Heard on the Hill- 7/1/24
What we’re hearing from people we trust on and around the Hill – please send us more tips!
Zyn wars reach the Hill: Rep. Jack Bergman (R., Mich.) will be introducing an amendment that would ban any funds from being “used to carry out [] the Flavored Tobacco Product Prohibition Amendment Act of 2021,” per an email that many excited legislative staff received.
Kelly’s cash: Donald Trump-endorsed Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R., N.D.) is well-positioned and well-funded in his bid to become North Dakota’s next governor. He told the Washington Reporter that he’s raised just under $3.5 million in the first half of 2024 for his state account, and he still has almost $200,000 in his federal account.
Lawler glad Bowman gone: Rep Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.) spent at least some of the evening of New York’s primary last Tuesday in the Capitol, attending a happy hour for a group of young conservatives called MAVPAC. The freshman Republican gleefully celebrated the impending doom of his fellow New Yorker, Rep. Jamaal Bowman at the open bar at Mission Navy Yard.
Debate fallout: President Joe Biden’s claim during last week’s presidential debate that he is “the only president this century, that doesn’t have any, this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world” riled up the Gold Star Families whose loved ones were killed in an August 26, 2021 suicide attack during Biden’s failed withdrawal from Afghanistan. Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Sgt. Nicole Gee, told the Reporter that she felt the “same disgust as everyone. Just unbelievable they keep trying to pretend like it never happened. Every time you think the disrespect can’t get worse, it does.”
Stefanik party: Rep. Elise Stefanik’s birthday party was the place to be last week. Trump’s potential running mate had around 100 House Republicans show up for her 40th birthday party, including all of her fellow New York Republicans, along with Reps. Steve Scalise (R., La.), Tom Emmer (R., Minn.), Jason Smith (R., Mo.), Bryan Steil (R., Wisc.), Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), and Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R., Or.).