Anti-trans messaging has deepened despair among Wisconsin LGBTQ+ youth, new report finds
Ramped-up political rhetoric that denies the existence of transgender and gender nonbinary youths is having a toll on Wisconsin's LGBTQ+ youths, a new state survey from The Trevor Project says.
The survey, which was published on March 5, asked LGBTQ+ youths aged 13 through 24 across the United States, including Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., to weigh in on their well-being, mental health risks, access to care, and challenges faced. It's among the first comprehensive reports to capture the impact of recent aggressive GOP campaigns that dismiss the experiences of trans and nonbinary youths.
More than 18,000 LGBTQ+ youths across the country contributed to the national report called the 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People by State. The survey was conducted between September and December of 2023, amid waves of anti-trans ads that continued to dominate television, podcasts and mailers over the next year.
By the end of 2023, Wisconsin had introduced 15 anti-LGBTQ+ laws, which Dr. Ronita Nath, vice president of research at the Trevor Project, said "can directly cause an increase in suicide attempts" among LGBTQ+ youths.
Here are five things to know about the report.
The report emphasizes that LGBTQ+ young people are not inherently prone to higher suicide risk as a result of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Instead, mental health risks stem from discrimination, mistreatment and stigma in society.
That said, 39% of LGBTQ+ youths in Wisconsin seriously considered suicide at the end of 2023, including 44% of transgender and nonbinary youths. Another 12% of LGBTQ+ youths attempted suicide, with 12% of those being transgender and nonbinary youths.
These percentage are far less for cisgender, heterosexual high school-aged students, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey report conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The most recent survey found that 12% of heterosexual students considered suicide and 6% attempted suicide.
Although 53% of LGBTQ+ youths in Wisconsin wanted and received mental health care, another 47% who wanted care did not receive it, according to The Trevor Project survey.
The top five reasons youths were unable to receive it broke down in the following way:
"I was afraid to talk about my mental health concerns with someone else": 44%
"I could not afford it": 34%
"I did not want to have to get my parent's/caregiver's permission": 33%
"I was afraid I wouldn't be taken seriously": 32%
"I was scared someone would call the police or involuntarily hospitalize me": 29%
When LGBTQ+ youths experience anti-LGBTQ+ victimization, which includes being physically threatened or harmed, discriminated against or forced into conversion therapy, they report significantly higher rates of attempting suicide, according to the report.
That victimization can ripple from political messaging. About 90% of LGBTQ+ youths said recent political rhetoric negatively impacted their well-being, with 53% saying it impacted them "a lot" and 38% saying it impacted them "sometimes."
To that end, 72% of LGBTQ+ youths between 13 and 17 said they've endured bullying; 41% aged 18 to 24 were bullied.
A quarter of all LGBTQ+ youths in Wisconsin were physically harmed or threatened with physical harm based on their sexual orientation or gender identity in 2024. Additionally, 61% of LGBTQ+ youths say they've experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The survey showed that the political rhetoric has led to 40% of LGBTQ+ youths or their family, including 45% of trans and nonbinary youths or their families, considering leaving Wisconsin due to LGBTQ-related politics and laws.
About 10% of LGBTQ+ youths are either threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy. Conversion therapy, purported to alter same-sex attractions or an individual's gender expression, is a harmful form of intervention recognized by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Wisconsin has partial laws on the books banning conversion therapy. It's also banned in 14 cities, including Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire and Superior, according to Movement Advancement Placement, which tracks LGBTQ-related laws and policies across the United States.
When LGBTQ+ youths live in affirming and supportive spaces and communities, they experience lower rates of suicide, Nath from the Trevor Project said. Increasingly, that looks more like finding "chosen" families for support instead of traditional family structures.
A vast majority of LGBTQ+ youths in Wisconsin, at 71%, said in 2024 their family only supported them at a low or moderate amount. For 76% of trans and nonbinary youths, low or moderate support has been their experience in 2024.
By contrast, young people have felt high levels of support from friends in 2024, at 72% for LGBTQ+ youths and 75% among trans and nonbinary youths.
To better show support and acceptance, LGBTQ+ youths reported these actions:
"Trusting that I know who I am": 87%
"Standing up for me": 81%
"Not supporting politicians that advocate for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation": 76%
"Respecting my pronouns": 63%
"Looking up things about LGBTQ+ identities on their own to better understand": 62%
"People know who they are. If you are able to trust that, you can really uplift them," Nath said. "Something that might seem small to you ― creating an accepting environment ― can make a world of difference to a young person."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Report shows about half of trans youths considered suicide last year
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The White House Wants the Megabill by July 4. For Real.
