Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Wednesday morning!
Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin, a former Carlyle Group executive who was a trustee at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, will head to the governor’s mansion in Richmond after a competitive gubernatorial race that saw the first-time candidate rally support in the final weeks of his campaign to best former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in Virginia. The Associated Press called the victory for Youngkin at 12:37 a.m. EDT. Read our interview with Youngkin from June.
Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition and a Virginia resident, told Jewish Insider that RJC’s annual conference in Las Vegas this weekend “will be even sweeter with the strong victory for Glenn Youngkin.” Just like Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell’s 2009 victory in Virginia “presaged our wave of 2010, we’re confident that the GOP will regain the majorities in [the] House and Senate in 2022,” Brooks added.
The results “will be a wake-up callfor Dems in Virginia,” said former Virginia Delegate Debra Rodman. “The Republicans are running a culture war agenda. We need to respond to their racist, dog-whistle politics.” How should Democrats respond? “We get Dems in Congress to work together and not fight on CNN,” she added.
In New Jersey, the governor’s race is too close to call, with Republican Jack Ciattarelli leading Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy by roughly 1,200 votes.
In New York City,Eric Adams will be the city’s second Black mayor, after a decisive win over GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Browndeclared victory on Tuesday night in his write-in campaign against India Walton, the Democratic socialist who beat Brown in the primary. Walton trails the write-in candidate by more than 10,000 votes.
Ben Rhodes, former White House deputy national security advisor under President Barack Obama, appeared to criticize progressives for focusing on reworking American history — which has become a contentious issue in races across the country. “One thing Obama did is talk about progressive change as a validation of American history and not a repudiation of it,” Rhodes wrote on Twitter last night.
In Boston, Michelle Wu defeated Annissa Essaibi George in the city’s mayoral election, making her the first woman and person of color elected mayor in Boston’s history.
In Florida’s 20th Congressional District, the slim margin — several dozen votes — between Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Dale Holness, two of the 11 candidates vying to succeed late Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), triggered an automatic recount to determine who will face GOP nominee Jason Mariner in January.
Shontel Brown is officially the representative-elect in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, three months after winning the Democratic special election primary against Nina Turner.
The Knesset is set to begin voting on the national budget today, a make-or-break moment for Israel’s unity government. If successful, this would be the first time in three years that a budget has been passed in Israel.
Addressing the cabinet today, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, “Passing the budget means ensuring the stability of the country, that it will function, and that the economy will grow and prosper. We have over 7% growth. We are pulling the country toward stability and there are those who are pulling it toward chaos, to more elections and to non-functioning. We are at the finish line and before us are exhausting days and long nights in the Knesset, but the budget will pass.”
The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros 7-0 in Game Six of the World Series to secure their first championship in 26 years. Starting pitcher Max Fried earned the win with an impressive six shutout innings. In the bottom of the second, Astros third baseman Alex Bregman flied out off of Fried to Braves right fielder Joc Pederson in what was likely the most Jewish play in World Series history.
confirmation complications
Republicans block U.S. ambassador to Israel but confirm U.S. ambassador to Canada

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) asks a follow-up question to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland as he testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on October 27, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), blocked eight State Department nominees — including Tom Nides, the Biden administration’s pick to be U.S. ambassador to Israel — from being fast-tracked through the upper chamber on Tuesday evening, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Republican legislators did allow one nomination — that of David Cohen, the former chief lobbyist for Comcast, to be U.S. ambassador to Canada — to move through the Senate.
On the floor: A frustrated Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took to the Senate floor on Thursday evening to request that the Senate confirm the nominees. “The only reason the Senate has not confirmed them is due to the political obstinacy of a couple of my Republican colleagues,” Menendez said. “How does holding our nominees to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel or the U.S. ambassador to Canada actually advance U.S. interests? It does not. It is seriously detrimental to our national security.”
Standard procedure: Most ambassadorial nominees typically move through the Senate by unanimous consent, a fast-track process that can avoid time-consuming floor debate and votes with the unanimous agreement of all present senators. The procedure was used to confirm Cohen.
Spotlight on Nides: When he objected to the Nides nomination, Hawley said he was objecting “on behalf of my colleagues.” Hawley said some of the other objections were being made “on behalf of my colleagues and myself.” Menendez lambasted Hawley for objecting to Nides’s nomination. “So we will have no ambassador in Israel as we deal with the challenges of Iran and others in the region,” Menendez said. “It is mind-boggling. All of those who get up here and talk about our ally, the State of Israel, the importance of the State of Israel, but we won’t have an ambassador there to help us meet the challenges that Israel has.”
More hurdles: Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are also blocking efforts to schedule a confirmation hearing for Deborah Lipstadt, the nominee to be the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, two sources familiar with the situation told JI.
Elsewhere: Frustration is growing on Capitol Hill over the Senate’s lack of progress on the must-pass 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the House in late September.
Senate Republicans held a press conference Tuesday calling for Senate action on the bill. And House Armed Services Committee Chair Adam Smith (D-WA) told reporters he’s “very distressed” and “extraordinarily frustrated” and called the lack of action “inexplicable.”
Smith added, “We’ve passed it, and it’s all sitting right there. And for some reason, [Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer’s (D-NY) just decided not to do it. It makes things more difficult… I have reached out to Schumer’s office, basically been told… ‘Leave us alone. We’ll get to it when we get to it.’ That’s not encouraging.”