kansas City-area district held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. The special session will begin on Wednesday; Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, leaving Democrats with few options. Cleaver blasted the gerrymander as an “an unconstitutional attack” on democracy, per KMBC News. And, in an interview with Missourinet’s Alisa Nelson, he warned about the redistricting arms race: “If we continue to fight fire with fire and keep starting fires and creating new fires, the only thing we’re going to have left are ashes and a little piece of a nation.” MAINE: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) backed Democrat Graham Platner’s Senate bid. National Democratic leadership is holding out hope that Gov. Janet Mills gets into the race to challenge Sen. Susan Collins. But Platner’s campaign has caught fire and Mills remains noncommittal, telling the Portland Press Herald earlier this week that she might not make her mind up until November. CALIFORNIA: Former Obama Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced yesterday that she would seek a return to Congress if a new Democratic gerrymander is approved by California voters in November, the L.A. Times’ Julia Wick reports. WISCONSIN: Conservative state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley will not seek reelection next year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Mary Spicuzza and Daniel Bice report. Liberals have a 4-3 edge on the court after blowout wins earlier this year and in 2023, and now that they won’t be running against an incumbent, there’s the rare chance that they could expand that majority to 5-2. MINNESOTA: Democratic Gov. Tim Walz continues to weigh a campaign for a third term, and tells the WSJ’s John McCormick he’s “totally undecided.” “People get tired of it,” he said. “I get tired of myself at times.”
| | | | A message from Booz Allen: Booz Allen uses the most advanced tech to engineer, build, and deploy what nobody else can. So our nation can stay ahead. It's how we win every time, everywhere. It's in our code. Learn more. | | | | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US
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The American Medical Association is stuck walking a difficult tightrope between battling HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and trying to work with him. | Aaron Schwartz/CNP | 1. AN APPLE A DAY: The American Medical Association is stuck walking a difficult tightrope between battling HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and trying to work with him, POLITICO’s Simon Levien reports this morning. While publicly opposing Kennedy means “defending public health against policies — from changes to vaccine guidance to cuts to Medicaid — they see as dire threats,” the move could cost them big “if Republicans decide to overhaul how doctors are paid.” Going against the Trump administration could also cost the powerful lobbying group on Capitol Hill. “At stake: billions in Medicare reimbursements, the doc vote in the midterms and physicians’ clout in Washington.” 2. SHUTDOWN WATCH: With September funding negotiations just around the corner, Trump has already set up a clash with lawmakers, declaring yesterday the blanket power to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid by using a so-called pocket rescission, POLITICO’s Jennifer Scholtes and Kyle Cheney report. The cancellation relies on a “gambit that Congress’ top watchdog and many lawmakers argue is an illegal end-run” around their authority. Meanwhile, the rescissions push could drastically increase the risk of a government shutdown: “Democrats and Republicans alike have warned that a pocket rescissions request would hamper cross-party talks to avert a shutdown at the end of September, while fulfilling White House budget director Russ Vought’s wish that the process of funding the government be ‘less bipartisan’ to accommodate a raft of conservative priorities.” 3. WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: The recent turmoil at the CDC is just the latest example of how Trump has recently turned on his hand-picked, Senate-confirmed staff, per WSJ. Unlike the early chaos of his first term in office, the White House claims this year’s firings “stem from different reasons. … In some cases, officials explicitly attributed the departures to what they viewed as improper political interference.” Now in Trump’s sights? “The White House also has started to look into one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, Corey Lewandowski, who once ran Trump’s 2016 campaign and is now in an unpaid advisory role at the Department of Homeland Security.” 4. LAW AND ORDER: A federal judge has halted the White House’s attempts to broaden the use of a fast-track deportation procedure, arguing that doing so poses "a significant risk" of forcing out immigrants who might have the right to remain in the country, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein reports. Last night, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that foreigners impacted by the expansion “have a weighty liberty interest in remaining here and therefore must be afforded due process under the Fifth Amendment.” 5. EPSTEIN SAGA LATEST: House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and members of the committee are slated to meet privately next week with victims of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, WaPo’s Kadia Goba reports: “It was unclear which of Epstein’s victims is expected to attend the meeting.” The closed-door meeting comes after Comer subpoenaed Epstein’s estate last week for the so-called “birthday book" provided to him by jailed associate Ghislaine Maxwell on his 50th birthday and any type of “client list.”
