Clout chasers chase Congress

Good Thursday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how Israel faded into the background of Saudi-U.S. normalization talks during this week’s trip to Washington by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and report on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s backing of a Palestinian American state legislative candidate who downplayed the 9/11 attacks. We talk to Rep. Jamie Raskin about his comments that the Democratic Party could welcome Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene despite the Republican congresswoman’s espousing of antisemitic conspiracy theories, and report on concerns by Democratic House lawmakers over the Trump administration’s handling of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Abigail Spanberger, Shira Haas and Jessica Tisch.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve with assists from Marc Rod and Matt Shea. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

President Donald Trump is meeting with recently returned hostages and their families at 2 p.m. today at the White House.
Vice President JD Vance is joining Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle for a fireside chat in Washington this morning.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral is taking place at 11 a.m. at the Washington National Cathedral. Former President George W. Bush and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) are among those giving eulogies for the former vice president.
On Capitol Hill, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to hold a vote on advancing the nomination of Leo Brent Bozell III to be U.S. ambassador to South Africa.
Elsewhere on the Hill, the Helsinki Commission is holding a hearing on lifting Caesar sanctions against Syria. Rabbi Yosef Hamra, the brother of the last chief rabbi of Syria, is among those slated to testify.
In celebration of the holiday of Sigd, celebrated by Ethiopian Jews, the Israeli Embassy in Washington is hosting a reception this evening.
The Hudson Institute is hosting a conversation with Caroline Glick, a senior advisor in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, this afternoon at the think tank’s Washington headquarters.
Catholic University is holding a remembrance ceremony tonight for legal scholar and professor Marshall Breger, who died in August. Breger served as Jewish liaison in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting this afternoon with American Jewish Congress President Daniel Rosen and a delegation of mayors from around the world who are in Israel for the organization’s 34th Mayors’ Conference.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL

Jack Schlossberg’s decision to launch a bid for Congress in New York City last week was just the latest example of a Kennedy scion hoping to ascend to federal office, testing the continued strength of a hallowed family name whose political currency has dwindled over the years.

His unorthodox campaign also marked the most recent arrival of a new type of political candidate that has cropped up with increasing regularity this election cycle: the social media influencer vying for power beyond the screen.

Schlossberg, the 32-year-old grandson of John. F. Kennedy, is joining a growing crop of young House contenders with digital clout who have been seeking to convert online popularity into a seat in Congress. His campaign announcement follows, among other recent newcomers, Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old left-wing social media influencer running in next year’s crowded Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in the Chicago suburbs.

And it’s not just young recruits trying to parlay their social media clout into political success. George Conway, the vocally anti-Trump conservative lawyer, is hoping that 2.2 million followers on X and his prolfic online attacks against the president will translate into Democratic votes as he seriously considers running in the Nadler district as well. To succeed, voters in the heavily-Democratic district would have to overlook his long record of traditionally conservative views on policy.

Both parties have tried to harness social media to advance their messages while courting influencers and content creators to broaden their appeal among younger online voters. But as influencers engaged in political commentary now pursue political office — most with few apparent qualifying credentials — it remains to be seen if their new efforts can translate to winning campaigns.

So far, the results have not been promising for such candidates. In a special election for a vacant House seat in Arizona this past summer, for instance, Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old influencer, fell short by a nearly 40-point margin, losing to a more well-known local lawmaker, Adelita Grijalva — a daughter of the late congressman who represented the district for more than two decades.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

sideline chatter

Trump prioritizes Saudi partnership, leaving Abraham Accords on hold

President Donald Trump (R) meets with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on November 18, 2025.

During Tuesday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the leaders strengthened their relationship and confirmed the completion of several deals. Any plan to utilize such transactions as part of normalization with Israel, however, was notably absent, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. While taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, Trump confirmed that the U.S. would sell Saudi Arabia F-35 fighter jets of similar caliber to Israel’s. At a dinner that evening, the president added that a strategic security agreement had crossed the finish line, while also formally naming Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally. On Wednesday, the two countries announced a strategic artificial intelligence partnership.

Takeaways: “The main takeaway of the visit was the normalization of the U.S.-Saudi relationship,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former State Department negotiator. “[There was] very little, it seemed to me, not surprisingly, on the side of normalization to Israel. It’s almost as if Israel was sort of an afterthought this visit.” Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel under former President Barack Obama, told JI, “By the way this was done, President Trump seems to have elevated the partnerships with Saudi Arabia and maybe, to some degree, with other Gulf states, above pretty much all other U.S. partnerships, including Israel.”

Read the full story here.

Saudi summit: Congressional lawmakers met Wednesday with MBS included Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jim Banks (R-IN), James Lankford (R-OK), Katie Britt (R-AL), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Rep. French Hill (R-AR), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report. On the House side, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Reps. Rick Crawford (R-AR), Jim Himes (D-CT), Mike Rogers (R-AL), Adam Smith (D-WA), Tom Cole (R-OK), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) reportedly participated in a separate meeting with MBS.