PPD - Republicans leaving MAGA behind, Shapiro says it's his way or he leaves politics + a Quincy, M.E. reference
Sharp analysis of PA politics and campaigns writ large
Welcome to the Friday End of Week post here at PA Political Digest - I’m your guide, GOP political consultant Christopher Nicholas.
For you today we have:
In the Round Up, the DNC deep-sixes its internal navel-gazing report, fewer Republicans ID as MAGA and is the rising tide of antisemitism here because of the kids
This Week in Pennsylvania features an interview with Dennis Miller, a former Marine who advocates for open primaries, and
In Extras, down at the bottom, whole milk is back!
Round Up
GOP continues to shrug off Trump: As Fox News reported, on Wednesday four House GOP members, three from PA, voted with Democrats to force a vote on a bill that would extend special Obamacare subsidies for an additional three years, a measure that polls well with all voters. (no paywall)
The three PA members - Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1), Ryan Mackenzie (R-7) and Rob Bresnahan (R-8) - all face challenging re-election races in 2026. And Fitzpatrick, a leader in the effort to extend these Obamacare subsidies, is one of just 3 House Republicans to represent a district won by Kamala Harris. Though Donald Trump won Bucks County, the main part of the 1st, Harris won enough votes in the sliver of MontCo there to win the district with 49.7% of the vote.
That House vote to extend those subsidies will not occur until the new year, when they have already sunset.
A December poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found “bipartisan support among Marketplace enrollees for Congress to extend these tax credits even as the political parties in Congress disagree about the way forward. More than eight in ten (84%) Marketplace enrollees – including nearly all Democrats and about seven in ten Republicans – say Congress should extend the tax credits.” (no paywall)
Wednesday was a busy day in the U.S. Senate too. The chamber voted 77-20 in a bipartisan manner to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, and “delivered a clear rebuke of Pres. Donald Trump’s authority, signing off on legislation that could force the Pentagon to turn over footage of strikes against suspected drug smugglers and rein in the administration’s ability to limit troops abroad.” (no paywall)
Both of PA’s senators voted for the bill, which the President is set to sign.
Many Republicans objected publicly to the President’s disturbing social media post that claimed actor and director Rob Reiner died because he exhibited Trump Derangement Syndrome. The actor’s adult son Nick was arrested and charged with patricide and matricide.
Cong. Marjorie Taylor Greene, long an America First ally of the President who is now at logger heads with him, said, “I thought that statement was absolutely, completely below the office of the president of the United States. Classless and it was just wrong.”
New polling shows a recent, sharp decline in the % of Republicans identifying as MAGA adherents.
Below, from an NBC News/Survey Monkey poll of self-identified Republicans:
Do you consider yourself more a part of the MAGA movement or more a supporter of the Republican Party?
And as the Washington Post reported, “The head pollster at Rasmussen Reports [Mark Mitchell] warned Trump that many of his supporters believed that he hadn’t ‘drained the swamp’ in Washington and suggested that the president refocus with a plan to embrace ‘pragmatic economic populism.’
“To the extent to which we were talking about the economic populism message, he wasn’t as interested as I would have hoped,” Mitchell said, adding that it was a ‘long-ranging conversation.”
Earlier this week Gov. Josh Shapiro told ABC27’s Dennis Owens that if the million dollar plus security upgrades at his private home in MontCo, paid for by taxpayers, were not to happen, his only alternative would be to…
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