House progressives are planning to use their growing power to force votes next year on their most sweeping and divisive policies, including Medicare for All, abolishing ICE and cutting aid to Israel, Axios' Andrew Solender writes.

• Why it matters: The ultimate goal is to get these policies on the front burner for a Democratic president in 2029, even if that means forcing House Democrats into tough decisions.

🔎 Zoom in: Here is what progressives most want to see go to a House vote in 2027, according to lawmakers, candidates and operatives who spoke to Axios:

1. Medicare for All. The Medicare for All Act introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has 118 co-sponsors — more than half the House Democratic caucus.

• The left wants to force the issue onto the floor and make their Democratic colleagues reckon with the policy's popularity in public opinion polls.
• The aim is to make support for Medicare for All a must for any 2028 presidential candidate to win the primary.

2. Abolish or defund ICE. Several progressives pointed to Rep. Delia Ramirez's (D-Ill.) "Melt ICE Act," which would cut all funding for ICE detention and monitoring of immigrants.

• Another bill would go even further, fully abolishing ICE and dismantling ICE's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
• Moderate Democrats have long opposed defunding ICE. Party leadership has proposed reforms to the agency's practices rather than cutting funds.

3. Cut aid to Israel. The Block the Bombs Act, which would restrict presidents' ability to transfer offensive weaponry to Israel, is the left's marquee legislation on this issue.

• The left is putting external pressure on the party's pro-Israel wing, which suffered serious losses in House primaries this year.

4. AI. Progressives have been some of the earliest adopters of anti-AI rhetoric, proposing strict regulations on the technology, a moratorium on data centers and a ban on Flock cameras.

5. Affordability. Progressives are eyeing a living wage, universal child care, lifting the payroll tax cap to shore up Social Security, and repealing a cap on federally subsidized public housing.

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President Trump seems to think he can save a vulnerable Ohio Republican senator's ass by talking about how strong it is, Axios' Stef W. Kight writes.

• Why it matters: Republicans are getting hammered over the war in Iran, gas prices and data centers. But they're playing along with Trump's ogling of male candidates, which he's described as an election strategy.

💡 Between the lines: Trump is a showman. When he gets a reaction to something, he does more of it.

Trump said of Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), who was a college football star for the Dayton Flyers, at an Ohio rally: "I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body because I didn't know he was a great athlete. And I looked, and I watched up and down, and I looked at his ass," since that's where his athletic power comes from.

• Husted told Axios: "My wife and I ... have made sure to hit the gym during the busy campaign to uphold the high standards the president has set for us."

🔭 Zoom in: Over three weeks and five rallies across the country, Trump gave Husted a head-to-toe appraisal.

• "His ass was like a big piece of muscle," Trump said in Michigan last week.
• "Then I looked at his legs and I said, 'Man, his feet are big,'" Trump said in North Carolina.

Trump has made similar comments about Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), who's running for Senate, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson, Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) and Kentucky House candidate Ed Gallrein.

• Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) joined the fun: "I know that Husted gets a ton of attention, but I think [Sen.] Bernie [Moreno of Ohio] is kinda eye candy, too."
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Campaign staffers for Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola helped recruit a challenger with the same name as incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan to draw votes away from him, The New York Times reported yesterday, citing dozens of text messages.

• The other Dan Sullivan, a retired teacher who will also appear on the ballot, registered as a Republican shortly before the filing deadline.

The plan, which was internally called the ballot composition project, "involved the Peltola campaign's lawyers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee," the Times reports.

• Both the Peltola campaign and the DSCC denied involvement.
• Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) ordered a criminal investigation of the campaign last night.

🔬 Zoom in: Former Peltola campaign manager Elisa Rios told the Times that Jerid Kurtz, a Democratic operative from Ohio, pitched would-be candidates over beers.

• Rios maintained that Peltola herself wasn't directly involved in the project but was "definitely aware."
• Kurtz — who went by the alias "Zane" while working in Alaska — also urged a Democrat who'd made the ballot to drop out, clearing a spot for another Republican.

