Oppo Drop 💣

🚨We have a corruption problem. This month alone, three scandal-plagued members of Congress have resigned. Three cabinet secretaries have been forced out amid affairs and scandals. We're airing it out. We'll publish ANY oppo, on any candidate, regardless of their politics. 💣

Melody Jackson, the wife of GOP candidate for Georgia Governor Rick Jackson, donated $1,000 to Senator Jon Ossoff's (D-GA) re-election campaign last February.

Have had a very weird past 48 hours. Initially I reached out to 3 Dems recently endorsed by super PAC Leading the Future about whether they’d be accepting: Ritchie Torres, Rob Menendez, and Val Hoyle. Seemed like a pretty reasonable question I’d expected they were prepared for, since I was asking 4 days after the endorsement was announced. The PAC is funded by OpenAI president Greg Brockman, venture capital investors Andreessen Horowitz, and others, and their critics claim the PAC is anti-regulation. Hoyle’s office initially gave me a fairly critical statement distancing themselves from LTF, and I wrote up a simple story. The statement wasn’t that surprising, since Hoyle had vehemently opposed federal preemption of state AI laws before - and LTF likes preemption. Then I reached out to LTF for comment. This is standard practice for reporters, to ensure everyone has a chance to say their piece, They gave me a fairly straightforward statement. Candidates and PACs aren’t legally allowed to coordinate, so I didn’t expect some big, orchestrated response. All pretty normal. It was after that that things got weird. Hours after I initially talked to them - but about 7 min after hearing from LTF - Hoyle’s office reached out to ask if they could change their quotes. Suddenly they were more appreciative of LTF’s endorsement, saying that she would “refuse to ignore industry” but wanted to advocate for workers. They sent me a Google doc and I watched them write and rewrite the statement multiple times. Then she appears to have ‘preempted’ our story with a series of X posts and videos. (Credits @ShakeelHashim for that joke lol) I’m not sure what made them change their tune so dramatically, long after the working day was done. But their about face seems symptomatic of a changing political environment, in which AI is becoming a more salient political issue and candidates must be careful how they talk about accepting support from AI PACs (LTF and others). Hoyle has received almost $300k in support from a LTF affiliated PAC - a nice boost for any political candidate - but can’t lose her pro-labor bona fides either. More details and analysis in my latest for @ReadTransformer (link in reply)

Scoop: Tom Steyer’s campaign is offering influencers $10 a video to post in support on TikTok/IG/Youtube sacbee.com/news/politics-…

Spencer Pratt has gained traction in his campaign for L.A. Mayor by showing what he says Karen Bass did to his family -- forcing them to live in a trailer after his home burned down. Though, Pratt has really been staying at the Hotel Bel-Air for more than a month. Mind you, you can't get a room for less than $1,500 a night.

New: Sen. Rand Paul’s son drunkenly accosted and hurled anti-Semitic insults at Rep. Mike Lawler at a Capitol Hill bar on Tuesday night. His son told Lawler that if Rep Thomas Massie loses, it’s going to be because of “your people.” “My people?” Lawler asked Paul. “Yeah, you Jews,” Paul responded.  “Do you think I’m Jewish?” Lawler asked. “I’m not.” “Oh wow, I’m so sorry for calling you a Jew,” Paul said.  He then said that Jews were “anti-American” and how Lawler and his “Jewish supporters” served Israel more than America. notus.org/congress/willi…

🚨NEW from @axios🚨 Chuck Edwards told a 20-something female staffer it was "disappointing to feel something that used to be easy has gotten complicated" after she did not want to have dinner with him in May of 2025. #NC11 axios.com/2026/05/13/chu…

🚨Abdul El-Sayed is facing extreme backlash after being exposed for brazenly distorting his professional medical background. Despite claiming to be a physician and telling fake anecdotes about working in medicine for years, El-Sayed once admitted he was “cosplaying a doctor.”

NEW: Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for years has publicly said that he’s a physician — but there’s overwhelming evidence that he’s had no experience as a licensed medical doctor. W/ @dlippman politico.com/news/2026/05/1…

NEW: Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for years has publicly said he’s a physician — but there’s overwhelming evidence that he’s had no experience as a licensed medical doctor. (W/ @adamwren) politico.com/news/2026/05/1…

Awkward moment kicks off KTLA interview with Xavier Becerra. @CaliforniaICP Full report: ktla.com/news/californi…

New signs popping up in DC. @TMZ this you?

TINA SHAH (Dem candidate for Congress in NJ-07) Apr 26, 2026: "I'm gonna be clear about my positions, which are that I'm a pro Israel candidate and I do support unconditional aid... I'm the ONLY candidate that is going to support Israel from an unconditional aid standpoint"

-Wahls is paying himself a higher salary than his campaign staff, despite being a millionaire -Wahls posted explicitly about his pornography habits on Reddit If Wahls wins the Dem primary, the GOP believes #IASEN will be unwinnable for Democrats. More: rleonard.substack.com/p/if-iowa-demo…

🚨The GOP is rooting for Zach Wahls in #IASEN as more oppo drops against him: -Covered up for a sexual assaulter -Ran a dark-money Super PAC -Took $250k of criminal crypto money -Spent taxpayer $ on luxury travel -Ousted as Senate Leader unanimously by Dem peers + more. 🧵

House ethics officials investigated Rep. Jim Costa over allegations that the California Democrat made inappropriate advances to two congressional interns. notus.org/congress/jim-c…

“There are prayer groups,” Ms. Luna offered. “That’s where the men say they’re going, and they’re actually going to have an affair,” Ms. Boebert scoffed. “There’s a ton of affairs,” Ms. Luna conceded. nytimes.com/2026/05/02/us/… via @NYTimes

New: Rep. Chuck Edwards is under investigation by Ethics for an alleged affair with a staffer The investigation centers on an allegation that Edwards had a longtime affair with his deputy chief of staff, who left the office earlier this year W/ @kadiagoba notus.org/congress/chuck…

Hearing that @AlexBores will get the @StonewallDems endorsement, even though his opponent @MicahLasher has been endorsed by @bradhoylman and @ebottcher. Lasher was also accused by a trans teen activist of confronting and insulting them at a Stonewall event after they asked a question on trans youth

I’ve rescinded my endorsement of Angie Craig and proudly support @peggyflanagan to be our next U.S. Senator! Here's why:

NEWS — 🌶️🌶️ Spicy fallout from the Janet Mills campaign With Chuck Schumer facing criticism over his recruitment of Mills, Schumer allies told @NOTUSreports that the issue was in the execution of Mills' campaign. The Schumer allies pointed to Mills' delayed campaign launch, and said her polling was so poor that it was no guarantee that an intervention from Democratic leadership would have saved her. More aggressive action from Schumer, the sources said, would have been politically controversial. Insiders describe a campaign that failed to really launch, and in the end met dire financial straits. A Democratic operative with ties to the race told us that Mills “needed significant money” but “didn’t have it”. One Mills supporter said Mills “just couldn’t make payroll any longer” 👀 So why didn’t Chuck Schumer and party leaders step up to help Mills get through the primary? The operative tied to the race said: “You need to show life if you want a life boat.” More on how Dems are side eyeing Schumer over his recruitment and support of Mills w/ @Alex_Roarty @ec_schneider @igorbobic (!!) notus.org/2026-election/…