The GOPAC Newsletter

News of Interest

Who were the winners and losers in the fourth Republican presidential
debate? Pundits name their picks

Four GOP candidates squared off in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

less than six weeks before the Iowa Caucuses

Fox News | Brandon Gillespie

December 7, 2023

Political pundits and other media figures took to social media Wednesday
night to declare which Republican presidential candidate they thought won
the fourth GOP presidential debate.

Opinions were naturally split between Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former U.N.
Ambassador Nikki Haley after they repeatedly clashed in heated exchanges
throughout the debate, which was held on the campus of the University of
Alabama in Tuscaloosa. [1]Read more

WG Economy: The Agenda Formerly Known As Bidenomics

It will be the first time he won't hold a public-facing counterprogramming
event during one of the debates

WG Economy: David Winston

December 6, 2023

An Axios headline earlier this week said House Democrats intend to "ditch
Bidenomics messaging," with the term having disappeared from White House
communications materials. As we have written about for several months,
Bidenomics has had trouble with the believability of the President's
statements about economic progress ([2]click here for our video analysis of
a Biden campaign economic ad). The White House has been unable to break
through with statements that inflation has significantly improved, given
that the cumulative rate of inflation since the President took office is
17.6%. [3]WG Economy, December 6, 2023.pdf

Paul Renner gears up for swan song legislative

session as Florida House speaker

'We committed to collaboration over competition,'

he said of the previous legislative session

Tallahassee Democrat | James Call

December 6, 2023

After the last lawmaking session that secured Florida's reputation as the
nation's leading legislative laboratory for conservative thought, Florida
House Speaker Paul Renner says he'll perform an encore in 2024.

Renner is preparing for his final session as House speaker. Earlier this
year, he shepherded an agenda through the process that fulfilled a
decades-long promise for universal school vouchers, along with other
long-sought-after policy initiatives.

Five weeks out from the start of the 60-day 2024 session, the Palm Coast
Republican on Tuesday spoke at a meeting of the Capital Tiger Bay Club at
the Tucker Civic Center, where he told a crowd of elected officials,
lobbyists, legislative staffers, and others that the Legislatures GOP
supermajority had had the "session of the century" in 2023. [4]Read more

Democratic group rolls out first major investments for statehouse
battlegrounds

The Hill | Julia Manchester

December 6, 2023

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) rolled out its first
investments of 2024 on Wednesday, targeting six battleground states.

The group is investing close to $300,000 in Michigan, Arizona, New
Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. In Michigan, the
group is investing $82,000 in the House Caugus, while $70,000 is going to
the joint caucus in Arizona. The DLCC is also spending $50,000 and $30,000
in the New Hampshire and Pennsylvania state Houses, respectively. In
Wisconsin, the group is spending $24,000 between the Assembly and the
Senate, and in North Carolina, $15,000 is being spent on the House.

According to the DLCC, the investment will aim to strengthen candidate
recruitment, digital investments, and staff hirings. [5]Read more

Most Republican voters hope Donald Trump is the GOP's 2024 nominee,
Monmouth poll finds

NorthJersey.com | Katie Sobko

December 6, 2023

A Monmouth University poll has found that supporters of former President
Donald Trump would have liked an uncontested primary for his bid to
represent the Republican Party in next year's presidential election.

Republicans who support other candidates remain divided over whether they
should band together to back one challenger.

Trump still leads the GOP's presidential pack, with 53% of respondents who
were asked saying they would like to see him on the ballot. When it comes
to a list of the actual candidates, that number climbs to 58%. The rest of
the options fall significantly farther behind, with Florida Gov. Ron
DeSantis at 18%, former Un.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki
Haley at 12%, Vivek Ramaswamy at 4% and former New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie in last at 2%. [6]Read more

Ex-US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will leave Congress, raising Republican
worries

Reuters | David Morgan

December 6, 2023

Ousted U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Wednesday that he will
leave Congress at the end of this year, a move that raised anxieties among
his fellow Republicans about the path that lies ahead for their narrow and
fractious majority.

His move came as Congress struggles to move forward on a raft of critically
important legislation, including fiscal 2024 spending bills that Congress
must adopt by Jan. 19 to avert a partial government shutdown.

The task poses a new and perilous test for McCarthy's successor, House of
Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Christian conservative with
relatively little leadership experience who won the gavel after weeks of
bitter Republican infighting. [7]Read more

US election: as the first Republican primary looms,

a Trump win looks inevitable - but who

comes in second matters

The Conversation | Thomas Gift

December 6, 2023

Former president Donald Trump has pitched himself as the inevitable
Republican nominee for the White House in 2024. So much so that he's
already floating potential picks for his cabinet.

The first Republican (GOP) primary in the country, the Iowa caucuses,
scheduled for January 15, 2024, could prove Trump right, or (less likely)
open the door for a challenger.

Polling during December in Iowa showed Trump far ahead of the other
Republican candidates with 45% of the vote, trailed by Florida governor Ron
DeSantis at 18% and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley at 15%.
That's almost certainly too much ground to make up.

But the fight for runner-up matters. If a clear Trump alternative emerges,
it could pressure other Republicans to bow out of the race, and clarify the
choice for "never Trumpers". If one doesn't, a Trump coronation could look
inevitable. [8]Read more

Democrat Bianca Virnig wins special election for Minnesota House seat

Minnesota Reformer | Michelle Griffith

December 5, 2023

Local school board member Bianca Virnig won a special election on Tuesday
to replace former Rep. Ruth Richardson, DFL-Mendota Heights, maintaining
the Democrats' current 70-64 advantage in the House.

