By Garrett Ross

Presented by The U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Ron DeSantis is making another major change to his presidential Campaign. | Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo

BREAKING — “Special counsel still scrutinizing finances of Trump’s PAC,” by Betsy Woodruff Swan and Kyle Cheney

GOOD GET — President JOE BIDEN will sit down for an exclusive interview with The Weather Channel to discuss his climate agenda today during his trip to the Grand Canyon. “Meeting viewers where they are — including those who don’t tune into political news on a regular basis,” White House comms director BEN LaBOLT tweeted. The full interview will run at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

ALL SHOOK UP — RON DeSANTIS is shaking up his presidential campaign yet again, this time naming a new campaign manager, replacing GENERRA PECK with JAMES UTHMEIER, a longtime trusted aide in his Florida gubernatorial office, The Messenger’s Marc Caputo scooped.

DeSantis originally asked Uthmeier to take a look around and “diagnose problems” within the campaign to “see if he could fix them,” Caputo reports — an exercise that culminated in today’s news.

More moves: “Joining Uthmeier as a deputy campaign manager will be DAVID POLYANSKY, an experienced Iowa operative who boasts of never losing a Republican presidential primary in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.” Peck will stay with the campaign as chief strategist.

Ixnay on the ‘ebootray’: “Uthmeier shies away from calling the reshuffling a ‘reboot.’ It’s a despised word in the campaign, where advisers prefer to call this the last campaign ‘reload’ — and they’re going to win, despite the naysayers and early polling.”

A sharp point: “Inviting a month of summer process stories by staggering three separate staff changes? That’s a candidate issue not a staff issue,” our colleague Jonathan Martin tweets.

Trail trend: Meanwhile, DeSantis’ campaign is deploying an unexpected trio of surrogates into the mix as he tries to break through the crowded GOP primary field, WaPo’s Hannah Knowles writes.

“The Florida governor is prominently featuring his three kids in his 2024 campaign and doing so in an unusually political way, observers said — not just regaling voters with parenting stories but also weaving them into sharp attacks on his frequent targets of criticism and referencing them as he taps into conservative angst about what kids learn about race, gender and sexual orientation in the classroom and beyond.”

But the decision is very intentional: “Campaign aides view his identity as a father of young kids as a helpful contrast with both Biden and Trump, who are decades older, according to a person familiar with the campaign’s strategy who spoke on the condition of the anonymity to discuss internal thinking.”

THE OTHER ELECTION DAY — While much of today’s attention is on Ohio, where voters are considering a ballot measure with major implications for abortion rights in the state — read this morning’s Playbook for more — there are also statewide primaries taking place in Mississippi, where things are mostly free of drama.

Incumbent GOP Gov. TATE REEVES is expected to cruise through today’s primary against two long shot candidates with very little name ID. Awaiting him on the other side is Democratic challenger BRANDON PRESLEY, who is uncontested in today’s primary and lays claim to fame as a distant cousin of none other than the The King of Rock & Roll, ELVIS PRESLEY.

The state of play: Presley has “played down his party affiliation and used recent scandal and corruption to build out his underdog campaign in this ruby red state,” WSJ’s Cameron McWhirter writes from Philadelphia, Miss. “State polling is sparse but head-to-head matchups between Reeves and Presley show the Republican with a clear lead. Reeves has outpaced Presley in fundraising, with July campaign-finance reports showing Reeves with more than $9.6 million cash on hand compared with Presley’s about $1.9 million.”

More on the down-ballots: “Mississippi candidates for statewide offices square off in party primaries,” by AP’s Michael Goldberg and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson

OHIO ELECTION READING — “Abortion’s role as an electoral litmus test hasn’t faded a year after Supreme Court decision overturning Roe,” by CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy

Live updates: “Voters will decide today on Ohio Issue 1 in August special election,” by the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Haley BeMiller

Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line: [email protected].

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Concerns about policy risks for public companies — changes in taxes, regulations, and enforcement — increased 27% over the last decade, according to a report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Rising public policy risks threaten business growth, innovation, and our country’s global competitiveness. In Washington, the polarization, gridlock, regulatory overreach, and inability to act smartly and strategically are making it harder for businesses to do their jobs and move this country forward.

HEADLINE OF THE DAY — “A 143-Year-Old Portrait Fuels an Absurd Government Turf War,” by WSJ’s Andrew Ackerman and Richard Rubin: “The painting currently hangs in a third-floor hallway at the Treasury Department, which might seem fair enough. [HUGH] McCULLOCH was a two-time Treasury secretary. Not fair at all, says the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an independent agency within the Treasury that occupies a separate building a mile and a half away.”

2024 WATCH

THE RACE FOR SECOND — With Trump running so far ahead of his Republican challengers, some attention is turning to who might join the former president on the ticket if he does indeed win the nomination. WSJ’s Eliza Collins and Siobhan Hughes report that “aides and allies have started discussing names of possible candidates.” But Trump himself has neither weighed in nor offered any real indication of whom he might select. “They say Trump wants someone who has a record of winning and is aligned with his agenda. Trump also likes people who do well on TV.”

