Ever open up the refrigerator and get smacked by the scent of something spoiled?
Something really bad.
You’ve gotta hunt down the source. Then you have to take the unsavory item all the way out to the trashcan by the street.
Sometimes… it’s more than one piece of food that’s gone sour.
August 6, 2026 seems like a day for Republicans to search the fridge.
Which candidates – and campaigns – need to be removed before they spoil the midterm elections?
Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) has until Monday to quit his re-election campaign in the Ohio 7th District, west of Cleveland. It looks like Miller, who denies the allegations against him from his ex-wife and other women, is gonna cut it close to the deadline! And his former boss, President Trump, is still equivocating.
If he doesn’t remove himself by Monday, the GOP is stuck with Miller. And Miller’s spoilage of a competitive House race seems inevitable.
Like a rotten piece of produce in the refrigerator bin, the damage could spread to other competitive races in Ohio, including the very competitive U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns.
There are multiple competitive House races in Ohio. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair, Rep. Suzan Delbene (D-WA), told the DAY AHEAD editorial note the Ohio 7th is part of an expanding battlefield for House Democrats. Delbene is especially optimistic about Miller’s Democratic challenger:
The damaged campaign of Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) has already been discarded. (In a weird fashion: It ended with a 3:30am departure tweet from Edwards on Wednesday)
Edwards pulled out of his race, after an alarming set of allegations of unprofessional behavior with young female staffers. Edwards’s campaign has blasted the allegations and the findings of a bipartisan House Ethics Committee report, which recommended his censure.
But his departure forces a late substitution on the ballot in North Carolina, with just 89 days until election day.
The state Republican party’s executive committee for the 11th district will meet next week to select a new candidate.
Here’s something that caught my eye. The party’s announcement of its next steps doesn’t even use Edwards’s name. (Yes, he’s still the Congressman for the 11th District until January)
A Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee statement said, “Whoever replaces Chuck Edwards will not have been chosen by the voters but in a backroom somewhere by the same Republican insiders who abandoned WNC after Hurricane Helene, who have driven up the cost of everything from diesel fuel to groceries, and who have caused a health care crisis throughout NC-11. Whatever hand-picked lackey is on the ballot this November will have to answer for this record.”
Democrats are hoping the “stink” of these controversial incumbents will spread and damage others in the GOP, even after some of the campaigns have been discarded.
Kyle Kondik of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia talked about the impact, in an interview exclusive to the DAY AHEAD editorial note
Meanwhile, today at 2pm, Michigan Democrats will have an event to bolster their nominee for the battleground 7th District US House race in Lansing. State party leaders will have a press event with Will Lawrence, their nominee to oust 1st-term Republican Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI). They’re staging the event at the state’s AFL-CIO offices near the state capital.
Lawrence is a progressive activist who emerged Tuesday amid an anti-establishment wave. The Michigan 7th District is atop the list of races Democrats have targeted since….well… the day Barrett flipped it Republican in November 2024.
It’s no surprise – but it’s worth noting - that the massive American Federation of Government Employees union will now formally endorse Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race. The AFGE has turnout and mobilization muscle. Michigan is a huge union state.
There’s another new sign of an emerging Democratic enthusiasm advantage in the 2026 midterms. The House Majority PAC, which supports Democratic candidates and campaigns, reported an important data point in Virginia.
In the Virginia 1st District, which is likely the 2nd most competitive seat held by a Virginia Republican in the House: There were 46,911 votes cast in this week’s Democratic primary. That’s more than double the 22,906 votes were cast in the Democratic primary in 2024. We’ve seen similar increases in Democratic turnout in Ohio and South Carolina this year.
In Maryland, they’ve taken a big step toward a future Democratic-favored redraw of the state’s Congressional map. For future elections, not 2026.
Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) has signed a bill into law that’ll give voters a chance to decide a redistricting Constitutional amendment.
“Jeanine Pirro Watch” resumes this morning. Pirro has survived the week in her job as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia… so far.
Pirro’s name appeared in a news release from the Justice Department last night about a successfully-closed carjacking and robbery case in DC
But Trump is still not clarifying whether he plans to fire Pirro for her effort to get a judge to dismiss the discredited Reflecting Pool criminal case.
The New York Times updated the behind-the-scenes drama.
Jeanine Pirro had had it up to here with Doug Burgum. The famously voluble U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia strode into the Oval Office late Monday with her future on the line and the interior secretary, whom she privately called an incompetent liar, in her cross hairs.
