Good morning! Here’s a weird story to start your week. The U.S. Navy is out of pants. The Defense Logistics Agency blames the shortage on vendor issues. New pants won't be available until January. A great general once said, “Logistics wins wars.” Probably safe to assume he was referring to weapons and food, hoping the whole pants thing was already figured out. Best of luck, sailors.

If you're wondering what rich people are up to, one of 'em just paid a record $24.12 million for Babe Ruth's famous 1932 "called shot" jersey. Go ahead and treat yourself to the venti today.

2024

🤝 Kennedy knows when to fold ‘em

Shocking dozens, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. dropped his independent White House bid over the weekend and threw his full support behind Donald Trump.

At an event in Phoenix, the Democratic scion said “In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path to electoral victory.” Kennedy said he could no longer ask volunteers and donors to keep pushing in an unwinnable race.

• Eight months ago, RFK regularly hit ~20% in the polls. By August, his numbers had sunk to ~5%.

Family: At a Trump rally a few hours after his concession, Kennedy broke with a century of family history and endorsed a Republican for president (refresher: he’s JFK’s nephew and Bobby’s son).

• Thanksgiving at Hyannis Port will be awkward this year. Five of RFK’s eight siblings issued a statement calling the endorsement “sad” and "a betrayal” of their family's values.

Why? RFK slammed the modern Democratic Party as the party of “war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big ag, and big money."

• He’s supporting Trump due to concerns over free speech, war, and America's chronic health problems like childhood obesity, which he blames in part on processed foods.

• Not all Republicans, however, are fans of the new alliance, with one warning that RFK is "kind of a looney tune."

Donald Trump promised to establish a commission on assassination attempts that would release all remaining JFK assassination docs. He called the plan “a tribute in honor of Bobby.”

• Presidents Trump and Biden both released thousands of pages of docs on the JFK assassination, so there’s likely not much left to dig through. But, hey, nothing gets the people going like JFK chatter.

• Trump also pledged to work with Kennedy to investigate the rise in chronic health conditions like obesity, autism, and infertility.

Will he get a Cabinet gig? Trump said he “probably would" give RFK a job in a hypothetical second Trump administration. But JD Vance called that discussion “completely separate” from the endorsement.

Impact: Despite being Democratic royalty, Kennedy is viewed more favorably by Republicans and most of his supporters say Trump's their second choice. The numbers are small here, but every little bit helps.

• Though Kennedy will stay on the ballot in noncompetitive states, he'll remove his name in swing(ish) states to avoid splitting the anti-Harris vote. He’s already pulled out of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas.

• But he missed the withdrawal deadline in Michigan. That could be an issue in a tight race. George W. Bush won the presidency in 2000 by 537 votes in Florida as left-wing third parties took over 100,000.

Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon responded, albeit indirectly. "For any American out there who is tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward, ours is a campaign for you… Vice President Harris wants to earn your support.”

LAW

🌳 Utah is big mad over federal land ownership

The Beehive State is suing BLM. No, not that one. Utah’s got it out for the Bureau of Land Management. Basically, the federal government controls ~70% of the land in Utah, and Utah’s had it up to here.

Federal land ownership is a touchy subject in the West. The feds control 80% of Nevada and 70% of Utah. But they own less than 1% of Iowa and New York.

• Much of this is controlled by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM). You'll never guess what they do.

• The BLM manages about 1/8 of the U.S.'s total landmass. Some is meant for conservation, while other parcels are leased by ranchers for grazing.

• Some federal land is controlled by other agencies, like the National Park Service.

The land in question can be divided into two chunks.

• Appropriated land is being used: National Parks, tribal lands, etc.

• Unappropriated land has no designated purpose. The unappropriated federal land in Utah is about the size of West Virginia. This is what Utah's so salty about.

The state argues that the Constitution doesn’t allow the feds to just own most of the land in a state for no reason. Utah wants to use it to drill for gas, set up solar farms, outdoor activities, ranching, and more.

Opponents of the move say Utah agreed to this setup when it became a state and say public land should stay public. They also say the Constitution gives the power to change this setup to Congress, not the courts.

If you're interested, Utah's got a handy dandy website setup with all the pro-Utah details. For an anti-Utah case, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance has you covered.

