WHAT’S NEXT FOR DEMS A YEAR AFTER OCT. 7 A year after the Oct. 7 attacks, the political fallout came home for Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman — literally. Masked protestors have gathered outside his Cincinnati home, speaking out against his support for Israel. He wants to focus on the bigger picture. “[Iran] fund[s] the chaos and terror — Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis,” he texted us Monday. “The U.S. should continue to work with Israel to fight back, and the international community should do way more to marginalize Iran, stop the terror, and help these countries rebuild and rebuild without interference from Iran's terror network.” The Jewish Democrat is not the first or the last lawmaker to deal with protests at his home. Gatherings at lawmakers’ residences and congressional offices have rattled members and staff on both sides of the aisle, and threats investigated by the Capitol Police have continued to rise. But it shows the Israel-Hamas war is still a painful point for some lawmakers who are home in their districts campaigning ahead of November’s election. “These people came to the home of a Jewish family at night, dressed in all black and fully masked,” Landsman wrote on X. “Our family hopes they leave soon and protest in a more appropriate and less intrusive manner.” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), a strong Israel ally, condemned the protests, telling us in an interview that this population is not “advocating for the advancement of a Palestinian cause, but for the destruction and death of Israel and the Jewish people. That's not pro-Palestinian. That's antisemitic.” Zoom out: Democrats have been grappling with the difficulty of balancing their support for Israel with their desire to help the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza since the attack last year. They saw two of their own colleagues — Reps. Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman — get wiped out in their primaries by a flood of spending from a pro-Israel super PAC for not taking a stronger stance on Israel. Those sharp divides that have endured a year later; Democrats are still wary of leaning too far into the issue. Arab-Americans are a key voting bloc in Michigan, and some of the limited polling data show Harris and Trump running neck-and-neck among Arab Americans. Democrats are still jittery about anything that could tip the presidential race in Michigan either way. Meanwhile, Republicans have used the war as a wedge campaign issue against Democrats, seizing on recent developments to knock Democrats for their mideast policy. Pro-Israel Democrats have tried to counter that messaging by pointing to Israel and Gaza aid passed earlier this year. “The Democrats — with Republicans — have worked to ensure that Israel got the support it needs, the resources to fight what is an existential war and, at the same time, we work to make sure that aid got into and distributed across Gaza. And all those things are crucial,” Schneider said. — Daniella Diaz and Nicholas Wu GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Monday, Oct. 7, where we'd like to hear from you if you applied, but did not get cast on DC’s edition of Love is Blind. STORM AFTER THE STORM Two hurricanes are dominating headlines and roiling politics, with one barreling down on Florida while the other causes online angst amid recovery attempts. MILTON: Florida’s lawmakers are sounding increasingly dire warnings about the now-Category 5 storm poised to hit the Sunshine State. In a post on X, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said, “Several years ago I asked @NHC_Atlantic to show me what the worst case storm hitting Florida would look like. What they showed me back then is almost identical to the #Milton forecast now,” alongside a storm surge map. And Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), whose district looks likely to suffer a strong hit from the storm, was even blunter: “I am asking everyone to EVACUATE immediately. This is going to be a catastrophic hit.” HELENE: And even in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, conspiracy theories and misinformation have become rampant. And it’s not just former President Donald Trump pushing them. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is tweeting about who controls the weather. Luna said she believes the federal government has “intentionally not helped out residents” because “it’s red communities impacted.” And Trump has repeatedly pushed the false narrative that funding for undocumented immigrants means there’s been less money and resources for hurricane relief. The proliferation of such messages after Hurricane Helene’s devastation could complicate efforts to deliver aid as communities try to recover and rebuild after the storm, undercutting trust in authorities and particularly FEMA at a critical time. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is known to occasionally push against Trump’s stances, has pushed back on his own party. “Many of these observations are not even from people on the ground,” Tillis told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “It's at the expense of hard working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.” (Tillis’ ire wasn’t solely reserved for Republicans: After the KamalaHQ X account posted quotes from Tillis, he responded: “VP Harris: I was talking about politicians like YOU using this disaster for political posturing.”) The conspiracy theories are spreading quickly through Elon Musk’s X platform, where even the billionaire owner has retweeted and posted falsehoods about FEMA’s response to the disaster. He appeared with Trump at a campaign event over the weekend. For what it’s worth, FEMA, the government agency facing the brunt of the criticism from conservatives, created a page on its website to dispel the false information. — Daniella Diaz and Nicholas Wu FISCHER’S FARM FOUL-UP A ranch belonging to the family of Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) has been dissolved several times over the past few years over unpaid corporate taxes, according to Nebraska state records — including earlier this year, as Fischer mounts a fiercer-than-expected reelection bid. Sunny Slope Ranch in Cherry County, Nebraska, has long figured in Fischer’s political career: A member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, she describes herself on her campaign website as “a cattle rancher with more than 50 years of first-hand experience fighting to ensure that Nebraska’s farmers and ranchers have the tools and resources they need to continue feeding the world.” Paperwork, however, has been an issue for the Fischer family. In April 2018, the corporation owning the ranch was dissolved after it failed to pay state corporate occupation taxes, before getting reinstated the next month, according to a Nebraska Secretary of State record. The ranch was again dissolved in April 2020 for the same reason before being reinstated in May 2023. The same thing happened this past April, with the ranch being reinstated two months later. “Ranch ownership has evolved among family members over the years, which resulted in some administrative shifts," Fischer spokesperson James Arnold said in a statement. He added that such filing lapses are “not an uncommon oversight” and that all owed taxes “are up to date and paid.” The race between Fischer and independent populist Dan Osborn has been gaining national attention in recent weeks, with one shock poll in early October showing Osborn up five points with 10 percent of Nebraskans undecided. His rise has led national Republicans to pour money into a state that Trump won by 19 points in the 2020 presidential election. — Daniel Lippman
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