“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hired an anti-vaccine advocate and longtime ally to a position at the Health and Human Services Department,” ABC News reports.
“Lyn Redwood served for years as president of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization founded by Kennedy. Her exact role at HHS is unclear.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who won competitive races twice with Donald Trump on the ballot, is pitching an economic “war plan” for her party today, focused on delivering results and abandoning purity tests, the Washington Post reports.
Washington Post: “Mamdani’s underdog campaign, which pulled off an upset victory over former governor Andrew Cuomo, was powered by trending videos and collaborations with creators across the political spectrum. His digital presence felt savvy and authentic, Democrats strategists and voters say, with a message that resonated with young New Yorkers and blue voters tired of milquetoast platforms and personas.”
“National Democrats eager for an edge in the internet era are taking cues from Mamdani as they approach the midterm elections. His internet-fluent posting set him apart from competitors including Cuomo, whose $25 million campaign invested in TV ads and mailers while maintaining a relatively buttoned-up presence on social media.”
New York Times: Can Mamdani’s energetic campaign be a blueprint for Democrats?
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“Andrew Cuomo’s loss is Eric Adams’ gain,” Bloomberg reports.
“Just days ago, the New York City mayor faced steep reelection odds. His job-approval ratings had plunged to record lows after a federal corruption indictment. Support among Democrats fell even further when the Trump administration dropped the charges, raising questions about Adams’ indebtedness to the White House.”
“But Adams, who dropped out of the campaign as a Democrat to run as an independent, is suddenly looking less toxic to a class of moderate voters. The reason: The surprise ascendancy of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman who crushed Cuomo in Tuesday’s primary election to become the all-but-certain Democratic nominee.”
Washington Post: GOP quickly seeks to make Zohran Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party.
Politico: “It’s getting late early for John Cornyn. Yet another poll shows the four-term incumbent lagging well behind his hard-right challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in next year’s primary.”
“The poll, conducted on behalf of a Paxton-allied super PAC, shows the Texas attorney general with a commanding 19-point lead over the incumbent — 57% to 38% — in a head-to-head matchup of Texas Republican primary voters.”
“The Senate parliamentarian ruled on Wednesday to reject Republican language in the Senate megabill that would prohibit federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act from going to qualified health plans that cover abortion services,” The Hill reports.
“A mediator has proposed that President Trump and Paramount Global settle his lawsuit over a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris for $20 million,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The proposal would include a $17 million donation to Trump’s presidential foundation or museum… It would also include millions more in legal fees and public service announcements on Paramount-owned networks to fight antisemitism.”
“The Trump Organization scrapped a reference that its recently revealed smartphone will be made in the U.S., amid doubts that such a device can be manufactured on American shores at its price tag,” CNBC reports.
The Verge: “Instead, the Trump Mobile website now includes what can only be described as vague, pro-American gestures in the direction of smartphone manufacturing.”
Iran admitted its nuclear installations were “badly damaged” by U.S. airstrikes, the first such comments by Tehran as debate grows over how much the bombardment managed to dent the Islamic Republic’s atomic program, Bloomberg reports.
“Two weeks after China promised the U.S. it would ease the exports of rare-earth magnets, Chinese authorities are dragging out approval of Western companies’ requests for the critical components, a situation that could reignite trade tensions between Washington and Beijing,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Western companies say they are receiving barely enough magnets for their factories and have little visibility of future supplies.”
Washington Post: “Amid a political battle over what the intelligence shows, the White House is expected to send four of its top national security officials to brief lawmakers: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, administration officials said.”
“Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who testified in March that U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, will be notably absent.”
“From the start of his second term, President Trump has bet that he can appeal to low-income voters while slashing safety net programs on which many of those voters depend,” the New York Times reports.
“The enormous tax-and-spending bill he is trying to push through Congress is a high-stakes test of that proposition, a gamble that Mr. Trump can retain the loyalty of his blue-collar supporters despite moves that could harm their immediate economic self-interest.”
New York Times: “Zohran Mamdani’s success in the city with the largest Jewish population in the world offered the starkest evidence yet that outspoken opposition to Israel and its government — and even questioning its existence as a Jewish state — is increasingly acceptable to broader swaths of the party, even in areas where pro-Israel Jews have long been a bedrock part of the Democratic coalition.”
In his comments since the Iran-Israel conflict ended in a ceasefire, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei congratulated “the great nation of Iran” for its “victory over the fake Zionist regime,”CNN reports.
Said Khamenei: “Despite all that noise, and with all those claims, the Zionist regime almost collapsed and was crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic.”
He said the United States entered the conflict with Israel “because they felt that if they did not enter, the Zionist regime would be destroyed.”
Washington, D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) told reporters that she is running for reelection yesterday — only for her office to again walk back her comment, Politico reports.
Said a spokesperson: “No decision has been made. She wants to run but is still discussing it with people close to her.”
Senate Republicans are working to hammer out a version of the tax bill that can pass the House without returning to the negotiating table, NBC News reports.
“That means hashing out SALT, Medicaid and clean energy. Easier said than done.”
Politico: “In one important way, Cuomo’s defeat in Tuesday’s mayoral primary was not an only-in-New York story. For all the local flavors and personal peculiarities of the former governor’s downfall, it also fits into a larger national story — the extinction of some of the country’s mightiest political dynasties.”
“This is an age of angry populism and political disruption; breakneck social and technological change; and broad, deep frustration with the economic status quo. Family names that voters once found comforting now seem to have other connotations — complacency, insularity, privilege, obsolescence.”
“Now that he’s all but won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani enters a general election against incumbent Eric Adams, who is eager to keep his seat and has nothing to lose,” Politico reports.
“On Thursday, Adams will launch his attempt at resurrection in a rally from the steps of City Hall — a longshot bid as a political independent — one day after calling Mamdani a ‘snake oil salesman.’”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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