|
|
| |
 |
By Ali Bianco |
Presented by |
 |
|
|
|
 |
THE CATCH-UP |
|
DEEP IN THE HEART: In one of the biggest toss-up races — and the linchpin of Republicans’ hopes to build on their gains with Latino voters in Texas after redrawing the state’s map — incumbent Rep. Monica De La Cruz believes she’s running from behind. “Because of the dynamics of how the district was redrawn, it’s like I’m the underdog,” De La Cruz told Playbook in an interview, just hours before casting her ballot today in McAllen. She tabbed her opponent, the Latin Grammy star Bobby Pulido, as “the incumbent with the name recognition and the political family that is so deeply entrenched” in the district nestled into the Rio Grande Valley — which swung 18 points for President Donald Trump in 2024. “So this is a very unique race because, as an incumbent, I'm actually coming in as the underdog,” De La Cruz said. To win over the new constituency redistricting delivered to her, De La Cruz is making her willingness to break with the Republican Party a key piece of her closing pitch. But she’s toeing an increasingly fine line: distancing from the GOP while never naming Trump himself. “I was the only Texas Republican to vote for extending the ACA credits — I pushed back against my party there. I've also been very vocal when it comes to immigration, sharing with leadership that they need to focus on the cartels and the criminals,” De La Cruz told Playbook. “My first bill when I was a freshman in Congress was overwhelmingly bipartisan, and I got it signed into law with a Democrat Senate and a Democrat in the White House.” Following a massive shift in 2024 that saw the greater Rio Grande Valley turning out for Trump, Republicans gleefully welcomed the area’s culturally conservative Latino voters into their tent. Last year, they redrew the state maps, in part, banking on the newfound political backing from Latinos — a gambit intended to clinch no less than four new GOP seats, which launched a tit-for-tat battle that upended the map. They cut out De La Cruz’s core constituency in the process — with the new lines for Texas’ 15th District expanding Hidalgo County and moving some of her GOP voters into neighboring districts. De La Cruz is central to Republicans’ hopes to hold the RGV, as top GOP organizations pull out of the neighboring 28th District held by Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar. Now, the two-term lawmaker has spent a portion of her campaign reintroducing herself to voters. And she’s running against a pro-gun, tough-on-borders Democrat with near-universal name ID and a family legacy in Hidalgo County. But there’s a specific bloc even some Democrats admit are the voters De La Cruz could run up the numbers with: Latina moms. “It really is low-key now coming down to the Latina vote,” one Democratic operative told Playbook. “If Monica is able to really push a ton of money to push a message about Bobby not being for women, that could be a factor.” Where corruption has become a central messaging point for many Democrats, it’s also one of De La Cruz’s biggest attacks against Pulido — whom she calls a “silver spoon celebrity.” She’s slammed Pulido for his history of crude comments about women’s bodies. This week she’s flooded messaging on Pulido’s uncle, a former district attorney, highlighting reports that he let a child predator off the hook — who was also Pulido’s accordionist. “Moms like myself are very disturbed and disgusted,” De La Cruz said. “This is not the kind of person that we want around our children and our families.” Pulido has denied knowledge of his former bandmate, Frankie Caballero, being a child sex offender. Caballero was a contractor with the band who did not get a formal background check, Pulido said. He cut ties with Caballero in 2021. But Pulido’s given varying responses to what he knew about Caballero’s prison time. He also came to the defense of his uncle on X. Much of the airtime backing De La Cruz features the allegations against Pulido. MAGA Inc.’s No Going Back PAC has dropped more than $2.6 million across 15 ads in the district. The latest ad dropped today in the Corpus Christi market, per AdImpact — one that sits in the northern part of the district, where De La Cruz needs voters to turn out in droves. De La Cruz has pitched herself as a single mom with no political legacy, and the one willing to take on corruption in politics. Would she collaborate with Democrats on potential investigations in the next Congress, if they take the chamber? While De La Cruz demurred on whether she’d do so on corruption investigations related to the Trump administration, she touted her previous bipartisan work with Democrats and said she “voted to release every single document” of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Yet there’s reason for skepticism on whether the corruption and anti-women arguments about Pulido might move the needle with voters. Despite these attacks appearing consistently this cycle, recent polling continues to show Pulido ahead, including with independent voters. “He’s not a misogynist," Missy Alvarado, a split-ticket voter from McAllen, told Playbook on the sidelines of Pulido’s final concert rally this weekend. She and her friend, Rita Perez, also from McAllen, both voted for De La Cruz in 2024 but not Trump. Both said they plan to vote for Pulido in November, and named the economy and immigration as their top issues. But in a district this close, the race is far from over. And in the final stretch, De La Cruz said she’s telling voters: “I hear you, I understand, and I am with you because I feel the same pressures.” Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at abianco@politico.com.
|
| |
A message from OpenAI: How a college freshman is helping firefighters detect wildfires with ChatGPT.
