South Carolina Senate race gets crowded

Plus: Tracking the cyclospora outbreak status

MORNING REPORT  MORNING REPORT Tuesday, July 21 | By Sarah Fortinsky and Jared Gans View Online  |  Sign up Listen and Subscribe: In today's issue: ▪ Darline Graham running for full Senate term ▪ Houthis announce Saudi Arabia blockade ▪ Tracking the cyclospora outbreak status ▪ Inside Jackson’s rise in Maine © The Associated Press | J. Scott Applewhite South Carolina Senate race gets crowded  The GOP race to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is shaping up to be a combative affair, despite President Trump seeking to clear the field for Graham’s sister. Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.). — who was appointed to fill the remaining few months of her brother’s term — announced Monday that she intends to throw her hat in the ring, as the one-week filing period for the Aug. 11 special primary election is set to begin today at noon. “I’m in,” Darline Graham told Sean Hannity yesterday, in a preview of an interview that aired in full on Fox News’s “Hannity” later that night. “I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it,” Darline Graham added. “Will it be difficult? Yes, absolutely.” Trump came out early to back the late senator’s sister, first urging South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) to appoint her for the interim position and then publicly supporting her bid for a full term. He met in the Oval Office with Darline Graham last week, calling her a “spectacular person, and a true American Patriot” and saying he asked her to run next month. “I hope Darline does this, in that there would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday. But Trump’s public endorsement did not scare off the competition, as he may have hoped. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) announced Saturday he’s running in the special election. Bloomberg reported he had asked the president for his endorsement just hours after Graham died, and the president told Norman, “Give me a week.” But Trump’s snub did not dissuade Norman from entering the race and touting his support for Trump’s priorities, including the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, in his campaign video. “For years, Senator Lindsey Graham fought hard to save America and defend South Carolina,” Norman said in a campaign announcement. “Now, President Trump needs another proven America First conservative in the US Senate to deliver on those America First priorities.” Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) also jumped into the race Monday, similarly touting his conservative chops and support for the president, despite not getting his endorsement in the race. “Of the many things Lindsey Graham believed in, standing with President Trump and advancing the Republican agenda were among his defining principles,” Fry said. “There is no other way to put it: Lindsey Graham was one of a kind. There is no replacing him. But I believe the best way to honor his legacy is to fight alongside the President just as steadfastly as he did.” They join a crowded field, which includes businessman Mark Lynch, who ran unsuccessfully against Graham for the nomination in June, and attorney Duke Buckner. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) announced Monday that she would not enter the race, quelling speculation to the contrary. The high-profile primary could put Senate Republicans in a bind over whether to follow the president’s lead in backing Graham’s sister over seasoned congressmen for the permanent post. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that he’s “not endorsing at the moment.” But he called Darline Graham a “strong candidate” despite concerns about a lack of political experience. “I think she’s, obviously carries on Lindsey’s legacy, but I think she’s a very accomplished person in her own right,” Thune said. “She has a right, like anybody else, to get into that race, it sounds like there are a number who are moving forward with campaigns.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), on the other hand, backed Darline Graham shortly after Fox News shared part of her interview with Hannity yesterday. “I’m proud to join President Trump and endorse Darline Graham,” Cotton said on social media. “She’ll be a principled conservative leader and a strong advocate for South Carolina families. She has my full support.” ▪ The Hill: James Talarico shouted down at tense Houston town hall. ▪ The Hill: House GOP adds seven districts to target list. Smart Take  with Blake Burman Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine will testify on Capitol Hill later today before the Senate Appropriations Committee and are likely to face questions about the administration's future war plans. I asked Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), who served abroad, if he thinks the president is waiting until after the November midterms to escalate the conflict even more.  "I would have been unrelenting to the end, but the president has a lot of more information that I don't have, and I can't speak to that," McCormick said. "But once again, he's trying to weigh how this affects inflation, gas prices, and a bunch of international relationships, which I don't have to deal with," he added. As the midterms approach, the president will face more pressure to find a solution to end the conflict. Gas prices once again just topped $4 per gallon on average nationally, according to AAA. Burman hosts "The Hill" weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation. 