With Labor Day marking the unofficial end of summer, campaigns for November’s midterm elections now enter high gear. Democrats are taking heart in the results of recent special elections, in which their candidates largely performed above expectations. The GOP remains a strong favorite to regain the majority in the House, while the Senate majority is up for grabs.

Support COALPAC and MINEPAC

The 2022 midterm election cycle is here, which means it's time to show increased support for bipartisan candidates and members of Congress who are allies of the mining industry.
This election is expected to be highly competitive, and MINEPAC and COALPAC are vital tools that allow for contributions to key races for candidates supporting the mining industry.

All MINEPAC and COALPAC donors will receive recognition at our Fall Board of Directors meeting.

PAC to PAC Donations: If you have not had an opportunity to send a PAC to PAC contribution from your company’s Political Action Committee to MINEPAC or COALPAC, you still have time. Please contact mkirlin@nma.org or rjackson@nma.org to send your PAC’s contribution.

Using our new “Contribute” buttons below, please consider making a donation.

For more information on the NMA’s PACs please contact Ryan Jackson at rjackson@nma.org or MK Kirlin at mkirlin@nma.org. In the meantime, see our FAQs to learn more.

Thank you for your valued and critical support.

Highlighting our Allies in Congress at our Fall Board Meeting

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY)

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) is the senior senator from Wyoming, a seat he has held since 2007. As Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, he is the third-ranking member in the Senate Republican leadership.

Barrasso serves as the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He also sits on the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—key intersections for the mining industry.

Known by many as “Wyoming’s Doctor,” Barrasso worked as an orthopedic surgeon for 24 years before entering politics. In 2002, he was elected to the Wyoming Senate, where he served until his appointment to the U.S. Senate after the 2007 death of incumbent Craig Thomas. He was elected to finish Thomas's term in 2008 and reelected in 2012 and 2018.

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is Alaska’s senior U.S. Senator, a seat she has held since 2002. She is a third-generation Alaskan and the first born in the state to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Senator Murkowski is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where she serves as the Ranking Member of the Interior-Environment Subcommittee; the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (former chairwoman); the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee; and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, where she serves as Vice Chairman. She has successfully authored major legislation throughout her time as chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee with proactive new opportunities for the domestic mining industry.

After working as an attorney in private practice, Murkowski in 1998 successfully ran for a seat in the Alaska House of Representatives, where she was elected majority leader. In 2002, she was appointed to the U.S. Senate by her father, Frank Murkowski, who resigned his seat to become governor of Alaska. Murkowski made history in 2010 as only the second U.S. senator to be elected by write-in vote.

Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA)

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) represents Virginia’s 9th Congressional District, which covers much of the southwestern and mining part of the state. The six-term Congressman is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he serves as Republican Leader of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. He is also a member of the Subcommittee on Energy. Congressman Griffith has been an outspoken advocate for the mining industry on regulatory relief, frequently authoring needed reforms to EPA’s New Source Review regulation to ensure that energy generation is the most efficient, clean, affordable, and reliable.

Griffith first entered politics in 1986 while working as an attorney in private practice, when he was chosen as chair of the Salem Republican Party. He chaired the party from 1986 to 1988 and from 1991 to 1994.

From 1994 to 2011, Griffith served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represented the Eighth District. In 2000, Morgan was elected House Majority Leader, the first Republican in Virginia history to hold that position. He subsequently earned election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011.

Representative James Comer (R-KY)

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) represents Kentucky’s 1st Congressional District, which covers 35 counties in Central and Western Kentucky and the biggest mining area in the state. The Republican Leader of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, he is also a member of both the House Education and Labor Committee, where he serves as the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services.

After obtaining a bachelor's degree in agriculture from Western Kentucky University, Comer and his family started James Comer, Jr. Farms, a beef cattle, timber, and hay farming operation. He also co-owns a family farm, Comer Land & Cattle Co., with his father and brother.

Comer entered politics in 2000, when he was elected to serve the first of six terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives. In 2011, he was elected Kentucky's Commissioner of Agriculture, where he served from 2012 to 2016. In 2016, after winning the Republican nomination for Kentucky's 1st Congressional District to succeed Ed Whitfield, who had resigned, Comer won both a special election that allowed him to serve the remainder of Whitfield's term as well as a full term to the seat for the next Congress.

Representative Dan Newhouse (R-WA)

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) represents Washington’s 4th Congressional District, which covers much of the central third of the state from Canada to the Oregon border. He serves on the House Appropriations Committee, on the Energy and Water Subcommittee, and chairs the Congressional Western Caucus. He is a consistent leader pushing back on EPA’s Waters of the U.S. regulation, frequently authoring bipartisan amendments to appropriations legislation to check EPA’s overreach and follow the plain text of the Clean Water Act.

Newhouse was raised on a farm in Sunnyside, east of Yakima, Washington. A third-generation Yakima Valley farmer, he and his family continue to operate an 850-acre farm near Sunnyside, where they grow hops, tree fruit, and grapes.