Ryan Honary began developing wildfire detection technology as a fifth-grade science project. Years and many accolades later, that experiment became SensoRy AI—a wildfire detection system that uses ChatGPT to turn sensor data into clear, actionable alerts. Those alerts go straight to departments like Laguna Beach Fire Department, giving responders an early signal when a fire starts. Learn more. |
| |
|
|
|
7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW |
|
1. MEANS TO AN END: “Calley Means, top MAHA ally, resigns from Trump administration,” by POLITICO’s Cheyanne Haslett: “Calley Means, senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., resigned on Thursday over frustrations that the Make America Healthy Again agenda had stalled inside the White House. Means was one of the most fervent MAHA allies inside the Trump administration and his departure, less than two weeks before the midterms, comes as many of the movement’s adherents say they are disillusioned with the White House.” 2. CABLE CONNECTION: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is questioning whether Trump’s Board of Peace can deliver on the Gaza peace plan without more planning and resources from the U.S. government, according to a cable the embassy sent to State Department leaders today that was obtained by POLITICO’s Daniella Cheslow. The cable was signed by Huckabee and voiced concern that neither the organization nor the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem have the personnel to move forward with plans to disarm and rebuild the Palestinian enclave with the Pentagon set to draw down its personnel as planned over the next year. 3. AFTER THE DUST SETTLES: Republicans are staring down an absolutely jam-packed lame duck period, made all the more high stakes depending on if they lose one or both chambers in just under two weeks, the Washington Sun’s Al Weaver and Kadia Goba report. On the to-do list is the small matter of funding the entire government, tackling the debt ceiling, the must-pass defense authorization bill — plus the growing wishlist of permitting reform, a surveillance renewal and the third reconciliation push. “I think our appetite’s definitely going to be bigger than what our stomach can hold on this one,” one Senate aide said. 4. TALES FROM THE CRYPTO: Banks and crypto companies have spent the last year sparring over financial policy on the Hill — but nearing Election Day, they’re on the same page when it comes to who they want to send to Congress, POLITICO’s Jasper Goodman and Aiden Reiter report. Political spending from Wall Street banks has put over $7.3 million into incumbents in 15 races, half of which are also backed by crypto-connected super PACs. Among those candidates are Nebraska GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts, and Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) and Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.). 5. OVER IN OHIO: Chris Heath for NY Magazine zooms in on Rep. Max Miller, the Ohio Republican battling both claims of domestic abuse that he’s denied and a competitive reelection bid. “Though on occasion he’d previously come across as a bit pompous and self-righteous when he talked about these matters in public, he’d always seemed to take the accusations as serious, denying them all, and to strive to project sincerity,” Heath writes. “But the Max Miller now, at the head of the long table of lawyers, three of his facing off against four of [Emily Moreno’s], presented as someone very different. At times he wore a contemptuous smirk. … He often gave the impression he was above it all, as if this whole undertaking was ridiculous.” Meanwhile: Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine said Vivek Ramaswamy’s controversial ad in the state’s gubernatorial race featuring Democrat Amy Acton’s estranged mother “needs to come down,” calling it “troubling” and “just wrong.” But DeWine said he won’t be rescinding his endorsement over the episode, per WCPO 9’s Morgan Trau. 6. IMMIGRATION FILES: “Trump put this Hispanic district in play. His deportations are complicating the pitch,” by POLITICO’s Joey Fox: “Trump’s victory in this heavily Hispanic corner of New Jersey gave Republicans hope they could turn his gains into a lasting foothold. Those hopes have all but vanished two years later. Even their House candidate is criticizing the president’s immigration crackdown — and arguing her Democratic opponent should do more to push back. … Republicans were eager to unseat Rep. Nellie Pou when her district voted for Trump … But with less than two weeks until Election Day, national Republicans have committed little money to defeating Pou and pulled back on their original ad reservations.” 7. GETTING OUT THE VOTE: Voter turnout is already soaring in several key Senate battlegrounds. The early vote in Texas is up 74%, Kansas’ early vote has more than doubled, and Maine, North Carolina and Ohio’s levels are also up compared to 2022, AP’s Joey Cappelletti and colleagues report. … And as DHS looks to crack down on allegations of noncitizen voting, a federal judge restricted DHS from their election-connected investigations in nine states, with the order on hold until 5 p.m. tomorrow to give the government time to appeal, WaPo’s Patrick Marley reports. You’ve got mail: “Ballot Rejections Soared in Rural Counties After USPS Reduced Mail Service,” by ProPublica’s Ken Morales: “In recent weeks, concerns about mail-in voting disruptions have focused almost entirely on [Trump’s] now-shelved plan to sharply restrict who can vote by mail. But a ProPublica data analysis shows that delays resulting from the U.S. Postal Service’s cost-cutting measures have endangered the validity of ballots cast in rural areas, not only in Washington, but across the country.”
