Senate Democrats may be feeling pretty positive going into their final campaign sprint, but first they must deal with a handful of political headaches on the Hill.
Democrats at their weekly caucus lunch Tuesday will talk strategy on a number of measures that could split members who have stuck together on other recent high-profile votes.
Senate Democratic leaders expect a mostly unified caucus against a bill targeting data center costs and another restricting lawmaker’s stock trading, according to a leadership aide, who acknowledged it’s possible some members break ranks if it makes sense for them politically.
Vote counts on a third bill on violence in the West Bank are less clear.
With only five weeks until the midterms, senators will be weighing whether their votes will fly under constituents’ radar, draw bad headlines or drive up donations for — or against — their campaigns. A unified party vote against a cryptocurrency bill this month, for example, spurred open industry discussions of punishing Democrats and preceded a massive spending announcement against a key candidate.
— DATA CENTER BILL: Party leaders have been openly critical of the Ratepayer Protection Act, arguing it wouldn’t adequately prevent costs of data center infrastructure from being shifted to the public. Several are also skeptical about granting a win to bill sponsor Sen. Jon Husted, who’s in a tough race.
A handful of Democrats, including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, Alex Padilla and Brian Schatz were noncommittal Monday on their plans.
“We’re going to talk about it,” Shaheen said. “I haven’t gotten the details on it.”
— STOCK TRADING BAN: Democrats also must decide as soon as Wednesday on whether to get behind a House-passed bill restricting lawmakers and their families from stock trading.
Only 13 House Democrats backed the bill, with many rejecting what they saw as a “poison pill” provision on voter ID requirements. A vote for the bill would also notch a win for sponsor Sen. Pete Ricketts, who’s also in a close race.
Ricketts argued Monday Democrats should support the voter ID provisions that are “desired by 80 percent of Americans.”
— WEST BANK VIOLENCE: Sens. Chris Van Hollen, Tim Kaine and Bernie Sanders plan to force a floor vote on a measure requiring a State Department report on violence in the West Bank, an issue that could tap into wider party divides on Israel.
Van Hollen told Calen Monday he expects widespread support, with about half the caucus co-sponsoring the measure.
“I think we will,” Van Hollen said. “Everybody who wants the U.S. government to stick up for American citizens and Palestinians being terrorized by violent settlers needs to vote for this.”
What else we’re watching:
— WHITE HOUSE AI MEETING LIGHT ON LAWMAKERS: Tuesday’s White House meeting with AI executives could be light on Capitol Hill voices — with Speaker Mike Johnson the only lawmaker confirmed to attend so far. Expected Silicon Valley attendees include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to six people familiar with the meeting plans.
— TRUMP CONTROVERSIES PILE ON GOP: It’s 35 days until the midterms, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune is still fending off some final curveballs from President Donald Trump. White House decisions to air campaign-style ads with taxpayer funds while separately rescinding about a billion dollars in congressionally approved spending are the latest pre-midterm frustrations for GOP senators — who spent much of Monday fielding off-message questions about the president’s latest actions.
Owen Dahlkamp, Mia McCarthy and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
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