At the outset of his political career, Newhouse served four terms in the Washington House of Representatives from 2003 to 2009, representing the 15th Legislative District in eastern Yakima County, his father's old district. In 2009, then-Washington Governor Christine Gregoire appointed him to head the Washington State Department of Agriculture, where he served until 2013. The following year, Newhouse successfully ran for the U.S. House seat vacated by longtime incumbent Richard “Doc” Hastings.

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)

Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) represents Washington’s 5th Congressional District, which spans the eastern portion of the state. She is the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is also a member of the Congressional Western Caucus. Ranking Member Rodgers has already used her leadership role to conduct oversight of overreaching EPA regulations threatening the U.S. electricity grid and reliable and affordable generation. She’s also a leader on minerals production and processing legislation with her colleagues at the House Natural Resources Committee.

Following the completion of her undergraduate studies, McMorris Rodgers was hired by State Rep. Bob Morton in 1991 to serve as his campaign manager, later becoming his legislative assistant. In 1994, she was appointed to the Washington House of Representatives in a temporary role, a position that she held on to after winning a special election later that year. From 2002 to 2003, McMorris Rodgers served as House Minority Leader, stepping down after announcing her bid for Congress.

Since her election to Congress in 2004, McMorris Rodgers has risen through the ranks of the House Republican leadership. In 2009, she became the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress, when she was elected Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference. In 2013, McMorris Rodgers was elected Chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, a position she held until 2019.

2022 Midterm Elections

NPR published: “The Senate looks like a jump ball. Here are the 10 seats that will decide the majority.”

New York Times published: “Growing evidence against a Republican wave.”

Washington Post published: “GOP prospects narrow in House as Democrats overperform in early contests.”

FiveThirtyEight published: “Yes, special elections really are signaling a better-than-expected midterm for Democrats.”

Cook Political Report opined that the “red wave looks more like a ripple.”

Washington Post published: “Has the political environment shifted? Alums of 2010, 2018 wave midterms urge caution.”

Cook Political Report also published: “House overview: GOP control no longer a foregone conclusion.”

The New York Times published a handy interactive guide to the results of all of the 2022 primary elections.

2022 Congressional Campaign Fundraising

Second-quarter Federal Election Committee reports show Democratic candidates generally outraising their GOP counterparts. Of note, Democratic candidates in key battleground states—including Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania—hold large cash-in-hand advantages over their rivals as these races head into the home stretch.

*Special election to fill the remaining four years of incumbent Republican Senator Jim Inhofe's fifth term.
Boldface indicates incumbent.

Source: FEC Reports, July 27, 2022. 

House and Senate Race Spotlights

U.S. Senate Seat: Nevada
Although Democrats hold a slight advantage over Republicans in party registration in Nevada, statewide office elections have been very closely competed in recent years—with presidential, gubernatorial, and U.S. Senate races rarely decided by more than five points. The 2022 battle for the U.S. Senate seat, which pits incumbent Democrat Senator Catherine Cortez Masto against Republican Adam Laxalt, looks to be no different.

Born and raised in Las Vegas, Catherine Cortez Masto graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in finance, and subsequently from the Gonzaga University School of Law. She worked for four years as a civil attorney in Las Vegas and two years as a criminal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., before being elected Nevada attorney general in 2006. Limited by state law to two terms as Nevada’s top prosecutor, Cortez Masto left the office in 2015 to prepare for her successful Senate run.

Cortez Masto made history in 2016 as the first woman from Nevada, as well as the first Latina, ever elected to the U.S. Senate. She serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is chair of the Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. She also serves on the Senate Committees on Finance; Indian Affairs; and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Cortez Masto has been an outspoken advocate for the hardrock mining industry. She has successfully fought new royalties, land withdrawals, and punitive new regulatory changes leading the Public Lands, Forest, and Mining Subcommittee. Without her leadership, House-passed anti-mining legislation could have been included in the most recent Congressional reconciliation legislation. She most recently led a bipartisan public comment letter advocating for common-sense reforms to the Department of the Interior’s Interagency Working Group on Mining Regulation.

Her opponent, Adam Laxalt, is no stranger to statewide office, having succeeded Cortez Masto as Nevada’s attorney general after she left to run for the Senate in 2015. The Reno native—son of former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) and grandson of former Republican Nevada Governor and U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt (R-NV)—graduated from Georgetown University and its law school before serving as an aide to then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton and Virginia U.S. Senator John Warner. He worked as a lawyer in private practice and was a member of the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps from 2005 to 2010.

After leaving Washington, Laxalt worked for the law firm Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie at its Reno office until 2014, when he left to focus on his bid for attorney general. Laxalt was the Republican nominee for Governor of Nevada in 2018, but lost to Democratic nominee and chair of the Clark County Commission Steve Sisolak in the general election.

The Cook Political Report rates the race a “Toss Up.”

