Axios

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) announced his retirement Wednesday and confirmed he won't seek reelection to a third term and endorsed Kurt Alme, U.S. attorney for the district of Montana.

Why it matters: The Trump ally is the sixth Republican senator to announce ahead of November's midterm elections that they won't stand for reelection.

A super PAC affiliated with OpenAI went 3-for-3 in yesterday's GOP primaries, helping Republican candidates win their House races with investments of $500,000 or more each.

Why it matters: OpenAI money has entered the chat.

House GOP leaders are publicly reminding their members they have a "duty" and an "obligation" to show up and vote.

Why it matters: Attendance has been a low-grade headache for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) all year.

• After Tuesday night's primary results, it could turn into a full-blown migraine.

The Senate on Wednesday rejected an effort to advance legislation that would restrict President Trump from using further military action in Iran, despite overwhelming support from Democrats.

Why it matters: Congress has now denied repeated attempts to rein in Trump's military interventions in the Middle East and South America.

President Trump and tech CEOs expressed confidence Wednesday that they can contain soaring electricity rates with a new data center pledge that formalizes and expands on what companies already are doing.

Why it matters: With rising power bills turning AI and data centers into an election-year issue, Trump — who campaigned on a promise to cut costs — is eager to show he's trying to protect consumers.

House Democrats largely voted with Republicans on Wednesday to defeat a measure that would have forced the House Ethics Committee to release all of its records related to sexual misconduct investigations into House members.

Why it matters: The cause is one that has been championed by lawmakers in both parties, but Democratic leadership made the case privately to their members that this was too haphazard a way to go about it.

Progressive groups are preparing to primary any House Democrat who votes against a War Powers Resolution constraining the Trump administration from carrying out military operations in Iran, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The threat raises the stakes of a highly charged Thursday vote that has split a group of hawkish Democratic centrists from the rest of their party.

President Trump is expected to endorse Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas Senate race, a source with knowledge of the talks tells Axios.

Why it matters: Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that whoever he doesn't endorse in the runoff between Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton should drop out of the race.

Some five days into the sprawling Middle East conflict sparked by U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, significantly more Americans disapprove than approve of the attacks across several polls.

The big picture: President Trump has offered a mixed bag of motivations for the strikes and his plans to resolve the rapidly escalating conflict that has killed six U.S. service members.

The Pentagon says it's threatening to blacklist top American AI lab Anthropic without putting similar restrictions on Chinese rivals.

Why it matters: By penalizing a domestic leader for its safety standards, the U.S. is creating a market opening for cheaper, unregulated models from competing countries.