One person it won’t be: Trump’s previous right hand man MIKE PENCE. The rift between Trump and his former VP has grown quite large since leaving office, and things are only escalating on the campaign trail and amid an unfolding indictment. After qualifying for the first RNC debate, Pence campaign spokesperson DEVIN O’MALLEY had this barb for the Trump camp: “Hopefully, former President Trump has the courage to show up.” (h/t Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser)

PRE-STATE FAIR READING — “Why Democrats Lost Iowa,” by WSJ’s Catherine Lucey and Paul Overberg: “Iowa is more white and rural than the rest of the country, and Republicans have grown stronger with those voters, particularly through Trump’s populist appeals. Meanwhile, Democrats have lost droves of voters in rural areas, and Iowa has fewer of the minority and urban voters who tend to be more liberal and have helped the party offset rural losses. Some Iowa Democrats say they are struggling to connect with voters on cultural issues as Americans have grown more polarized.”

To wit: Despite the right-ward lean in the state, Iowa Democratic officials are growing a little frustrated with their party’s general lack of TLC for the early-nominating state, fearing that an “already reddening Iowa could slip even further away,” our colleague Myah Ward writes. “Some Iowa Democrats say they’ve begged for more appearances from President Biden and Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, visits they say could energize the state party and help down-ballot where the GOP message is dominating without pushback.”

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THE WHITE HOUSE

LABOR PAINS — “As U.S. navigates summer of strikes, Biden’s top labor adviser exits, source says,” by Reuters’ Nandita Bose: CELESTE DRAKE “is leaving the White House to serve as the Deputy Director-General of the International Labor Organization (ILO), based in Geneva, Switzerland, and starts in her new role on Aug. 14, according to the source, who did not wish to be named. … Drake's departure comes at a critical time for an administration dealing with a summer of labor unrest, with estimates from national labor unions showing more than 650,000 U.S. workers were on or threatened strikes in the first half of 2023.”

CONGRESS

THE INEVITABLE I-WORD — As many conservative members of the House GOP have pushed both publicly and privately for a formal impeachment proceeding against Biden, Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY has tried to temper the tempest. “But many House Republicans privately say that it appears to be a foregone conclusion: Biden will face an impeachment inquiry in the fall and could be just the fourth US president ever charged with high crimes or misdemeanors — and that it might all happen by year’s end,” CNN’s Manu Raju, Zachary Cohen, Annie Grayer and Melanie Zanona report.

Those who want to see the investigation proceed say it’s pretty much now or never, and that if they don’t move forward soon it would “create the impression that House Republicans have essentially cleared Biden of any wrongdoing over his ties to his son HUNTER BIDEN’s business entanglements.”

The new normal: “Once Rare, Impeachments and Censures Have Become the Norm in Congress,” by NYT’s Carl Hulse: “The proliferation of censures and cries for impeachment is troubling to some who see it as a threat to the standing of the institution as well as diminishing the weight such punishments are supposed to carry.”

How it’s playing: “Republicans are talking up the possibility of impeaching Biden. Is it what voters want to hear?” by AP’s Michael Blood

MORE POLITICS

MOODY BLUE — “Ex-Rebel With a Cause,” by N.Y. Mag’s Timmy Facciola: “After entering politics by spurning the centrist Democratic Establishment, [MONDAIRE] JONES now seems like he wants to be a part of it. But as he has returned to Westchester County to launch his third bid for Congress, Jones is drifting — or pivoting, depending on whom you ask — to the middle in order to campaign as the sole candidate who can turn the district blue again.”

ABORTION ON THE BALLOT ELSEWHERE — In addition to Ohio’s action on abortion today, a group in Arizona is launching an effort to protect abortion rights in the purple state, WaPo’s Rachel Roubein and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez report. Arizona for Abortion Access, the PAC leading the effort, is submitting a proposal for a constitutional amendment today that would enshrine abortion access in the state constitution. “Arizona currently bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Specifically, the proposed language would guarantee the right to an abortion up until fetal viability, which is typically around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy.”

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POLICY CORNER

A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION — “Nonprofits are lobbying a lot less than two decades ago, according to new research,” by Alex Daniels of The Chronicle Of Philanthropy for AP: “The survey, conducted for Independent Sector, a membership organization of nonprofits and grantmakers, found that less than one-third of nonprofits have actively advocated for policy issues or lobbied on specific legislation over the past five years, down from nearly three-quarters of nonprofits in 2000.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

THE PERSISTENT PANDEMIC — “What to know about EG.5, the most prevalent covid subvariant in the U.S.,” by WaPo’s Grace Moon, Niha Masih, Adela Suliman and Fenit Nirappil

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

SUSPICIOUS MINDS — “An Oil-Rich Ally Tests Its Relationship With the U.S.,” by NYT’s Vivian Nereim in Dubai and Abu Dhabi: “American officials have had limited success in persuading [Sheikh MOHAMMED BIN ZAYED] to align with U.S. foreign policy — particularly when it comes to limiting Chinese military ties and isolating Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Instead, the Emirates has thrived on inflows of Russian money, oil and gold, fueling a feeding frenzy in real estate in the glittering metropolis of Dubai.”

ON THE BATTLEFIELD — “U.S.-Made Cluster Munitions Fuel Ukrainian Counteroffensive,” by WSJ’s Ian Lovett and Nikita Nikolaienko in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine: “While the cluster bombs alone won’t tilt the battlefield balance of power decisively in Ukraine’s favor, soldiers say they have helped them retake Russian positions that they had struggled to reach.”

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