Lake and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego are likely to compete for Sinema‘s seat in November after months of speculation as to whether the independent would seek another term. National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Steve Daines hosted the fundraiser, and Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso, Senate Minority Whip John Thune and Texas Sen. John Cornyn were in attendance, Lake’s campaign told the DCNF.

“Kari Lake raised [$330,000] at one event for one hour. Republicans are excited about her campaign,” a spokesperson for the campaign told the DCNF. “Her opponent, Ruben Gallego is Far-Left, supporting open borders, sanctuary cities, and high taxes. He votes with Biden 100 percent of the time. Arizonans won’t be fooled by Gallego’s extreme record.”

Other prominent Republican senators who were at the fundraiser include Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Roger Marshall of Kansas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, according to the campaign.

The NRSC officially endorsed Lake on Feb. 13.

Gallego’s campaign announced just hours earlier that he brought in over $1 million from nearly 24,000 donors in the 24 hours following Sinema’s announcement. The haul was the campaign’s “most prolific fundraising day,” according to Gallego’s team.

The congressman, who has been in the race for over a year, raised $13. 2 million this cycle with $6.5 million cash on hand, according to the latest data from the Federal Election Commission. Lake’s campaign reported topping $2 million since her October launch, and entered 2024 with just over $1 million in the bank.

The Senate race has already become much more competitive in Sinema’s absence, with polling suggesting she would’ve lost in a three-way race.

A late February poll from Rasmussen Reports/The Bull Moose Project found Lake leading Gallego by three points in a head-to-head matchup, while an earlier Emerson College/The Hill survey indicated the congressman would win by seven points.

Sinema’s seat is in the “Toss Up” category for 2024, along with races to oust Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana, according to The Cook Political Report.

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Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia said Sunday he’ll “let you know later what I decide to do.” It appears to be a ploy to get his energy policies that benefit his constituents back in play after he got shafted in a deal to support the Inflation Reduction Act. According to Axios:

Manchin told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that he would wait and see how the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act “plays out.”

“If people are trying to stop something from doing so much good because of politics, thinking that somebody else will get credit for it, let’s see how that plays out,” Manchin said. “I’ll let you know later what I decide to do, but right now I have no intention of changing anything.”

Manchin’s remarks come after Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.) announced this month that she was leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent, sending shockwaves throughout the Senate.

Manchin released a statement last week criticizing the Senate’s failure to pass his energy permitting reform amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, saying: “I serve West Virginians and the American people with an independent voice, not a political party.”

The dynamic here puts Democrats in an awkward position. If they meet his demands and work in his pro-energy policies into legislation, they will get lambasted by the radical progressive wing of the party. If they don’t, they could lose him.

For Manchin’s part, he doesn’t seem eager to leave the party that has kept him in power for decades. This seems to be more of a bargaining tool than a real threat, but nothing appears to be off the table.

Barack Obama had a rare moment of clarity in 2009 and issued a warning Democrats should heed today:

"The last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession.”

— BARACK OBAMA, 2009 pic.twitter.com/0Z3azxanw7

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 5, 2022

They won’t listen, of course, because they need to completely destroy the economy in the few months they have left with majorities in the House and Senate.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. And from time to time, even a Neo-Marxist echoes the appropriate sentiment that his Democrat disciples should abide by, especially at a moment like this.

But with Senator Joe Manchin abandoning his fiscal principles to walk the party line, there’s one more Senator who may stand in Chuck Schumer’s way. Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona may be poised to keep the bill from getting all 50 Democrats, which would be needed if all 50 Republicans vote against it.

According to Axios:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) had a message for her Democratic colleagues before she flew home to Arizona for the weekend: She’s preserving her options.

Why it matters: Sinema has leverage and she knows it. Any potential modification to the Democrat’s climate and deficit reduction package — like knocking out the $14 billion provision on carried interest — could cause the fragile deal to collapse.

• • Her posture is causing something between angst and fear in the Democratic caucus as senators wait for her to render a verdict on the secret deal announced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin last Thursday.

