What we’re hearing from people we trust on and around the Hill – please send us more tips!

• National security election: Republican operatives tell us internal polls show national security is a top issue. A campaign manager for a Senate candidate said, “between the chaos in the Middle East and Biden effectively cutting the defense budget, national security will be right behind the economy and the border as a vote driver.” Expect to see ads at the House, Senate, and Presidential level tying Kamala Harris to the Biden-Harris administration’s defense policies. 
• Exclusive: Michigan ad debut: With Michigan’s primary tomorrow, Republican Mike Rogers is setting his sights on the general election, where he’s likely to face Rep. Elissa Slotkin. Rogers’s campaign first previewed a new radio ad, which it is running statewide on black radio shows, with the Washington Reporter. “With [Elissa] Slotkin in Congress, everything costs more,” the narrator says. “Slotkin is focused on a bunch of crazy stuff…she even voted to let men use girl’s locker rooms, that’s nuts.” Rogers, on the other hand, will fight for “lower prices, lower rent, better jobs.” Listen to the ad here. 
• Bipartisan Barrasso: Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), who is running unopposed to be the Senate GOP’s Whip, is notching some impressive bipartisan wins: His permitting reform bill sailed through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee with more votes than expected, and he unanimously passed a resolution condemning the assassination attempt of President Donald Trump.
• Conflict Alert: Karen Dunn is part of the debate prep team for Vice President Harris. She has deep ties to Apple and Google, representing them in their legal woes against the Biden Department of Justice. Political strategists from both parties tell the Reporter that this is an especially concerning conflict for the Harris team because she is one of Google’s top lawyers at the DOJ ad tech trial scheduled to start on September 9.