House and Senate Republicans spent Thursday at each other's throats over President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' The sparring between the two chambers reached a point where members were openly scoffing at the GOP's self-imposed July 4 deadline for passing the bill. Down Pennsylvania Avenue, meanwhile, the White House isn't sweating. In fact, Trump's aides are downright bullish about getting the megabill wrapped up in a bow for a presidential signature by Independence Day. 'We are targeting the week of July 4 for final passage,' said one of two Trump administration officials I spoke to Wednesday and granted anonymity to candidly describe the private talks. Let's be clear: The timeline is extraordinarily fast. Not only does Senate Majority Leader John Thune have to find a way to bridge competing demands inside his conference and weather a grueling amendment 'vote-a-rama,' but he also has to work with Speaker Mike Johnson, who is already groaning at every change being entertained for the bill that barely passed his chamber last month. Traditionally, getting the two chambers aligned on a single piece of complicated legislation means weeks of 'conferencing' — that's what happened in 2017, the last time Republicans pursued a party-line tax bill. This time, the legislation is even more complicated and the margins even thinner. But White House officials are adamant that GOP leaders skip that step. Nor do they want the House making more changes after the Senate, requiring another 'pingpong' back across the Rotunda. They expect the Senate to clear a bill that the House can simply plop on the floor, pass and send to Trump's desk. 'There's not going to be a pingpong or a conference,' the official told me yesterday. Can they really do that in just three weeks? Some Republicans are skeptical, to say the least. Sen. John Curtis of Utah said 'a lot of us would be surprised' if the July 4 deadline holds at the POLITICO Energy Summit Tuesday. And during a Punchbowl News event Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said that while the Senate might be able to finish on time, it could take another month to negotiate with the House. 'The Senate is going to do what it damn well wants to do,' he said. OK, senator: Go tell that to Donald Trump. Some of the president's allies on the Hill are already dreaming up a snazzy Rose Garden celebration to ring in both Independence Day and the enactment of the 'big, beautiful bill.' (At least that's what one well-placed GOP congressional aide predicted to me this week.) The recent history of the megabill is fueling the administration's confidence. Political prognosticators scoffed at Johnson's self-imposed Memorial Day target for House passage, predicting the warring factions in his conference would make that deadline an impossibility. But Trump swooped in and muscled the bill through by sheer force, strong-arming moderate holdouts and bringing conservatives to heel. And White House officials are sure he can do it again. Administration aides are well aware of the work left to be done. Senate Republicans are already moving to throw a major wrench in the negotiations by upending two key provisions that were essential to winning the support of rival blocs in the House. Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo told his colleagues Wednesday he plans to deliver on a personal priority that's highly desired by members of his panel: making key business tax breaks permanent. To do it, he's ready to scale back the House's $40,000 cap on the state-and-local-tax deduction — a key factor in winning the support of blue-state GOP holdouts. And to manage desires elsewhere in the Senate GOP, Crapo also hinted he'll elongate the phase-out time for some clean-energy tax breaks enacted under former President Joe Biden — a huge no-no for House Freedom Caucus members, who made their quick repeal a must in exchange for their votes. That means Trump is about to find himself in a familiar spot — playing referee between the chambers — and his team knows it. He could start blowing the whistle as soon as Thursday, when he meets with Thune and Crapo at the White House. There's good reason to think that Trump will ultimately be able to impose his will on the unruly GOP lawmakers. There were signs he was already doing so this week, after rumblings emerged about some Senate Republicans wanting to scale back Trump's tax priorities in order to pay for the business tax provisions. Trump's campaign pledges to exempt tips, overtime pay and Social Security from income taxes made it into the House bill at a cost of $230 billion, according to a Joint Committee on Taxation score. Scrapping or scaling back any of those provisions could have been a huge boon to Senate tax writers. But the White House made clear behind the scenes that would be a no-go: 'We're not willing to entertain any scaling back of our signature promises,' a second Trump administration official said. 'You're not going to rock the president's commitments to the voters to pay for [business] expensing in the out years.' On Tuesday, Thune made it clear to reporters that Trump's priorities would stay — words the White House welcomed. So don't expect much stomach inside the GOP for bucking Trump's wishes over the coming weeks. It's telling that, as I was told, none of the Senate Finance Republicans who met with Trump last week raised the issue of shrinking his tax wish list during their White House skull session. That just underscores how no one — not even senators who get six-year terms and have historically relished their independence — wants to tell the most powerful man in the world: Please, Mr. President, we'd like to water down your campaign promises to substitute one of our own. 'I think ultimately a lot of members are wish-casting different structures to permit more of their own priorities, and certainly that's something that senators are welcome to do,' the first official said. But 'the president's priorities are not negotiable in this process.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Supreme Court declines to hear GOP request to review Pa. provisional ballot ruling
