How Thune and Schumer did this session

0:00This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. For 125 years, Nordstrom has been part of your story. The stylist who found the perfect outfit for your big interview. The first pair of walking shoes for your one-year-old. The tomato soup you shared with your sister at the cafe. These are the moments that make Nordstrom. Nordstrom. Bigger a small? We're here for all of it. Celebrating 125 years with new moments still add. Discover it all in NordstromStores and at Nordstrom.com. Music Good morning, I'm Anna Palmer. And I'm Jake Sherman. And welcome to the Daily Punch Brought to you by Punch Well News. It's Friday, TGIF, October 2nd, 2026. Let's get into the mix here. Are your Washington headlines of the day? Number one, a leader look how soon and schumer are doing. Number two, a Republicans finally giving up on North Carolina and Georgia. And number three, utilities lose power on permitting.

1:02All right, Jake, let's get to it. We are ending the week with a classic punch bull news ism. The leader look looking at how leaders are doing and we are teaming up Senate majority leader John Thune. It's said at my nor leader Chuck Schumer. Just as the Senate has gone out for the rest of the session. Yeah, listen, we would write it about Johnson and Jeffries, but they're Gonzo. And they've been Gonzo, they've been Gonzo for a while. And I don't know if you appreciate if you're watching on YouTube, the decor, this very nice mirror that's behind me. I'm on the road in an undisclosed location and I just think I might have to buy one of these. I don't know what kind of style this is. But it's like a mid-century mirror. Mid-century TGMX? Yeah. Yeah, mid-century TGMX. Listen, so let's talk about Thune and let's talk about Schumer. It is, it's kind of, they kind of have an interesting,

2:05it's kind of a mirror image. John Thune had a very strong start to the 119th, but 2026 has been a rough on Thune. And Schumer had a very, very rough start to 20 to the Congress. And now has kind of picked up some steam as Democrats look like they're going to at least have a chance of taking the majority. Although I don't know how good of a chance, but a chance. The last few weeks is Brez and Laura Wright of confusion and indecision over the GOP's pre-recess endgame didn't help Thune in the GOP conference or outside. The Senate used valuable floor time on the NIL bill because that's what Thune promised Ted Cruz, but vulnerable senators wanted an action on their bill. Now listen, I don't know that actions, that taking votes on the Ray Perry Protection Act or insulin bill as Susan Collins wanted would have been the answer to winning back the majority. What do you think Anna? Or not winning back the majority, winning their races. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, listen, I think he's in a tough spot.

3:07Thune has weathered the heat of President Donald Trump and the IRF, when it comes to the Save America Act. Certainly I think there is frustration among some of his colleagues about how they chose to end this part of the session going into the election. But I think that also is just part of the frustration the Republican have right now going back home, having to run in this political environment. I think the most interesting part is despite, frustrations despite not being close to the President right now, Thune seems in the poll position to keep his leadership position no matter what. Yeah, listen, it's a different vibe in the Senate, right? It's 50% plus one, it's a secret ballot. You don't have any floor votes. And, you know, and look at, at least look at Texas, which is the biggest, I would say, that one of the biggest messes for Republicans. Texas is a candidate in Ken Paxton that the President endorsed Thune didn't want. So, you know, that's at least one place. I mean, listen, it depends how bad the losses are.

4:10I don't think students going anywhere. I think that, you know, even if he's at 50, if he's at 49, I mean, does he have the support of 25 Republicans? The answer's yes. I mean, it's a different vibe in the Senate. Let's talk about Schumer, Anna. Winning a Senate majority as Brez and Laura Wright was once a pipe dream, but it's now a real possibility for Democrats. And that's boosted Schumer standing. The New York Democrat has rallied behind candidates, including Abdul-Al-Sahed and Michigan. Progressives have a lot of criticism for Schumer. I mean, I don't think that there's, you know, conservatives of criticism of Mike Johnson. Some people have criticism of Kim Jeffries. I mean, this is nothing new, right? I mean, people have criticism of their leaders. I think Schumer is probably safe if Democrats win net any seats, you know, I, I, again, Democrats are different beasts too. I don't think they dump Schumer personally. I think he's completely safe. I think if he, you know, if Republicans win seats, right?