3 Things to Know Today Voters are heading to the polls today in Arizona for primaries that will serve as another test of the president’s endorsement power in the GOP. The Hill’s Caroline Vakil reports what to watch across the state. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said federal authorities are “actively pursuing” an investigation into a threat at a World Cup fan fest event. He said the threat is not ongoing but the case is. He declined to provide additional details about the investigation. A State Department report linked Cuba to several protests that have taken place in the U.S. in recent years, including the demonstrations surrounding the murder of George Floyd in 2020. The report’s release Monday comes as the Trump administration has ramped up pressure on the Cuban regime. LEADING THE DAY © The Associated Press | Abdulnasser Alseddik WATER WARS: The conflict in the Middle East may draw in another key passageway beyond the Strait of Hormuz as the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen announced Monday they are blockading Saudi Arabia. The militant group didn’t provide specifics on what the blockade will entail, but it could have significant implications for the Red Sea and its southern entryway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is next to territory in Yemen that the Houthis control. Reuters reported that closing the strait would cut the world’s oil supply by 7 percent and prevent most Saudi oil exports from leaving the Middle East. That would be on top of the disruption to oil flow out of the Persian Gulf that’s been in place for months since the Iran war began. Saudi Arabia has diverted 70 percent of its energy exports through the Red Sea in response to the disruption to the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had previously called on the Houthis to block the Red Sea if the U.S. carries out strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, which has been taking place. Gas prices have been rising in recent days over the escalation of hostilities, with the average cost of regular gas surpassing $4 per gallon for the first time in weeks Monday. ▪ The Hill: Rising death count drives Trump toward escalation. ▪ The Hill: GOP faces new alarm over Iran. PUSHING FOR CALM: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will meet with Trump today as part of an effort to cool tensions with Israel amid the ongoing conflict. Aoun’s meeting comes as the U.S. facilitates rare direct talks between Israel and Lebanon. Aoun is hoping to get Israeli troops to withdraw from occupied parts of southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese military to get support to reassert control against Hezbollah in the areas the militant group occupies. Israel and Lebanon announced a “framework agreement” late last month to create a plan for Israeli troops to withdraw while Hezbollah is disarmed. It also lays out steps for an eventual peace agreement between the two countries. But The Hill’s Niall Stanage reports that the meeting will be tough, especially as priorities appear to be shifting. ▪ Al Jazeera: Lebanese military starts ‘pilot zone’ takeover. FRESH TARIFFS: Trump slapped an additional 50 percent tariff on a wide range of Canadian goods in response to what the administration is calling discriminatory trade measures, escalating economic tensions with America’s northern neighbor. A senior administration official told reporters on a call that the tariffs will affect products from “wine to hockey sticks to cement” and will take effect 30 days after the signing yesterday. The official said the action is a response to “discrimination” against U.S. motor vehicles, dairy and alcohol products. “Over the past year, Canada has retained substantial retaliation against the United States as the U.S. imposes trade actions to reindustrialize, reshore, and support its manufacturing,” the senior administration official said. “Specifically, Canada has to be held accountable for this continued discrimination.” The new tariffs, unlike previous rounds, do not exempt goods covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which the Trump administration declined to renew this month as it looks to renegotiate terms. ▪ The Hill: Trump floats new tariffs in response to Canadian wildfires. ▪ PBS: Trump administration races to rebuild tariff wall. PRESSING PAUSE: A federal judge has granted a request to put Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on hold while considering an antitrust lawsuit seeking to permanently block the acquisition from going through. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín accepted California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s (D) petition to pause the merger for two weeks while she considers whether to hear the case. Bonta and 11 other state attorneys general argue the deal would hurt competition in the media and entertainment business with a company wielding “unprecedented power and influence over news and entertainment across the globe.” Paramount said it is “thankful” for the judge’s ruling, keeping the status quo while considering antitrust issues. “We are confident the evidence will demonstrate that the State AGs’ antitrust arguments are without merit as their alleged markets and claims of anticompetitive effects are without any basis in modern market realities,” a spokesperson said. ▪ TheWrap: What’s next after the order? WHEN & WHERE The president will greet Denison University student-athletes at 10 a.m. He will greet Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at 11 a.m. and have a bilateral meeting with him at 11:15 a.m. He will participate in a policy meeting at 4 p.m. and greet House GOP members at 5 p.m. He will participate