“Safest best is that the Republicans win by a small majority,” Rep. Slotkin told me, a warning that has stunned some of her safe-seat colleagues who believe Democrats will keep and expand the House majority.

The result of this election may teach the final lesson about the majority making class of 2018: Is the pathway for Dems to maintain majorities embracing liberal policies that activate the base or is it by taking a page from swing districts and moderating to win the middle?

Murkowski and Peltola cross party lines to endorse each other in tight Alaska races wapo.st/3MXPEh6

In The Early ☕️

- Murkowski and Peltola could be running as a ticket. My Alaska dispatch
- The stakes of 2018 class of House Dems via Marianna Sotomayor
- Sabrina Rodríguez on the contrasts of Warnock
- Trump tax trial starts

W/ Theodoric Meyer Tobi Raji

washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

Democrats fear the midterm map is slipping away amid crime and inflation concerns, Michael Scherer reports washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

Weekend @PKCapitol: Come January either Senator Dianne Feinstein or Chuck Grassley is slated to be Senate PPT, 3rd in line of succession.
Both are 89.
Feinstein has decided she won't take post, but Grassley is all in.
Experts want to change the law.

washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

Happy Friday & #TaylorSwift new album day. Her song Anti-Hero features a shoutout to Capitol Hill: 'Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman?'

👀

Biden warns Republicans will ‘crash the economy’ as they vow to use debt limit to force spending cuts washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

Jan. 6 committee issues subpoena to Trump for testimony and documents washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

In The Early ☕️

- NEWS: Rep. Jim Jordan ramps up probe into FBI w/ a frmr FBI official to sit for a transcribed interview.
- A look at Oregon's gun measure
- Emily Guskin on the dividing line among Hispanic voters on abortion

W/ Theodoric Meyer Tobi Raji

washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

Hispanic voters could be ‘key’ in Virginia’s swing district race between Rep. Abigail Spanberger and challenger Yesli Vega. Meagan Flynn reports washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/…

Rep Ken Buck on oversight if Rs win back House in an interview with Hugh Hewitt in Colorado: “Mayorkas is going to have his private parking space at the Capitol because he’s going to be testifying so many times”

Hands down the most authentic Peruvian food in Washington. You know it’s real when mom remarks that the flavors bring her back to my grandmother’s cooking washingtonpost.com/food/2022/10/1…

GOP to use debt limit to force spending cuts, with Medicare, Social Security in mix, McCarthy says wapo.st/3S4P2rb

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is signaling that if Republicans win the House majority in next month’s midterm elections, the GOP is likely to oppose more aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia. wapo.st/3s2Vmoo

Way too much focus on McCarthy talk about debt limit with Jake Sherman - easily most important news so far is McCarthy announcing opposition to more military aid to Ukraine. This is major global geo-political earthquake if he sticks to this position. He might cave, who knows.

Kevin McCarthy is weighing whether it’s worth keeping a special committee on climate change in a House GOP majority. If it stays, it would look dramatically different, Maxine Joselow & Vanessa Montalbano report washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…