The intrigue: Rios, who was fired in August and had planned to sue the campaign for wrongful termination, tried last week to retract her interviews.

• The paper went ahead, saying the article was also based on interviews with 11 other people: "The Times had never agreed that those previous interviews could not be published, and informed Ms. Rios last week that they would be a part of this story."

President Trump told reporters: "Mary Peltola should resign from the race" and "should be prosecuted criminally for what she did."

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More than 39 million Americans have cast early votes so far — with unusually strong turnout among Black, Hispanic and unaffiliated voters in several states, Axios' Josephine Walker writes.

• Overall turnout could rival the 2018 "blue wave," which saw the highest participation rate since 1914, University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald says.

Keep reading.

Republicans fear Vivek Ramaswamy's explosive attack ad featuring his opponent's estranged mother could cost them the Ohio governor's race, based on new internal polling that shows him falling further behind, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes.

• National Republican operatives think the backlash against Ramaswamy could also hurt Ohio Sen. Jon Husted's reelection bid.

📊 A memo attached to the internal poll, commissioned by a Republican group and obtained by Axios, found that 86% of the survey's 800 respondents said they had seen, read or heard something about the ad.

• By a 2-to-1 ratio, those who said they were familiar with it said it made them more likely to vote for Democrat Amy Acton.
• The poll found Acton leading Ramaswamy by eight points — up from a two-point lead in the same poll earlier this month, before the ad began circulating on Oct. 19.

The ad at the center of the controversy features Donna Arthur, Acton's estranged mother, who accuses her daughter of lying about her childhood.

• Acton has said she was sexually abused by her stepfather when she was 12 and that her mother sided with her abuser. The stepfather was charged with sexual assault but fled to Pennsylvania.

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RAISE US, a well-funded, well-connected project to help American workers transition to an AI economy, today announced huge new funding from Apple, AT&T, the Bezos family, Google, and Walmart, bringing total commitments to the four-month-old, nonpartisan group to over $735 million.

Why it matters: The backing shows a new way corporate America is trying to get ahead of looming AI-related economic and political disruption.

• Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a RAISE US cofounder, told me the new support will "allow us to expand and accelerate our efforts coast to coast — working with states and employers to grow apprenticeship and early career training programs, retrain and redeploy mid-career workers, and strengthen the social safety net for Americans whose jobs are affected by AI."

The group was launched in June by Raimondo, a Democrat and former Rhode Island governor, and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, with a goal of $1 billion in multiyear commitments.

• The group isn't disclosing specific donations, but the new total is a jump of more than $200 million since the group's initial announcement.
• The RAISE US Policy Lab will test ideas for supporting, retraining and redeploying workers, and turn those learnings into recommendations for decision-makers in Washington, state capitols, and the private sector.

Thomas Novelly, author of Axios Future of Defense's space edition, writes:

Rocket launches from Florida's Cape Canaveral are now outpacing those of the Cold War-era space race that first made the launch site famous.

• Why it matters: U.S. leaders are rushing to grow the number of rocket providers at America's busiest spaceport amid a space and arms race with China.

🛰️ Behind the scenes: Cape Canaveral is busy expanding to meet President Trump's mandate for the U.S. to support 1,000 annual launches by 2030.

• SpaceX is expanding its footprint on the Cape for its Starship super heavy-lift launchpads.
• NASA is preparing for next year's Artemis III test missions and the Artemis IV voyage that aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2028.
• Blue Origin is rapidly rebuilding its launch complex after its New Glenn rocket exploded in May.

Keep reading.

The small-ball Milwaukee Brewers — playing in the smallest market in the majors — are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history.

• The Brewers dominated 4-1 in Game 5 last night to complete a gentleman's sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays and set off a long-awaited celebration among thousands of Brewers fans at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.

🔮 What's next: This might have been the last Major League Baseball game for an extended period.

• A lockout is likely to start Dec. 2 and could threaten the 2027 season.

By the numbers ... More on the game.