|
| |
A message from OpenAI:  
|
| |
|
|
|
TALK OF THE TOWN |
|
KNOWING PAOLO ZAMPOLLI — NYT’s Shawn McCreesh has a deep dive into the unlikely special envoy and friend of the Trump family, Paolo Zampolli, who was recently sacked by the State Department following a report from POLITICO on his “nasty email fight” playing out internally. Why did Zampolli believe he was fired? “No scandal!” “I need to make money,” he said. But as NYT writes, “perhaps the most remarkable thing about the firing was that it didn’t happen sooner.” YIKES — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted to move a 30-inch floor globe, said to be used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II, into his office. Usually moving a historical item requires a delicate process with trained curators. But Hegseth dispatched his own team to move it, and they dropped it and cracked, WaPo’s Alex Horton and Dan Lamothe scoop. “Pentagon officials denied The Washington Post’s request for a photo of the globe or to examine the artifact in person, but The Post separately obtained images of the damage.” EXTREME MAKEOVER: DC EDITION — “Trump plans to fast-track arch despite legal challenge,” by POLITICO’s Heather Richards: “The Trump administration is poised to swiftly begin construction on a contested triumphal arch in early November, according to a notice filed Wednesday in federal court. The move would significantly accelerate the timeline to build the massive monument despite a federal lawsuit to stop it.” IN MEMORIAM — “Caryle Murphy, who won the Pulitzer Prize reporting from Kuwait, dies at 79,” by Amanda Covarrubias for WaPo: “Caryle Murphy, a former Washington Post correspondent whose reporting from Kuwait during the Gulf War earned her a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, has died at 79.” OUT AND ABOUT — CNN hosted its inaugural Health Innovation Summit at the Riggs Rooftop on Wednesday morning, presented by WHOOP and ViiV Healthcare, featuring conversations on artificial intelligence, Alzheimer’s breakthroughs and women’s health moderated by Sanjay Gupta and Pamela Brown. SPOTTED: Jonathan Cousimano, Kristin Cecchi, Marie Royce, Katelyn Bledsoe, Arun Gupta, Anjali Gupta, Charlotte Ivancic, Michelle Kelly, Tony P, Riley Kilberg, Tammy Haddad, Richard Isaacson, Jean Van Wyk, Tara Abraham, Ami Bhatt, Heather Hirsch, Kathleen Koch, Peter Lee, Ashley Carpenter, Russel Dye, Sarah Lovenheim, Vijeth Iyenhar, Hyma Moore, Zach Shirley and Greg Shirley. — The Home Depot Foundation hosted a rooftop reception last night marking 15 years of investing in veteran causes. SPOTTED: Erin Izen, Crystal Hanlon, Heather Kennedy, Phil Lewis, Craig Gordon, Brad Bosserman, Nneka Chiazor, Kyle King, Allie Baum, Anthony Love, Ed Brady, Laney Kapgan, Jeanna Della Ragione, John Gallina, Alan Reyes, Susan Rocco, Mike King, Sarah Nelson, Brian Dodge, Greg Polk and Tammy Haddad. TRANSITIONS — A new nonpartisan organization, New Arc Collective, is launching with Fayrouz Saad as executive director. It aims to use data to build civic power for Muslim and Arab American communities, starting in Michigan and Minnesota. Saad is a Biden DHS alum. … Erica Stanley has joined Rokk Solutions as VP. She previously worked at the boutique consultancy Stanley Strategic Communications. … Michael Greenwald is now president of corporate affairs at Replit. He most recently worked at Amazon Web Services and is a former U.S. Treasury diplomat. 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 editors Giuseppe Macri, Garrett Ross and Kyler Alvord. |
| |
Follow us on X
|
| |
Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Canada Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook | Playbook Paris | Berlin Playbook | Madrid Playbook | Canberra Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters |
Follow us
|
| |
|
