NEW YORK STATE OF MIND: State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani's stunning upset in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary is stoking Democrats' battle over the future of their party. Mamdani shocked New York on Tuesday as votes poured in, showing him in a healthy position to defeat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Progressives argue Mamdani's win is a sign of where the party needs to go if it wants to build winning coalitions that propel it to victory in next year's midterms and beyond. But moderate Democrats say moving too far in that direction could put the party in jeopardy in areas of the country less friendly to the sort of progressive policies he has embraced.
"You can win if you build a coalition, and you show that you're not just speaking to one part or one slice of voters — you're speaking to a broader slice," said Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, the co-founder and vice president of the Democratic strategy firm and donor network Way to Win. "And that enabled him to keep likely voters who were maybe on the fence, for him to win them over."
Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) both congratulated Mamdani — but stopped short of endorsing their party's likely nominee. The congressional leaders said they planned to meet with Mamdani but didn't specify when.
Trump on Wednesday derided Mamdani as a "communist lunatic." Right-wing influencers, meanwhile, reacted to Mamdani's political upset with anti-Islam attacks.
▪ The Hill: Mamdani says his platform would be successful with candidates outside of NYC
▪ The Hill: Winners and losers from the New York City mayoral primary.
▪ The New York Times: In a postelection interview, Mamdani said he took some lessons from Trump's focus on the cost of living.
▪ Politico: "Democratic leadership is way out of touch": Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Mamdani's win.
MEGABILL IN DANGER: Republican senators are pushing back hard on hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts included in the Senate version of Trump's budget reconciliation package, endangering Senate Majority Leader John Thune's (R-S.D.) plan for a vote as soon as Friday, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports.
Trump, seeking to staunch the dissent, will host an event at the White House tonight to pressure GOP holdouts.
Two Republicans are a hard "no" on the bill — Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) — while Bolton reports that a handful of other Republicans won't say whether they'll vote to begin debate on the package because they are concerned deep cuts in Medicaid spending could cause millions of Americans to lose their coverage and push scores of rural hospitals around the country into bankruptcy.
Others, including GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), are on the fence after the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday circulated a proposal to establish a $15 billion health care provider relief fund.
"I believe we need [a] $100 billion provider-relief fund. I don't think that solves the entire problem. The Senate cuts in Medicaid are far deeper than the House cuts, and I think that's problematic as well," Collins said. "Obviously any money is helpful but not if it is not adequate. But I do not know for certain that that is where the Finance Committee has landed."
While the Senate bill has some substantial differences from the version the House passed in May, extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts is a centerpiece of both. Republicans say the measures will boost growth, create jobs and won't balloon the deficit. Economists, investors and tax experts are telling a different story.
"From a macroeconomic perspective, it probably has little effect," Reuven Avi-Yonah, a professor of tax law at the University of Michigan, told The Hill's Tobias Burns. "I'm always a bit skeptical of the growth potential resulting from tax cuts. And it increases the deficit significantly in a higher interest rate environment, and that's not ideal."
▪ The New York Times: Trump's bill slashes the safety net that many Republican voters rely on.
▪ The Hill: House Republicans cleared their first funding bill for fiscal 2026 on Wednesday, approving more than $450 billion to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs, military construction and other programs.
A SALTY COMPROMISE? Negotiators for the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap are down to the wire to strike a deal ahead of the GOP's megabill deadline. Talks have seemingly remained stagnant in recent days as lawmakers try to resolve one of the numerous remaining issues by the end of the week.
After a high-stakes meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday, House Republicans in the SALT Caucus and a key GOP senator reported "progress" but no deal, leaving one of the thorniest issues in the party's tax and spending bill unresolved.
"Everybody wants a deal, everybody wants to get to yes, everybody wants to put the nation on a better track," said Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), a key member of the SALT Caucus. "But it does seem like the Senate and the House right now are far apart."
▪ NOTUS: SALT negotiations are a question of which chamber will cave first.
▪ The Hill: White House budget chief Russell Vought faced bipartisan heat while urging senators to pass the administration's roughly $9 billion in proposed cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting funds.
CRYPTO: The White House is pushing the House to quickly get stablecoin legislation across the finish line with limited changes, stymieing efforts to tie the bill to a larger crypto framework and steeply curbing the lower chamber's ability to put its stamp on the measure.
But the push to pass the stablecoin bill on its own cuts against efforts supported by some in the industry and Congress who worry that another key crypto bill — seeking to divvy up regulation of the broader crypto market — will lose momentum.
ELSEWHERE: Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to charges she assaulted and interfered with federal officials during a congressional oversight visit to a New Jersey detention center with two other lawmakers.
Meanwhile, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said her offices were evacuated due to "imminent death threats against me, my unborn child, my family, and my staff," which she said "erupted" following a news report about her ectopic pregnancy.
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