A GOP challenge to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's ruling on provisional ballots is dead after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. The high court's rejection June 6 means county boards of elections must count provisional ballots cast by voters who find out their mail-in ballots have been rejected under the state Supreme Court's decision in October. The case at issue, Faith Genser et al vs. the Butler County Board of Elections, stemmed from a lawsuit filed after the 2024 primary election by two Butler County voters. They claimed they were disenfranchised when the board refused to count provisional ballots the voters cast on Election Day, after learning their mail ballots were disqualified for missing dates. Pa. politics: Erie County Democrats have slimmest voter registration edge in decades The board of elections reasoned the Pennsylvania Election Code says provisional ballots from voters whose mail-in ballots are 'timely received' can't be counted, even if the voters' mail-in ballots are rejected. In its 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court found the Elections Code requires county elections officials to count provisional ballots if no other ballot is attributable to the voter, and as long as there are no other issues that would disqualify their provisional ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court did not explain its decision not to hear the appeal. Attorneys for the RNC and Republican Party of Pennsylvania did not respond to an email requesting comment. 'Republicans don't think every rightful vote should count. We disagree, and now, the Supreme Court has sided with us. Pennsylvanians deserve to have their say in every election ― full stop,' Democratic National Committee Chairperson Ken Martin said in a statement. The case is one of many involving 'paperwork errors' on vote-by-mail-ballots, since absentee voting without an excuse became an option in 2019 with the passage of Act 77. 'Every election, thousands of Pennsylvania mail ballots are voided due to common technical mistakes made by voters,' Rich Ting, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said. 'Thanks to Faith Genser and Frank Matis fighting for their right to vote, all Pennsylvania voters who make those mistakes are guaranteed the right to vote by provisional ballot as a failsafe.' The ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Public Interest Law Center with pro-bono counsel from Dechert LLP represented Genser and Matis in their lawsuit. 'The Supreme Court's determination not to hear this case means that Pennsylvanians who make a technical mistake with their mail-in ballots will have a way to fix the mistake instead of losing the opportunity to vote,' Ben Geffen, senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, said. In its petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, the GOP argued the state Supreme Court usurped the Pennsylvania Legislature's authority to set the 'times, places and manner' for congressional elections, leaning on a premise known as the 'independent state legislature theory.' That theory asserts that the U.S. Constitution reserves the authority to set the times, places and manner of elections exclusively for state legislatures. In opposition, the DNC and Pennsylvania Democratic Party asserted that the U.S. Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction, because the case falls outside the limited circumstances in which it can review the judgment of a state's highest court. Such appeals are allowed only when a federal law is in question, a state law is claimed to conflict with federal law or 'where any title, right, privilege, or immunity is specially set up or claimed under the Constitution.' The June 6 decision is the second time the U.S. Supreme Court has passed on reviewing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision. In November it refused to place a stay on enforcement of the ruling days before the presidential election. The Pennsylvania General Assembly has taken steps to pass amendments to clarify the vote-by-mail law in recent weeks. House Bill 1396, sponsored by Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, would give election workers up to a week before Election Day to prepare to count mail-in ballots, a process that has been a bottleneck for election results in parts of the state, and has provided fodder for election deniers. The measure would remedy other ambiguities in Act 77, such as making clear that county election officials must notify voters if their mail ballots are rejected. It passed the House with a 102-101 vote along party lines May 13. Peter Hall has been a journalist in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for more than 20 years, most recently covering criminal justice and legal affairs for The Morning Call in Allentown. Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, the nation's largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Supreme Court won't hear GOP challenge to PA provisional ballot ruling
