I Bet McHenry's Got a Sweet Gig Lined Up for His Post-Congressional Career. Hell, He's Already Doing the Work!

 

Liz Zelnick, tracking the out-going Congressman from North Carolina, who knows a favor when he gets one:

House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Financial Institutions Subcommittee Chair Andy Barr (R-Ky.) have together taken over $1 million from just the 10 largest banks still charging overdraft fees (Accountable.US analysis).

So not surprisingly, McHenry and Barr are quick, like well-oiled quick, to denounce a new proposal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to limit overdraft fees to as low as $3—a reform expected to save American families at least $3.5 billion a year. "One quarter of American consumers have been hit with an overdraft or non-sufficient fund fee in the past year," amounting to billions for the big banks. [Liz Zelnick]

New reporting in Politico Influence revealed earlier this week that “portions of a press release issued” by McHenry and Barr bore “a striking resemblance—and in several cases used identical phrasing—to a top banking trade group’s talking points about the overdraft rule.”

McHenry and Barr’s relationship with their financial industry mega donors is so close that they’re now literally copying and pasting talking points from banking lobbyists and trying to pass it off as their own.

 

DCCC Announces First Tier of 33 US House Seats Targeted for 2020

Via Twitter yesterday, the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) announced a first list of congressional House districts that will be targeted in 2020:

AZ-06 -- Dave Schweikert
CA-22 -- Devin Nunes
CA-50 -- Duncan Hunter
CO-03 -- Scott Tipton
FL-15 -- Ross Spano
FL-18 -- Brian Mast
GA-07 -- Rob Woodall
IA-04 -- Steve King
IL-13 -- Rodney Davis
IN-05 - Susan Brooks
KY-06 -- Andy Barr
MI-06 -- Fred Upton
MN-01 -- Jim Hagedorn
MO-02 -- Ann Wagner
NC-02 -- George Holding
NC-09 -- OPEN
NC-13 - Ted Budd
NE-02 -- Don Bacon
NY-01 -- Lee Zeldin
NY-02 -- Peter King
NY-24 -- John Katko
NY-27 -- Chris Collins
OH-01 -- Steve Chabot
PA-01 -- Brian Fitzpatrick
PA-10 -- Scott Perry
PA-16 - Mike Kelly
TX-10 -- Mike McCaul
TX-21 -- Chip Roy
TX-22 -- Pete Olson
TX-23 -- Will Hurd
TX-24 -- Kenny Marchant
TX-31 -- John Carter
WA-03 -- Jaime Herrera Beutler

You'll note the three seats in North Carolina, including NC-9 which still remains undecided these months after the election. Kathy Manning might be favored to try again against incumbent Ted Budd in the NC-13 (given her proven ability to raise money and forgetting for the moment that she was four and a half points behind Budd in the final tally). In the NC-2, we'll hope that Linda Coleman backs off from another try. There are other potential challengers in that district who aren't as shop-worn.

Will the amazing Amy McGrath seek a do-over against Andy Barr in the Ky-6? Will Duncan Hunter (Calif-50) and Chris Collins (NY-27) hold on again, despite their active criminal indictments? And there's white supremacist Steve King in Iowa-4. His 2018 opponent, J.D. Scholten, profiled on this site last year, has already announced that he probably won't try again, but maybe he should.

One Tough Customer

Amy McGrath, the former Marine fighter pilot and Democratic nominee for the US House from Kentucky, earns a big article in today's NYTimes. It's all about how impossible it will be for a Democrat to win the 6th Congressional District, especially a woman who came out publicly for background checks and a ban on bump-stocks in a district with "more AR-15s than you can shake a stick at" (according to the editor of the weekly Anderson County News).

McGrath took that position on guns during an interview with that Anderson News editor. She shocked him with her bluntness and her bravery: “What really surprised me was how honest and open she was about things she knew dang well weren’t going to be popular here,” he said.

It's the Marine thing. She's a freaking Marine, the first woman Marine fighter pilot, and she gives it to you straight and without flinching. That makes her about as rare a brand new politician as you'll ever see.

She was the first female Marine to fly an F-18 in combat. She flew missions in Afghanistan in 2002 and in Iraq in 2003. The last Democrat to win District 6, Ben Chandler, said, "How do you caricature someone as a liberal who has bombed terrorists? That’s ludicrous. I hope they try it. Look at [Republican incumbent Andy] Barr in the face and say how many terrorists have you killed?”

She's married to a Navy man, and they have three children. (If you haven't already, you might watch (again) her video on what really constitutes toughness -- and it ain't lying about the size of your button.)

Amy McGrath, A Democratic Star Rising in Kentucky

Wow. So many newly minted Democratic candidates across this nation are catching fire and beginning to get their message out: We can do better, and we will.

Very few of those new candidates are as impressive as 22-year Marine veteran Amy McGrath, who was also a Marine fighter pilot and who is challenging Republican Rep. Andy Barr in the Kentucky 6th.

Take a look at this interview with McGrath, which includes her introductory video:






McGrath's strength of purpose and personality have shot her to the top among congressional fundraisers. By October -- she announced last August -- she had raised more than $770,000. A majority of that money came from small donors — she raised more than $400,000 in donations of under $200. That's called catching fire.

Republican incumbent Andy Barr: Barr came very close to defeating incumbent Democrat Ben Chandler for the seat in the Tea Party wave of 2010 and did beat him in 2012 with 50.6% of the vote. The 6th District should nominally be a Democratic district, so far as voter registrations go (which obviously don't go very far these days), and it has a majority of women, 51.5% to 48.5% men. No Democrat has come close to beating Barr since 2012.

FiveThirtyEight rates Congressman Barr a super Trumpian, but he actually looks more like a super Foxxian to me, voting with Virginia Foxx to deny hurricane relief to the victims of Harvey and to the devastated citizens of Puerto Rico.

If you'd like to contribute to Amy McGrath's campaign, go to amymcgrathforcongress.com, where you'll find the DONATE button.