National political reporter @POLITICO. Past lives covering Congress and writing Mass. Playbook. Let’s chat: lkashinsky@politico.com
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NEW: Sen. Mark Kelly tells me he’s introducing legislation next week that would have AI companies pay into a fund to help workers whose jobs are affected by the tech.
He’s far from the only possible 2028er pushing guardrails amid AI panic that could ripple into the next presidential.
w/@meredithllee @politico politico.com/news/2026/09/18…
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NEW: @SherrodBrown's labor allies have a bone to pick with him. Brown launched an all-out assault on data centers in Ohio. It's testing longtime relationships he built with unions, who've seen demand for their work explode thanks to the data center boom politico.com/news/2026/09/25…
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NEW: Senate Majority PAC is “actively thinking” about whether to wade into Kansas.
“There’s some good arguments out in not just Kansas, in four or five other places…we’re thinking about ways we might get involved if they stay earnestly competitive,” JB Poersch tells @politico
politico.com/news/2026/09/25…
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NEW: There's been a lot of talk about GOP candidates "breaking" with President Trump.
But "more often times than not, a candidate or an elected official will call the White House and ask how to do it," one person familiar with the WH's thinking told me. Candidates are trying to message what they need to for their voters — but don't want to land on the president's bad side.
At the same time, “[Trump] understands the whole gambit. He gets the whole concept. He gets the environment,” the person said.
Our latest on how the WH is trying to help vulnerable GOP candidates navigate messaging and considering policy moves they otherwise might not as the midterms close in.
w/ @AlexGangitano and @MyahWard politico.com/news/2026/09/25…
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Scoop: Trump is eyeing a rally in Alabama late next week, per 2 sources who said the plans were still subject to change/not yet set in stone
Dems have made ground in plenty of red states, but AL is not considered one of them
w/@meredithllee
politico.com/news/2026/09/24…
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Sen. Ruben Gallego says Dems should invest in Iowa, Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina.
Other Dems are wary of playing too widely with tight races in must-hold seats.
Inside Dems’ debate over where to spend — Senate and House — as they get outspent on ads.
w/@jsscppr @andrewjfhoward @politico politico.com/news/2026/09/24…
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NEW: A POLITICO reporter was denied access to the White House Thursday and his press credentials confiscated after a judge ordered the Trump administration overnight to immediately restore access for news organizations that President Donald Trump banned from the complex last week. politico.com/news/2026/09/24…
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So most people in MI never heard of the Twitch streamer guy Mike Rogers has spent time campaigning on
NYT poll, Michigan
“Tell me whether you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of Hasan Piker Or have you not heard of him?”
Very/somewhat fav 6%
Very/somewhat unfav 34%
Never heard of 54%
nytimes.com/interactive/2026…
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NEW: Dems want more cash. But they’re torn over where to spend what they have.
Some Dems want to push deep into red turf (TX, KS, etc). Others want to shore up core House/Senate races (MI, NH, etc).
Red states are “in play like they’ve never been before” said one Dem senator. But going after “the shiny object” can be “dangerous.”
Comes as GOP’s swamping Dems on airwaves.
w/@andrewjfhoward @jsscppr @politico politico.com/news/2026/09/24…
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SCOOP: Inside the tumult of Mary Peltola's Senate campaign in Alaska and her time on Capitol Hill.
Peltola is known publicly as kind and affable. But aides recall angry outbursts, slurs and a shove. (She also required staff to feed a pet chameleon.)
nytimes.com/2026/09/23/us/po…
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Neatly capturing the zeitgeist, Johnson sent lawmakers back to their districts early to avert a revenge plot by a GOP member who Trump helped defeat in a primary earlier this year. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) rolled a political grenade in his own conference by introducing impeachment articles against Hegseth, a measure that by House rules would have to be quickly taken up (and may have even had the votes to pass, longtime GOP House members told me).
The only way out of a roll call vote on the embattled defense secretary was to go into recess, which is what Johnson decided to do, sending members limping home to meet their fate.
Not that Trump necessarily noticed.
The same day Massie introduced his impeachment resolution, the president’s hand-picked appointees were closing the Kennedy Center after a federal judge ruled that Trump couldn’t emblazon his name on the building.
politico.com/news/magazine/2…
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News: Husted is the latest battleground R to call for a quick end to the Iran war this week, as panic grows over how high gas prices + Trump’s agenda could hurt the party in Nov.
“Hinson broke the dam,” said a GOP operative. W/@_alibianco, @meredithllee
politico.com/news/2026/09/22…
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NEW - Inside the shifting Senate map as Rs try to stem the bleeding
Top Rs are most alarmed about Alaska and Ohio. Then highly focused on Maine and flipping Michigan + NH.
They’ve quietly deprioritized NC and Georgia - and many see NC mainly as a money sink for Dems.
Even with the Texas concerns - top Rs are more worried about the Midwest, incl Iowa, than the Sunbelt given the unrelenting blows to the Midwest economy.
It’s keeping Iowa in an uncomfortable spot for them, raising Ohio alarm and and absolutely hammering Rogers and Rs in Michigan.
senior Republicans have been working their midterms problem from two ends:
trying to gently persuade Trump in private conversations to back off some of his recent policy moves and wind down the war in Iran — while also organizing a wave of cash reinforcements across the growing map to try to stem the bleeding.
More w/ @erinpdoherty @jsscppr @andrewjfhoward
politi.co/4AppEDR via @politico
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New: Sen. Mark Kelly is detailing his latest AI bill — and planning to slam Trump and Johnson for failing to put guardrails on the industry — in a floor speech today.
“If we act now on AI, we can avoid catastrophe and shape a future with more opportunity, more security, more of the things we want and need” he plans to say.
@politico @playbookdc
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New in @politico mag: Influencers are turning into Democratic operatives, embedding into campaigns and trying to make the party go viral.
“This is not something that is optional anymore.”
But Dems are divided on the rules of engagement. My latest: politico.com/news/magazine/2…
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New — Rep. Max Miller is threatening legal action to block an ad from his Dem challenger Brian Poindexter that includes abuse allegations.
The ad and ensuing legal threat mark a major escalation in the race. Now the candidates are litigating the accusations in the public eye and placing Miller’s family drama at the heart of the campaign.
politico.com/live-updates/20…
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Such a rich, deep narrative on the most urgent policy issue facing the US govt:
"each side came to recognize its fearsome adversary — a government with a maximalist approach to exercising any authority it could claim, and a company on which the U.S. economy had come to rely"
Over the course of 85 days this spring and summer, the course of AI policy under Trump was completed altered.
We set out to understand the thinking behind those events, beginning with the arrival of Anthropic’s Mythos, through the June executive order and subsequent export controls.
Today’s @POLITICOMag cover story, a deep dive from me and @SophiaCai99
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One battleground Dem talking AI safeguards despite possibility of industry spending against him: Abdul El-Sayed in #MISEN.
"I don't really think about that" he told me. "I've been targeted by $100M super PACs before. Good luck. I'd rather be on the truth than dodge their money"
NEW: Dem advisers are warning battleground candidates not to campaign too hard on AI regulations.
They fear it could spark industry spending against them.
w/@meredithllee @JasonBeeferman @politico politico.com/news/2026/09/17…
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