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Trump jumps into a GOP tax cuts conundrum
Presented by IN TODAY'S EDITION:— Thune and Crapo head to the White House— Mods to watch in today's rescissions vote— Lawmakers blast ICE's 'egregious' spending President Donald Trump is bullish about wanting a 'big, beautiful bill' on his desk in just three weeks. But to meet that goal, he'll have to help settle a tricky tax fight. Trump will huddle with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Finance Chair Mike Crapo at the White House this afternoon — the day before Senate Republican leaders want Crapo to release the bill text for the tax policy portion of the megabill. A likely discussion topic: Crapo's pledge in a GOP conference meeting Wednesday to make three business tax cuts permanent. The challenge isn't about rounding up GOP support for larger tax deductions for research and development, debt interest and capital expensing. It's how to pay for them all. The House-passed package already extends the three deductions through 2029, but making them fully permanent would cost an additional $450 billion. At the same time, House fiscal hawks are demanding that any additional tax cuts be offset with dollar-for-dollar spending cuts. To achieve that, Senate Republicans will likely suggest watering down Trump's campaign pledges to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime pay. But the White House is making clear behind the scenes that would be a no-go, our Rachael Bade reports in her latest Corridors column. 'We're not willing to entertain any scaling back of our signature promises,' a Trump administration official told Rachael. GOP senators are eyeing another potential savings avenue: Lowering the state-and-local-tax deduction cap that the House had quadrupled to $40,000 as part of a crucial compromise with blue-state Republicans. Those SALT Republicans are now threatening to torpedo the bill if that's changed — and House GOP leaders appear to be taking them seriously. 'Obviously, it was very heavily negotiated in the House and we don't want to see it lower,' House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Mia Wednesday. There's another reason Trump has every incentive to urge Thune and Crapo not to meddle with the House's hard-fought tax provisions: He doesn't want to slow down the process with any more 'ping-pong[ing]' of the legislation between the two chambers, the administration official told Rachael. As the White House works to convince the Senate Republicans to lay off the revisions, Senate leaders are working toward issuing final bill text on June 23, followed by a vote-a-rama the back half of that week, according to Sen. Markwayne Mullin. That would go a long way in allowing the House to meet the GOP's self-imposed July Fourth deadline. Thune is quietly threatening to keep senators in town into that recess week to make it happen. But some GOP senators are openly questioning whether they can wrap their version of the tax-and-spending package by that date, let alone pass the whole thing. If the Senate is able to adhere to its own timeline, it'll come down to whether Speaker Mike Johnson can get his members to swallow the Senate's changes — and there's no guarantee how quickly that will happen. GOOD THURSDAY MORNING. Happy Seersucker Day to all who celebrate. Sens. Bill Cassidy and Raphael Warnock are staging this year's commemorative photograph at 12:30 p.m. at the Ohio Clock. And a special shoutout to our Ben Leonard, who had his last day with our team yesterday and is headed off to law school this fall. We'll miss our policy guru extraordinaire for his Medicaid insights, famous snickerdoodle cookies and passion for baseball. He would've packed this newsletter with stats from last night's charity Congressional Baseball Game (Republicans beat Democrats for the fifth straight year, winning 13-2). We also would like to welcome another Benjamin to the team: Benjamin Guggenheim, who was previously on our tax team and will now step into Ben's policy guru shoes. Email him at bguggenheim@ and reach the rest of your Inside Congress scribes at lkashinsky@ mmccarthy@ and crazor@ Follow our live coverage at the Inside Congress blog at THE SKED The House is in session and voting on the rescissions package and legislation tackling fentanyl at 3:45 p.m. — Appropriations will mark up the fiscal 2026 Defense and Homeland Security appropriations bills at 9 a.m. — Armed Services will have a hearing on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Defense Department with Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine testifying at 10 a.m. — Energy and Commerce will have a subcommittee hearing on name, image and likeness for college athletes at 10 a.m. — Homeland Security will have a subcommittee hearing on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity at 10 a.m. — Natural Resources will have a hearing on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Interior Department with Secretary Doug Burgum testifying at 10 a.m. — Oversight will have a hearing on sanctuary cities with Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York testifying at 10 a.m. — Financial Services will have a subcommittee hearing on the Defense Production Act at 10 a.m. — Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will have his weekly news