A few hours earlier — in front of the cameras, from the Resolute Desk — President Trump had accused Ms. Pirro, an ally and friend from New York going back decades, of “folding like an umbrella” and “choking” after she withdrew charges against a man accused of destroying the lining of his beloved but shoddily renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Why was he so angry at her? Because Ms. Pirro had dared to publicly demolish one of his most cherished narratives, promoted by Mr. Burgum, that vandals — and not a contractor hired by the Interior Department to do a rushed job — had defaced a Washington landmark.
Mr. Trump raged against Ms. Pirro in private on Monday. Then he raged a little to reporters. Rumors she would be fired burbled through West Wing. Then he raged a little bit more before hosting a high-drama, face-to-face meeting with Ms. Pirro at the White House worthy of two decorated veterans of confrontational reality TV.
Former Olympian David Hearn is now asking a judge to dismiss the case with prejudice, to prevent Trump Admin from attempting to bring the case again:
“The President has publicly stated that he disagrees with dismissal of the case and continues to falsely claim that the damage was caused by vandals-dismissal without prejudice is plainly insufficient. Allowing the government to dismiss the case without foreclosing future prosecution would leave Mr. Hearn exposed to continued harassment based on the same discredited allegations”
A second legal fight over the Reflecting Pool continues its twists and turns. The Cultural Landscape Foundation, an education and advocacy organization, is asking a federal judge to halt and review the next attempt by Team Trump to fix and restore the Reflecting Pool. The group prophetically predicted earlier this year that the Trump-selected contractor and project could damage the Pool through a rushed job.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation also asked a court this week for access to the Pool site, to survey the damage and ensure the US Department of Interior wasn’t “spoiling” any evidence of damage. A judge has just rejected that motion.
But the lawsuit can continue. I’ll track next steps.
Speaking of Trump vanity projects: Washington D.C. federal judge Christopher Cooper wants to know when that tarp is gonna be removed from the Kennedy Center. (The tarp still obscures the removal of Trump’s name from the building). Deadlines are approaching later this month for filings by Team Trump and by the plaintiffs who successfully sued to strip Trump’s name from the complex.
I explained the timing – and the ridiculousness – of the tarp in my conversation with Heather Cox Richardson
Rep. Sydney Kamlager Dove (D-CA) is introducing articles of impeachment today for Trump’s budget director Russ Vought.
Her proposal is a one-party political statement, but it’s statement that some Democrats are likely to support. Kamlager-Dove’s articles argue Vought and the Administration have “admitted to cancelling federal funding to Democratic states based solely on political criteria, including how they voted in the 2024 election.”
Kamlager-Dove explained her effort to the DAY AHEAD editorial note
Here are Kamlager-Dove’s two articles of impeachment:
There are several other emerging stories I’m tracking in the DAY AHEAD:
1) I expect we’ll learn the timing of the final vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination to be US Attorney General. Senate staff said there are ongoing negotiations over the Senate floor schedule between Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Senators are very keen on beginning their five-week summer in-state work period (some call it a “recess”) by the end of the week.
The fate of Blanche’s nomination has shifted from the hands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) & Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) to the hands of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) & Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
If both Murkowski and Cassidy vote “no”, Blanche would lose. But there’s every expectation that Blanche will secure the support he needs. Why? Because Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has already said she’s a “no”, indicating she’s been freed by the GOP to safely defect on Blanche’s vote.
A coalition of former Justice Department officials, attorneys, agents and employees has issued an 11th hour plea to Senators to block Blanches confirmation . The group, Justice Connection, issued a statement, which said: “Todd Blanche’s craven assurances do nothing to ensure that the Justice Department will cease its vindictive prosecutions, stop violating court orders and attacking judges, commit to complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, end its devastating assault on its own workforce, or start prioritizing the interests of the people over the President’s. They also won’t prohibit the department from continuing to make corrupt payments to the President’s allies through other means, or end the unprecedented and iniquitous tax immunity deal for the President, his family, and their businesses.”
2) At 8:30am, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee meets to debate and vote on a Contempt of Congress resolution against Dr. Anthony Fauci, for Fauci’s invocation of the 5th amendment during last week’s hearing on COVID. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has long criticized Fauci and the federal government’s initial response to COVID, is driving the bus on this effort.
Hard to imagine there are any crossover votes on the issue of Dr. Fauci’s testimony. This appears to be some party-line stuff.
Sen. Paul argues Fauci’s appearance was contemptuous, because Fauci would have been protected to testify by President Biden’s January 19, 2025 pardon of Fauci.
But Fauci’s statement to the panel last week indicated he was concerned Paul was seeking to set a “perjury trap” against Fauci.
Watching professional sports figures make public statements about Fauci is ….. Quite something.
The quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles are getting dunked on – by some of their own team fans – for these statements about Fauci.
3) Didn’t take long for outside GOP campaign groups to marshal their resources in Michigan. The GOP’s Senate Leadership Fund has an attack ad circulating against Abdul El-Sayed. Michigan’s very late primary provides a narrow runway for general election campaigns.
Here’s the ad.
4) I can’t take my eyes off this wonky new report from the Government Accountability Office, which details the Trump Administration’s purge inside FEMA. It appears to have been a deeply gutting and haphazard reduction at the agency that helps Americans who suffer from natural disasters.
Here’s the report:
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-26-108427.pdf
Here’s the glaring findings:
“FEMA is not positioned to determine whether it has the right number of people with the right skills in the right positions at the right time to meet its mission.” (Hoo boy! That’s a damning statement from the nonpartisan experts at the GAO)
“Without a strategic plan that outlines clear goals and objectives, FEMA cannot effectively determine its future workforce needs, potentially putting its mission at risk.”
The real-life risks are scarier than the political impact. But there sure is some political impact. The GOP is trying to salvage the seat in western North Carolina (Chuck Edwards’s seat), which was devastated by a hurricane two years ago. And the Republicans are trying to outflank Democrats in the newly-gerrymandered districts in the hurricane-zones in Florida. Team Trump’s handling of FEMA is a potential liability.
5) Trump’s ongoing election lies continue to be the source of rich embarrassment for his judicial and administration nominees. Let’s see if Senate Democrats continue to mark it an issue today. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) induced some alarming and cringeworthy answers from nominees on Wednesday, by asking the basic question: Who won the 2020 election?
A two word answer (“Joe Biden”) would suffice. But Trump nominees can’t seem to navigate this question without an embarrassing word salad.
6) An Arkansas man has pleaded guilty to making threats to kill then-Vice President Kamala Harris and several Members of Congress in 2022. Today, we’ll wait for the judge to scheduled a sentencing hearing for Todd Curry, who is currently serving time in a local prison for an unrelated case.
The Justice Department said “The investigation revealed that in addition to the threats to kill the selected six members of Congress and the former Vice President, Curry made references in his letters to either anthrax or ricin, which are both considered deadly poisons. After the letters were submitted for analysis, it was determined that none of the substances inside the letters contained anthrax, ricin, or any other toxic or poisonous substance.”
Threats against federal officials have soared. US Capitol Police helped lead the probe of Curry. Capitol Police records reviewed by the DAY AHEAD editorial note show US Capitol Police launched approximately 15,000 threat investigations in 2025. That’s nearly double the number of said cases in 2022.
7) DATA CENTER WATCH: In Virginia – where a data center boom began many years in populous Loudoun County – there are new rules being issued.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) has successfully pushed a state agency to order data centers to cover the cost of transmission infrastructure built exclusively for those facilities.
Spanberger said, “I am proud that after my administration urged state regulators to protect Virginia families and small businesses from shouldering the cost of new transmission infrastructure meant to serve data centers, the SCC listened.”
7B) Joplin, Missouri is pursuing new noise limits for data centers. Here’s the front page this morning:
8) Six Members of Congress from Colorado have launched a formal probe of a shooting near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Aurora.
The Colorado Democrats say they’re seeking “clarity on how the Department is protecting peaceful protestors outside federal detention facilities; what types of de-escalation, use-of-force, and crowd management training are required for agents and contractors; what screening and vetting processes are in place for contractors before they are assigned to ICE facilities; and how the agency is cooperating with law enforcement around this incident.”
A man who worked for the facility has been charged with assault.
Here are the records the Colorado Members of Congress have demanded from the Trump Administration by an August 14 deadline.
9) These numbers are quite something. A new report provided by the Pentagon reveals a staggering price tag for Trump’s controversial deployment of National Guard troops into Washington, D.C.
Per a copy of the report released by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the costs will hit 10-figures. $1.42 billion over the next couple of years.
Yes… we still see a lot of Guard members at rail stations, near landmarks and walking the streets downtown.
Warren is among the critics of the costs … many of whom will likely become more vocal today. Warren said, “While American families are getting flattened by skyrocketing costs, Donald Trump is spending $1.4 billion to keep troops on the streets in Washington for years on end. The National Guard are not pawns and taxpayer dollars are not a piggy bank for Trump’s political stunts.”
I’ll be on Capitol Hill for you today, digging into the final arm-twisting the GOP is undertaking on behalf of Todd Blanche.
Updates throughout the day here on Substack.
Thank you so much for the breakdown. We really appreciate you.
The entire GOP stinks at this stage.