Over 6,500 people in the east metro suburban district, which encompasses
Mendota, Mendota Heights and a majority of Eagan, voted Tuesday, according
to unofficial election results. This is a relatively high turnout for an
off-year special election. Republicans were hoping to use an expected low
turnout to their advantage in the safe DFL district.

According to unofficial results, Virnig was running 5 points behind
Richardson's 23-point victory in 2020.

Andrew Wagner, a spokesman for the House Republican Campaign Committee,
said if they make the same kind of progress across the state in next year's
election, they'll pick up seven seats, which is enough for a majority.
[9]Read more

New York special election to replace Santos

scheduled for Feb. 13

Washington Post | Mariana Alfaro

December 5, 2023

A special election to fill the House seat vacated after Rep. George Santos
(R-N.Y.) was expelled from Congress is set for Feb. 13, New York Gov. Kathy
Hochul (D) announced Tuesday.

The winner of the special election will serve the rest of Santos's term,
which ends January 2025.

Santos was expelled from the chamber Friday after the publication of a
scathing House Ethics Committee report that accused him of an array of
crimes and ethical lapses, many of which came to light after he was found
to have fabricated key parts of his biography. The ethics report also found
"substantial evidence" that Santos knowingly violated ethics guidelines,
House rules, and criminal laws.

Santos is the sixth lawmaker to be expelled from the chamber, and the first
to be removed without having been convicted of a crime. [10]Read more

Top Republican calls on Dem fundraiser ActBlue to stop processing donations
for Hamas-sympathizing groups

'ActBlue soul cut off access to these pro-Hamas groups or Democrats should
leave the platform': Sen Steve Daines

Fox News | Joe Schoffstall

December 4, 2023

A prominent Republican lawmaker is calling on a left-wing fundraising
juggernaut to stop processing contributions for Hamas-sympathizing groups.

ActBlue, the leading fundraising platform for Democrat campaigns and groups
nationwide, processes donations for a handful of organizations that have
partaken in or amplified rallies celebrating Hamas' bloody Oct. 7 attack on
innocent Israeli civilians that left more than 1,200 dead and hundreds
taken hostage.

"It's shocking that Democrats' primary fundraising vehicle is helping
bankroll antisemitic protests across the country where Hamas terrorists are
honored as martyrs," Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines, chairman of the
National Republican Senatorial Committee, told Fox News Digital.

"ActBlue should cut off access to these pro-Hamas groups or Democrats
should leave the platform," Daines said. [11]Read more

Ron DeSantis joins the Republican campaign

to tear down the ACA

The more Republicans announce plans to scrap the Affordable Care Act, the
easier it becomes for Democrats to put the issue in the national spotlight.

MSNBC | Steve Benen

December 4, 2023

To the extent that health care was a part of the 2024 campaign cycle, it
was only because health care was effectively absent from the 2024 campaign
cycle. During September's Republican presidential primary debate, for
example, Fox News' Dana Perino asked whether the Affordable Care Act was
"here to stay." No one on the stage wanted to answer.

About a month later, The Wall Street Journal reported that the issue had
simply "disappeared" from the political landscape.

That was early November. A lot can happen in a month.

Donald Trump, who'd largely ignored the ACA since leaving office nearly
three years ago, has begun going after "Obamacare" in increasingly explicit
terms, apparently indifferent to the fact that the landmark reform law is
working well and about as popular as it's ever been.

He's not alone. Last week, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley
also appeared to open the door to repealing the ACA.

Roughly 24 hours ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joined the parade. NBC News
Reported:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he would
replace Obamacare with a "better plan."... "Obamacare hasn't worked,"
DeSantis said in the interview with moderator Kristen Welker, which aired
Sunday morning. "We are going to replace and supersede with a better plan."
[12]Read more

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum ends 2024 Republican presidential bid days
before the fourth debate

CNBC | Associated Press

December 4, 2023

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum ended his campaign fo the Republican
presidential nomination on Monday despite a stronger-than-expected showing
fueled by a gift card-for-campaign donation gimmick that helped get him on
the debate stage.

Burgum, a second-term governor and wealthy software entrepreneur, was
little known nationally when he launched his 2024 presidential campaign in
June, touting his priorities of energy, the economy, and national security,
as well as his small-town roots and leadership of the parsley-populated
state.

He participated in the first two Republican debates, meeting donor
requirements of the Republican National Committee by offering $20 Biden
Relief Cards - a jab at rising inflation rates during President Joe Biden's
term - in exchange for $1 donations. The tactic drew skepticism over its
legality, though Burgum's campaign said its legal advisers had reviewed and
approved the method. [13]Read more

WG Discussion Points:

From Our Video Archives: Obama Vs. JFK On Taxes

WG Discussion Points | David Winston

December 1, 2023

For this week’s Discussion Points, we are re-releasing a video we developed
back in 2010 during the debate over renewal of the 2001/2003 tax cuts,
commonly known as the Bush tax cuts. This 2:40-minute video compared tax
policy differences between Presidents Obama and Kennedy. As the video
highlights, there was a significant difference between Obama and JFK about
the impact of tax cuts on the economy. With many provisions of the 2017 Tax
Cuts And Jobs Act set to expire at the end of 2025, we thought this video
may help lay the groundwork for fundamental arguments about tax cuts.

[14]video

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