conference at 11:30 a.m. The Senate is in session and voting on Billy Long's nomination to lead the IRS and taking a series of procedural votes to tee up final passage of cryptocurrency legislation at 12:30 p.m. — Judiciary will consider a bill to hold tech platforms accountable for online child sexual exploitation. The panel will also vote on various nominations, including Joseph Edlow to be director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Stanley Woodward Jr. and Thomas Gaiser to be associate and assistant attorneys general at 9:30 a.m. — Banking will have a hearing on the nominations of Benjamin DeMarzo and Craig Trainor to be assistant secretaries at HUD, Jovan Jovanovic to be president of the Export-Import Bank, Francis Brooke to be an assistant secretary at Treasury and David Peters to be an assistant secretary at Commerce at 10 a.m. — Finance will have a hearing on the president's fiscal 2026 budget request for the Treasury Department with testimony from Secretary Scott Bessent at 10 a.m. — Foreign Relations will have a hearing on various nominations including Luigi Rinaldi to serve as ambassador to Uruguay and Arthur Fisher to be ambassador to Austria at 10:30 a.m. The rest of the week: The House and Senate aren't voting on Friday. THE LEADERSHIP SUITE Johnson's rescissions vote hangs on moderates Johnson is pushing ahead with a vote today on a package to rescind $9.4 billion in funds Congress already approved for global aid and public broadcasting. Who we're watching: Several moderates have voiced concerns to leadership, including Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Don Bacon and David Valadao. But no one has confirmed they plan to vote against it. Others we're keeping an eye on: Rep. Dan Newhouse told Calen this week he was worried about the precedent it would set. Rep. Mark Amodei had issues with cutting funding for public broadcasting. Rep. Rob Bresnahan has privately raised concerns about the package, too. House Republicans can only afford three defections with full attendance and if all Democrats oppose the package as expected. 'I don't know. I honestly don't,' Valadao said, when asked if he thinks the rescissions package will pass. Asked how he'll vote, he said, 'I haven't decided yet.' The thorn in Senate GOP leaders' side Senate GOP leaders are attempting to break a standoff with Sen. Rand Paul over border security provisions by having Budget Chair Lindsey Graham release his own text for Senate Homeland Security's portion of the megabill that 'more closely mirrors' the House-passed — and White House-endorsed — version, our Jordain Carney, Hailey Fuchs and Lisa report. Paul, who chairs the Homeland panel, insisted to reporters after leaving Wednesday's conference meeting that fellow Republicans share his skepticism over directing $46.5 billion for building the border wall, as the House did. But Graham said the more conservative numbers Paul is proposing 'are just not realistic.' BTW: Paul is accusing the White House of uninviting him and his family from the White House congressional picnic over his opposition to elements of Trump's agenda. Thune closes in on a crypto win The Senate majority leader is one step closer to passing one of Trump's biggest priorities outside of the megabill after landmark cryptocurrency legislation cleared another procedural hurdle in a bipartisan vote Wednesday, our Jasper Goodman reports. Senators are on track to adopt new base text for the stablecoin regulatory framework and begin voting on the underlying measure later this week. It looks increasingly unlikely Thune will allow further votes on amendments, after attempts to strike a deal with Democrats faltered amid a push from Sen. Roger Marshall to force a vote on credit card swipe fees. If no amendment deal or time agreement comes together, the Senate will vote on Tuesday on final passage of the bill. POLICY RUNDOWN HEGSETH IN THE HOT SEAT — Republican senators pressed the Defense secretary Wednesday on the Trump administration's approach to ending the Ukraine war by appeasing Russia, our Connor O'Brien and Joe Gould report. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued especially strong warnings against a restraint-oriented approach to dealing with Russia, telling Hegseth, 'We don't want a headline at the end of this conflict that says Russia wins and America loses.' When Hegseth told Graham, a top Trump ally and staunch defense hawk, that 'it remains to be seen' whether Vladimir Putin would stop his expansion efforts in Ukraine, Graham shot back: 'Well, he says he's not … It doesn't remain to be seen.' The exchanges signaled the widening foreign policy gap in the Republican Party. Hegseth acknowledged Russia as the aggressor in the war, but ultimately defended the administration's approach. GOP NEARS DEAL ON GREEN CREDIT MONETIZATION — Senate Republicans are close to an agreement to give businesses more time to sell certain clean-energy tax credits — a practice known as transferability — as part their chamber's version of the Trump megabill, our Josh Siegel, James Bikales and Kelsey Tamborrino report. The House-passed package included provisions that would significantly restrict that practice facilitated by the Biden-era climate law, which is driving investments in red districts and states. But Senate Republicans emerged from their Wednesday confab saying they're looking to ease up on those harsh rollbacks by extending phaseout timelines. 