Driving the news: Sinema has given no assurances to colleagues that she’ll vote along party lines in the so-called “vote-a-rama” for the $740 billion bill next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

• • The vote-a-rama process allows lawmakers to offer an unlimited number of amendments, as long as they are ruled germane by the Senate parliamentarian. Senators — and reporters — expect a late night.
  • Republicans, steaming mad that Democrats have a chance to send a $280 billion China competition package and a massive climate and health care bill to President Biden, will use the vote-a-rama to force vulnerable Democrats to take politically difficult votes.
  • They’ll also attempt to kill the reconciliation package with poison pills — amendments that make it impossible for Schumer to find 50 votes for final passage.

The intrigue: Not only is Sinema indicating that she’s open to letting Republicans modify the bill, she has given no guarantees she’ll support a final “wrap-around” amendment, which would restore the original Schumer-Manchin deal.

The most likely scenario is that Sinema gets something in return from Schumer to make for smooth sailing for the bill. Democrats desperately need this or they may go into the midterm elections with literally nothing on their agenda accomplished.

Article by Joseph Lord from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.

On July 13, the Department of Labor released its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), showing that consumer prices have gone up by 9.1 percent over the past year, exceeding predictions and hitting a new 40-year high.

The CPI showed that energy has been the hardest hit, with costs rising by around 41.6 percent across the board for all types of energy. Gasoline prices have risen by a staggering 98.5 percent.

Other essentials have also been hard hit: in the past 12 months, the cost of food has gone up an average of 10.4 percent.

In a July 13 statement, Manchin, who has long been vociferous in calling for his party to do more to combat inflation, said: “Today’s inflation data illustrates the pain families across the country are feeling as costs continue to rise at a historic rate. 9.1% is cause for serious concern.

“Items like chicken, eggs and lunchmeat have increased to all-time highs, while energy costs rose more than 40% in June with those that can least afford it suffering the most. It is past time we put our country first and end this inflation crisis.

“For more than a year, leaders in Washington have ignored the serious concerns raised by myself and others about the rising cost of inflation,” Manchin continued. “While Washington seems to now understand this reality, it is time for us to work together to get unnecessary spending under control, produce more energy at home and take more active and serious steps to address this record inflation that now poses a clear and present danger to our economy.

“No matter what spending aspirations some in Congress may have, it is clear to anyone who visits a grocery store or a gas station that we cannot add any more fuel to this inflation fire,” he concluded.

The statement could spell trouble for Democrats who hope to pass through a scaled-down version of the BBB, which originally failed over Manchin’s concerns about inflation in December 2021.

In December, after months of scrambled negotiations with Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Manchin dashed Democrats’ hopes when he said he wouldn’t vote for the package amid continued concerns about inflation.

Since then, some Democrats have made efforts behind the scenes to push for a revival of the package. Although Manchin has been loosely involved in these negotiations, they’ve only recently gained traction, winning the support of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who’s now making a desperate push to reach a scaled-down agreement on BBB before the end of the summer.

But any such package is far from close to being ready, according to Manchin spokesperson Sam Runyon.

“Suggestions that a reconciliation deal is close are false. Sen. Manchin still has serious unresolved concerns, and there is a lot of work to be done before it’s conceivable that a deal can be reached he can sign onto,” Runyon said.

A particular focus of Democrats with the package has been on climate policy.

Many Democrats have pushed for tax credits for clean energy manufacturing, taxing methane emissions, and a new tax on carbon-intensive imports such as steel. However, this newest inflation report could make Manchin hesitant to accept any such new spending, particularly as his concerns continue to remain unresolved about the proposed package itself.

To pay for these policies, Democrats have pushed for a repeal of several provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—a proposal that the moderate Sinema isn’t enthusiastic about.

During the last round of BBB negotiations, several sources reported that Sinema—who generally declines to comment on her policy positions during negotiations—was opposed to re-hiking the corporate and income tax rates from their post-2017 levels.

It isn’t clear if Sinema maintains her opposition on this front. But if she does, it could put another kink in Democrats’ aspirations to fund the measure.

The legislation also faces potential challenges from Republicans.

On July 7, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) renewed an earlier threat to tank the bipartisan United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), a measure designed to increase U.S. competitiveness with China.

The House and Senate have each passed their own versions of the legislation, and bicameral committees are currently working to hammer out the differences between the versions passed by each chamber.

The White House and Senate alike are anxious to see the competitiveness legislation passed, further heightening the challenges that Democrats could face in moving ahead with a scaled-back BBB.