I spoke to Matt Zeitlin for a Grid News story looking at Democrats’ summer political rebound.

The obvious reason is the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, triggering restrictive anti-abortion laws across the country and reactive ballot referendums in states like Kansas and Michigan.

But there’s another story to tell. The combination of gas prices peaking and the Dobbs decision coming down at nearly the exact same time “synced up in the most optimal way imaginable for Democrats,” Republican lobbyist Liam Donovan told Grid.

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The decline in gas prices “leaves Republicans in a weird spot where they don’t have the same cudgels,” Donovan said, while the Dobbs decision means “they’re on their heels in other respects.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Shane Goldmacher for his New York Times piece on money woes at the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the preemptive finger-pointing heading into the home stretch.

“The spending wouldn’t matter if the polling numbers looked better,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican lobbyist and N.R.S.C. donor. “To the extent the red wave is receding, people look for someone to blame.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Mike Warren for his CNN piece with Dan Merica and Gabby Orr on the campaign cash crunch for Peter Thiel’s senate picks and how it impacts national GOP resource allocation.

Thiel’s $15 million super PAC investments helped boost Ohio’s J.D. Vance and Arizona’s Blake Mastersin their competitive primaries earlier this year, with the California billionaire even influencing former President Donald Trump‘s decision to endorse both candidates.

But since the two candidates won their respective nominations, Thiel has not stepped up with additional investments as Vance and Masters have struggled to raise money on their own — while both have been massively outraised by their Democratic rivals. The disparity has prompted Republican observers to question why Thiel has so far refused to help his chosen candidates in the general election through a big donation to a super PAC.

“This is a Thiel problem that has a Thiel solution,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican lobbyist and strategist. “Anybody that emerged from these primaries with 30% was going to need help. The difference here is there’s a patron that has the capacity to help.”

Read the full piece here.