5:10If they net positive, if they get more seats, I think Schumer could be in trouble. Other than that, I think he's pretty safe. What do you think? I mean, I disagree with you. I think that's probably right. What it to me is, is really like the story of the comeback kid here, right? I mean, with the beginning of this Congress Senate Democrats were so frustrated with how Chuck Schumer entered into the record breaking shutdown, didn't have a plan, was enabled to kind of move forward and have any political victories. And then you really saw Schumer change positions and kind of get the fight that a lot of the progressives in the party wanted him to take to Trump. And I think he's kind of solidified himself there. I think the question, I mean, will be to your point, like what happens in November? You know, if they pick up seats, I think it will be very hard to try to take it. But it wins on these leadership elections change real fast. If things don't go, you know, there's a lot of pressure now because when there's no expectations, picking up, you know,

6:11and doing well in a couple of Senate seats that maybe didn't expect to do, would have been enough to have a, wow, we had an amazing cycle. Now, you Schumer has also shifted expectations to say, we could really look at a majority here. And that, you know, sometimes that's why there's temperature kind of setting, I guess, if you will, where you don't want to kind of raise expectations too high. That's exactly right. The winds do shift quickly. All right. Stay with us after the break. We are talking about the big question, our Republicans finally scaling back in Georgia and North Carolina. So good, so good, so good. Nordstrom Rack is celebrating 125 years of Nordstrom with 125 with the best deals up to 65% off in stores and online. We're talking incredible savings on brands you love, like Vince, Sam Edelman, Rackenbone, All Saints and More. They're only here while supplies last. So shop today. Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack.

7:13All right, Jake, let's move to the number two story of the morning. Republicans insist publicly that the center races in North Carolina and Georgia are still highly competitive, but the cash is telling a potentially different story. Yeah, I'm on this story. I guess I helped with it. I did help with it. It's very generous of Allie to give me a byline in this story, but I appreciate it. Thank you, Allie. You need to have plenty more of those. What the hell? I need to know. Listen, I know you guys are counting. Who are you guys? I guess me. I'm counting. No going backpack has no TV ads planned in North Carolina next week. It's on track to spend less than $90,000 on air. Georgia, this could change. Of course, GOP spending in North Carolina took a big hit last week when Old North Action, a pro-wattly super pack, cut six and a half million from its buy. Senate leadership fund is still spending big in both races and could make up the difference with $50 million planned in North Carolina and 26 million reserved in Georgia. And the main GOP issue is that they need help. Democratic candidates are flush with cash

8:13and far outpacing their rivals, John Assoff. Book more than 46 million in ads from August through Election Day. Collins has booked 1.6 million. I don't know if you know Anna, 46 is more than 1.6 in North Carolina. You're not getting that, man. Yeah, it's early, but we could both do that. In North Carolina, Roy Cooper is 25 million overall GOP spending in the race drop from 9.3 million week of September 15 to 4.3 this week. So listen, you're going to start seeing this. We are keeping an incredibly, incredibly close eye on where people are coming down off the air, for example. And we're keeping an eye on where people go up. I know there was a big splash the other day when Democrats said they were going into Texas, Anna. I don't know if you remember that. But Democrats said they were going to run a digital ad in in Texas through Texas forever. That spending as of 815 last night was $262,000.

9:17And that's not a lot of dough. We are watching this very closely and we'll be updating people on where the spend goes. Because it matters, right? I mean, it's one thing everybody can probably say. We're in all these races. We're super tight, but actually we're there cutting ads and spending money is a much clearer indicator of where they actually think they have a shot in some of these tight races. All right, that's one of the number three story of the morning. Josh Siegel, our new energy reporter, has a great item this morning. Jake, this is the stuff that our premium plus audience is going to be getting. Right now, we are giving a sneak preview to our full audience, but he has a look at how the utilities are gearing up for one last round of lobbying and the new bipartisan permitting bill. And they are finding themselves without the same juice this time around. And lawmakers and the White House know it not a good place to be if you are the industry. If you are the utilities exactly, they helped kill the permitting deal between Joe Manchin and John Barrassow over its expansion. This is in 2024, a federal authority to approve interstate power lines

10:18despite state or local objections. A House Republicans helped them kill that. Now they find themselves in a lot less of a strong position, a lot weaker of a position. But also a chef's kiss here, the environmental groups had a call organized by the Sierra Club yesterday, a transcript of which was leaked to Josh. And they said our tactics and information cannot get back to White House and Heinrich. And it is getting back because we're running the transcript. Brett Hartel, government affairs director of the Center for Biological Diversity, stressed he wanted to keep their strategy a secret and he told us, quote, I don't want our strategy being relayed back to them. And now it is someone on the call decided to betray us all of us. Pretty, pretty, pretty specific quote. All right, we are going to leave it there. Thank you all so much for listening. Check out the, check out the full newsletter. We've got a bunch of other items including the fact that we hosted cocktails and conversations,

11:21event with ADM at the Punch for News Townhouse last night. We thank you to them. Have a great weekend and stay safe, everybody.