in another policy meeting at 5:30 p.m. The House and Senate will convene at 10 a.m. ZOOM IN © The Associated Press | Paul Sancya PAYING THE PRICE: The Trump administration’s cuts to staffing and funding at health agencies is complicating its response to the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak. The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel reports experts and former federal officials said a mix of issues converged to slow the government’s reaction. Some state and local health departments are facing layoffs and hiring freezes, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suffered a “brain drain” of staff and expertise. “When you lose 25-30 percent of [CDC] staff and 80 percent of senior leaders and have no careers in the office of the director, there is an impact,” said Debra Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer. Houry was one of three top CDC officials who quit last year over Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s policies. Weixel reports fewer staff has meant all aspects of the response have likely been slower. For example, Michigan has reported more than 6,000 cases alone, while the CDC has only verified 1,645 domestic cases, likely due to a backlog in the lab. Adding to the complexity and confusion is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) announcement that a test of a lettuce sample collected from Taylor Farms turned up a false positive. Taylor Farms said the FDA “apologized to us” and the agency hadn’t identified a “single positive product test result” for cyclospora. The company completed a voluntary recall of its shredded iceberg lettuce, which had been used in Taco Bell restaurants in several states at the center of the outbreak. But the FDA later clarified that the false positive doesn’t change the basis of the agency’s investigation or the data supporting the recall. “FDA’s traceback investigation and outbreak data continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms locations in central Mexico,” the agency said in a statement. “FDA will continue to work with federal and state partners to investigate this multistate outbreak and ensure products implicated in this outbreak have been removed from the market.” ▪ Axios: How to lower infection risk. ▪ CBS News: What to know about Taylor Farms. ELSEWHERE © The Associated Press | Robert F. Bukaty TAKE TWO: Democrats in Maine are coalescing around former state Senate President Troy Jackson (D) to replace Graham Platner as the candidate to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in November. Jared reports on Jackson’s stunning rise to the top of the field of candidates this past weekend, when Jackson-aligned delegates dominated county caucuses. Democrats tell Jared that they attribute Jackson’s swift rise to the strength of his grassroots organizing and his support among labor groups. “He mobilized his supporters,” said Peggy Schaffer, a former vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party. “He had a lot of grassroots support. He figured out who they were, his team, and he called them. They talked to them. They made lists. They understood the process clearly.” Seeing the writing on the wall, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah dropped out of the race on Sunday and called for Democrats to unify to defeat Collins. Jackson, Bellows and Shah all ran unsuccessful campaigns for governor, ultimately losing to Hannah Pingree in the Democratic primary. Maine Democratic strategist David Farmer, who unsuccessfully sought to become an unaffiliated delegate this weekend, said Jackson was ultimately able to leverage his campaign infrastructure the best of any of the three, all but sealing the nomination. “My very first impression is, ‘Wow,’” he said. “Troy did just a tremendous job in a very short amount of time of organizing and electing convention delegates. Just really demonstrated his labor background and the power of people-to-people organizing.” “Labor is really good at the phone calls and the door knocking and the one-on-one conversations, and that’s what this took,” Farmer said. With only little-known Democratic opponents left in the race, Jackson is entering the nominating convention all but certain to win a majority of the 600 delegates needed to formally clinch the nomination. ▪ The Hill: What to know about Troy Jackson. OPINION Praise the Senate parliamentarian, don’t remove her, G. William Hoagland writes in The Hill. Democrats have a real shot in Maine, but Troy Jackson could ruin it, Douglas Schoen and Carly Cooperman write in The Hill. THE CLOSER © The Associated Press | Jose Luis Magana And finally … The Supreme Court has agreed to take up an unusual case in which Alaska is attempting to seize a pilot’s plane over a passenger flying beer into a dry village. Pilot Ken Jouppi denied knowing that his passenger was carrying alcohol in their luggage and is arguing that losing his 1969 Cessna airplane is an excessive punishment in violation of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. Jouppi said he knew about Alaska’s dry village rules and wouldn’t have intentionally broken them. The case stems from a flight in 2012 that Jouppi took from Fairbanks to Beaver, a dry village. State law makes it a crime to “knowingly send, transport, or bring an alcoholic beverage” there, with the punishment including seizure of the vehicle. The case will be heard during the next term that starts in October, and a ruling should be handed down by next summer. Stay Engaged We want to hear from you! Email me here and suggest this newsletter to friends! 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