UNITED STATES

⚖️ Sixteen Republican state attorneys general (AGs) are suing the federal government to stop a new program providing a path to citizenship for the spouses of U.S. citizens here illegally. They claim the policy will cause their states "quantifiable financial harm."

🏠 The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, an apartment-pricing tool popular with Big Landlord™. The DOJ says the company is an illegal scheme that allows property owners to coordinate on rent prices in violation of federal law.

🚀 NASA finally has a plan to bring home the two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station. The Boeing Starliner had problems after dropping ‘em off for what was supposed to be an eight-day trip. That was eleven weeks ago. The new plan? Bring them home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon ship… in February.

POLITICS

🗳️ Harris, Trump seek paths to victory

😊 Since Biden's withdrawal, Kamala Harris has ridden a vibe shift to the top. But her campaign's private data shows a more competitive race than TikTok trends might indicate. Post-convention, Harris is dumping Biden's playbook for a sunny, optimistic strategy.

• She's also tacking to the center. In a shift away from some previous more progressive stances, she's emracing her past as a prosecutor and moving to steal some of Trump's thunder on immigration. As ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-cA) says, moving to the center is a must "because that's where the public is."

🧩 Winning a presidential race is all about paths to victory. And those paths all run through winning some combination of seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Where the candidates spend their time is a big hint as to what they think their best path to victory is.

• Between now and Election Day, Donald Trump and JD Vance plan to spend more time in Pennsylvania than in any other state. After all, it’s the most populous swing state.

• If Trump wins the traditionally Republican Sun Belt States (AZ, GA, NC), Harris has to run the table in the Rust Belt to win. Which is why Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will go on tour in Georgia this week.

• On that note, Trump made peace with Georgia’s popular Republican governor, Brian Kemp, and won his critical support.

📊 Polls: A new Texas poll from the University of Houston has Trump up by 5% while Sen. Ted Cruz (R) leads Rep. Colin Allred (D) by 2% in the Senate race. Those are narrow margins. But they’re also nearly identical to each candidate's previous result. Elsewhere in the polls…

• 🔴 Trump leads nationally by 2%.

• 🔵 Harris leads in North Carolina by 1%.

• 🔵 Harris leads in New Mexico by 10%.

⚪ States: Also on the ballot in November? State legislatures. Governing Magazine takes a look at the level of government that often gets overlooked during fights for the White House.

TRIVIA

Democrats have long hoped that a growing Hispanic population would propel their party to victory in Texas. Despite a close Senate race in 2018, their Lone Star political realignment plan hasn’t quite panned out. In what year did a Democrat last win a statewide race in Texas?

Hint: This is the same year George W. Bush was elected governor.

WORLD

🌎 Panama flies migrants home in new border lockdown

🇵🇦 Panama has begun flying home migrants who illegally enter the country from South America, helping fulfill a campaign promise of its new president. Over 500,000 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, crossed the Darién Gap last year, with most heading to the United States.

• The southernmost point of North America, the Darién Gap is an inhospitable swath of dense jungle on Panama's border with Colombia.

• Driving into Panama from South America is literally impossible. Not a single road crosses the Darién Gap, so migrants make the deadly trek on foot.

• Funded by the United States, the repatriation flights are part of the Biden Administration’s wider deterrence efforts.

BRIEFS

• Uber to partner with Chevy, offer self-driving rides beginning next year

• Infectious disease guru Dr. Anthony Fauci recovering from bout with West Nile Virus

• New Starbucks CEO under fire for 1,000-mile private jet commute from L.A. area to Seattle

• Statue of civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis unveiled in Georgia, replacing Confederate monument

• Georgia (the country) plans ban of opposition parties in blow to E.U. membership dreams

• Iranian hackers targeted WhatsApp accounts of U.S. diplomatic officials, says Meta

• Ukraine says it will soon be able to attack "any part" of Russia

QUOTE

ANSWER

No Democrat has won statewide in the Lone Star State since 1994. That year, Texans elected Democrats to five of seven state offices (Land Commissioner, Treasurer, Comptroller, Attorney General, and Lieutenant Governor).

At the same time, they chose baseball executive George W. Bush (he owned the Texas Rangers at the time) as their governor. Four years later, in 1998, they reelected Bush and backed him up with a full slate of Republicans.

Despite Beto O’Rourke’s best efforts, no Dem has won Texas since. Will this be the year the dam finally breaks?