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| | | | 6. IMMIGRATION FILES: Officials say the White House is prepping an immigration enforcement blitz in Boston in the coming weeks, representing the “the latest Democratic-run city to be targeted by President Donald Trump,” POLITICO’s Myah Ward reports: “Democratic Gov. Maura Healey’s office declined to comment. And in a statement on Saturday, [Boston Mayor Michelle Wu] decried the Trump administration’s plans. … A spokesperson at DHS said the agency targets the ‘worst criminal illegal aliens—including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists—across the country.’” 7. TAKING STOCK: “Bipartisan Proposal Would Ban Stock Trading by Lawmakers,” by WSJ’s Katy Stech Ferek: The bill “gives lawmakers and their family members a period of 180 days from enactment to sell off individual stocks they own, including ones held in blind trusts … Lawmakers who don’t comply would face fines equal to 10% of the value of the investment and would be forced to give up any profit they received. … Opponents to new stock-trading restrictions pointed out that insider trading is already illegal.” 8. WEIGHT WATCHERS: “‘Looks like he's getting ready for a fight’: Why JB Pritzker is slimming down,” by POLITICO’s Shia Kapos and Emily Schultheis: “The fight over [Illinois Gov. JB] Pritzker’s appearance picked up this week, when President Donald Trump told reporters that the governor ‘should spend more time in the gym.’ … In Illinois, observers of Pritzker’s weight loss are just as likely to point to his family history as politics. Pritzker’s father, Don Pritzker, the Hyatt Hotels president, was just 39 when he died of a heart attack in 1972. His youngest son was 7 at the time, and would grow into the same round face and stocky build as his father.” 9. DEFINITIONS: In a new book out Tuesday, legal scholar Cass Sunstein “mounts a stirring intellectual defense of liberalism from its critics across the political spectrum,” Ankush Khardori writes in a new POLITICO Mag piece this morning. In a Q&A, Sunstein defines “liberalism” as a “a set of commitments to freedom, pluralism, the rule of law, respect for individual autonomy, and security and self-government,” adding it’s a bipartisan principle: “For all their disagreements, the idea of pluralism, freedom, basic individual security — those are things that unify the liberal right and the liberal left.”
| | | | Playbook goes beyond the newsletter — with powerhouse co-hosts at the mic. Join Jack Blanchard and Dasha Burns every weekday on The Playbook Podcast for exclusive intel and sharp analysis on Trump’s Washington. Start listening now. | | | | | CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 17 funnies
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| | | | GREAT WEEKEND READS: — “At a summer camp for war-traumatized Ukrainian children, two found love,” by WaPo’s Lizzie Johnson and Kostiantyn Khudov: “Both lost parents during Russia’s war on Ukraine. While coping with their trauma, they learned how to be kids again.” — “Bans Can’t Stop the Abortion Pill,” by NY Mag’s Irin Carmon: "Lawsuits seeking to scare women away from medication may have the opposite effect.” — “An ICE raid breaks a family — and prompts a wrenching decision,” by LA Times’ Kate Linthicum: “Jesús Cruz came to Los Angeles 33 years ago. He was sent back to Mexico and his wife faced an impossible decision. Should she and their children join him in Mexico? Or stay in Inglewood?” — “A.I. Is Coming for Culture,” by The New Yorker’s Joshua Rothman: “We’re used to algorithms guiding our choices. When machines can effortlessly generate the content we consume, though, what’s left for the human imagination?” — “Germany’s Army Is Rebuilding. What Could Go Wrong?” by Jessica Bateman for POLITICO Mag: “As Putin looms and Trump pulls back from NATO, Germany gears up to build the fourth largest army in the world.” — “Only One Republican Is Holding This Many Town Halls,” by The Atlantic’s Elaine Godfrey: “Mark Alford bucked his party and held 15 public events this week. Here’s what he heard.”
| | | | Don’t just keep up with policy shifts — set the pace. POLITICO Pro’s Policy Intelligence Assistant combines unmatched reporting with advanced AI to deliver sharper insights, faster answers, and two powerful report builders that turn intelligence into impact. Try it free for 30 days. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | IN MEMORIAM — “Duke Cunningham, war hero turned corrupt congressman, dies at 83,” by The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Jeff McDonald: “Cunningham rose to the highest levels of public adoration — first as a decorated aviator sometimes credited with inspiring the Tom Cruise character Maverick in the hit 1980s movie ‘Top Gun,’ later as an elected representative after winning his first campaign in 1990. … He pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in 2005 and spent eight and a half years in prison for his crimes.” MEDIA MOVE —Matt Fitzpatrick will be senior producer for C-SPANS's “Ceasefire.” He previously was a senior producer for FOX News Sunday. WEDDING — Chas Morrison, policy director for the Select Committee on China and Rep. Mike Gallagher alum, and Megan Hartman, VP of marketing and comms at the Amatriot Group, got married on August 16 in Lakeville, Connecticut. Pic THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): ABC “This Week”: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore … Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) … Demetre Daskalakis … Richard Besser. CBS “Face the Nation”: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem … Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker … Celine Gounder. Panel: Rachael Bade, Jennifer Jacobs and Karen Tumulty. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro … Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) … Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.). Panel: Mollie Hemingway, Susan Page, Kevin Walling and Philip Wegmann. CNN “State of the Union”: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) … Sebastian Gorka … Cindy McCain. Panel: Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), Scott Jennings and Kate Bedingfield. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Education Secretary Linda McMahon … Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer … Mississippi state Superintendent of Education Lance Evans … Catherine Pakaluk. NBC “Meet the Press”: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) … Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) … Hoda Kotb. Panel: Leigh Ann Caldwell, Ashley Etienne, Andrea Mitchell and Marc Short. Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures,” guest-hosted by Jackie DeAngelis: Peter Navarro … Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) … Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). MSNBC “The Weekend: Primetime”: Peter Beinart. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) … Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) … CNN’s John King … WaPo’s Martine Powers … MSNBC’s Brandy Zadrozny … Patrick Kerley … Tom Countryman … Karl Russo … Rachel Harris … POLITICO’s Jordain Carney, Mitch Schuler and Jen Dreyer … Korie Traver of the American Cleaning Institute … Ariana Berengaut … BGR Group’s Loren Monroe … Guillermo Pérez of the DNC … AIPAC’s Kristen Joseph … George Riccardo … American Conservation Coalition’s Alina Voss. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
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