'If you are going to have a credit, if it's not transferable, it's not of much use,' said Sen. Kevin Cramer. SENATE SCALES BACK SNAP CUTS — Senate Agriculture Republicans Wednesday evening unveiled a new plan to slash the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, our Grace Yarrow reports. But it's far less aggressive than what was included in the House-approved megabill, making it potentially more palatable for at-risk and moderate Republicans. The new proposal calls for $211 billion in cuts to the federal food aid program — more than $80 billion less than the House's proposed cuts — and would allow some states to avoid footing the bill for SNAP if they get their payment error rates below 6 percent by fiscal 2028. Lawmakers plan to use some of the savings to pay for nearly $70 billion worth of programs in the stalled farm bill instead. After paying for that, the new SNAP proposal would net about $144 billion in savings, per a committee estimate. LAWMAKERS CONCERNED OVER ICE SPENDING — House Republican appropriators are concerned that ICE is spending more money than Congress has approved, according to complaints laid out in the report they released Wednesday to accompany their fiscal 2026 Homeland Security funding bill. Our Jennifer Scholtes writes that among the slew of concerns contained in the 168-page report is that 'ICE began spending more than its appropriated level shortly after the fiscal year commenced and operations now far exceed available resources.' The accusations of 'egregious' overspending follow recent warnings from House Republicans that the agency must not proceed as though the megabill, which is set to deliver billions of dollars in extra funding for immigration enforcement and deportation initiatives, is guaranteed to pass. Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E: CAMPAIGN STOP FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: HELLCATS TO CONGRESS — Democrats are seeing a new model for success in 2026 in a group of aspiring congresswomen with military backgrounds after Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the Democratic nomination for New Jersey governor Tuesday, our Liz Crampton and Elena Schneider report. Known as the 'Hellcats,' these Democratic candidates point to their political aspirations as an extension of their public service that began in the military or national security world — and could be key to countering Republican claims of MAGA equaling patriotism. DEMS' HOGG DILEMMA ISN'T OVER — DNC Vice Chair David Hogg is stepping aside from his party post and turning his focus to Leaders We Deserve, the group he co-founded that has pledged to spend $20 million boosting younger challengers against incumbents in safe-blue Democratic primaries. Hogg told Elena his group won't wade into battleground districts because 'I want us to win the majority,' nor will it target members solely based on their age. TUNNEL TALK GET IT BEFORE IT'S GONE — The Senate candy desk got a restock Wednesday. Mullin oversees the selection and the latest offerings include Sour Patch Kids, Nerds, Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme bars and an assortment of Orbitz gum for lawmakers looking for their sugar fix. SPOTTED ON THE HILL — Russ Vought being screened by Capitol Police officers, who appeared not to recognize the White House budget chief as he attempted to enter the Capitol Wednesday evening. THE BEST OF THE REST On their way to BYU, teens first help run the Senate, from Cami Mondeaux at Deseret News Photo finish: Team Thune takes first place after fitness challenge 'recount', from David Sivak at The Washington Examiner Rep. Buddy Carter Tops Georgia GOP Senate Field in New Poll, from Reese Gorman at NOTUS CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE Allison Jarus has left the Hill after 12 years to join Arnold & Porter as a policy adviser. Jarus spent the past decade working for Rep. Mike Quigley, most recently as his chief of staff. Jarus helped handle Quigley's work on the House Appropriations Committee and was a key architect of the 2021 legislation to increase access for experimental treatments for ALS patients. She was previously with Rep. Marcy Kaptur and former Rep. Tim Ryan. JOB BOARD House Transportation Committee Staff Director Jack Ruddy is leaving Capitol Hill after 15 years. Ruddy, a trusted adviser and friend of Chair Sam Graves, started as an intern for the Missouri Republican back in 2006 and began working in his office full-time in 2011. He helped shepherd the 2024 FAA law and T&I's portion of the GOP's pending reconciliation package. Nick Christensen, a longtime Graves aide and his current chief of staff, will take the reins as staff director on Monday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rep. Mark Amodei … former Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard … NBC's (soon to be POLITICO's) Carrie Budoff Brown … Mayra Macías … Rabbi Levi Shemtov … Lilia Dashevsky … Michael Finnegan … Joyce Kazadi ... Eli Zupnick ... FICO's Dan Archer … Matt Wolking … former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham … Matt Mowers … Coco Pannell Smith … Morgan Viña of National Security of America and Invariant … Abigail Ross Hopper of the Solar Energy Industries Association TRIVIA WEDNESDAY'S ANSWER: Bruce Brown correctly answered that James Garfield had the second-shortest tenure as president. TODAY'S QUESTION, from our Katherine Tully-McManus: What well-known fiscal hawk hit a home run out of the park in the 1979 Congressional Baseball Game? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@