Montana 1st Congressional District
Thirty years after losing its second Congressional seat, Montana has gained it back courtesy of the 2020 U.S. Census. The new district—Montana’s 1st Congressional District—covers the mountainous western portion of the state that includes Missoula, Butte, and Bozeman. The first-ever matchup in the new district pits Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior for two years under former President Donald Trump, against Monica Tranel, an attorney who has worked on behalf of renewable energy clients.

Ryan Zinke served as Montana’s at-large congressman from 2014 until 2017 before being tapped to head the Department of the Interior. He has the wider name recognition and bigger war chest heading into the home stretch of the election. Western Montana, while still Republican leaning—President Trump would have won the district by 7 points in 2020—is more liberal than the eastern half. That fact, combined with Zinke’s underwhelming (2-point) victory in the Republican primary has Democrats hopeful of an upset.

Prior to his election to Congress in 2014, Zinke served as a U.S. Navy SEAL for over 20 years, retiring in 2008 with the rank of Commander. He then ran successfully for the Montana Senate in 2008, representing his hometown of Whitefish from 2009 to 2013.

Monica Tranel was born in Wyoming but grew up mainly in Montana, including Miles City and Billings. A rower while pursuing her undergraduate degree at Gonzaga University, she went on to compete in the women’s eight in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics.

As a lawyer, she has primarily worked in private practice, but served a stint as an attorney on the staff of both the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Montana Consumer Counsel—the latter which represents consumer interests regarding utility and transportation issues before the PSC. In solo practice since 2016, she has represented clean energy developers, landowners, and others with business before the Commission.

Tranel has run for public office unsuccessfully several times—as both a Democrat and as a Republican. She ran for the Montana PSC in 2004 as a Republican and again in 2020 as a Democrat—and in 2015 for the Helena City Council, a nonpartisan race. Notwithstanding those defeats, her strong primary campaign, in which she defeated her principal opponent by 38 points, has raised some eyebrows.

FiveThirtyEight rates Ryan Zinke as “very likely” to win the race.

Nevada 4th Congressional District
Nevada’s 4th Congressional District covers a large portion of the southern half of the Silver State. Although much of the district is rural, over 80 percent of the district’s residents live in the heavily Democratic northern portion of Clark County, which encompasses part of metropolitan Las Vegas. While Nevada’s 4th is regarded as a potential swing district—and has been represented by both Democrats and Republicans since its creation following the 2010 census—redistricting has given it a Democratic lean (estimated at D+5 by FiveThirtyEight).

Incumbent Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) is running for re-election to a third consecutive term serving the district, having won in 2018 and 2020 by 8 and 5 points, respectively. A native of Las Vegas, Horsford is well known in the state, having served in the Nevada State Senate from 2004 to 2012.

In 2009, he became the first African-American to serve as the state senate’s majority leader and, three years later, upon his election to Congress, the first African-American to represent Nevada in the U.S. House (he would subsequently lose in his 2014 re-election bid). In his current position, he sits on the House Budget Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.

Congressman Horsford has also been an outspoken advocate for the hardrock mining industry throughout his time in Congress on the House Natural Resources Committee and now on the House Ways and Means Committee. He has regularly taken the lead publicly opposing legislation from some of his own party to impose new royalties, regulatory burdens, and land withdrawals on the hardrock mining industry. Most recently, he led a bipartisan public comment letter advocating for common-sense reforms to the Department of the Interior’s Interagency Working Group on Mining Regulation.

His opponent in the general election is small business owner and retired U.S. Air Force officer Sam Peters. This is Peters’ second bid for election to the seat; in 2020 he lost in the Republican primary to former state Assemblyman Jim Marchant.

While serving a 20-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, Peters earned a succession of degrees, including a B.S. in criminal justice administration from Park University, an M.S. in administration from Central Michigan University, and a graduate certificate in organizational finance from the University of Maryland University College. Following his retirement from the Air Force with the rank of major, Peters' professional experience has included working as CEO and president of Peters Family Insurance, LLC and as a field sales leader and designated supervisory personnel for Allstate Insurance Corporations.

The Cook Political Report rates the race as “Toss Up D.”

Departing Members List

U.S. Senate Updates

The New York Times examined the performance of the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s efforts in digital fundraising.

2022 Senate Race Rankings

Twenty-one Republican-held seats and 14 Democrat-held seats are up for election in November. A net gain of one seat will put the GOP in the majority in the next legislative session.

In the first update to its Senate race ratings in almost six months, The Cook Political Report has changed its outlook on just three races: Bennet (CO) moves from Likely D to Lean D; Open, PA (Toomey) moves from Toss Up to Lean D; and Lee (UT) moves from Solid R to Likely R.

The open seat in Pennsylvania currently held by Pat Toomey (R), now rated Lean D, represents a potential flip for Democrats. If that seat were to flip, Democrats would likely need to win just two of the four races that remain rated as toss-ups—in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin—to retain the Senate majority.

Blue type indicates seat currently held by a Democrat; red type indicates seat currently held by a Republican.

Source: Cook Political Report, August 18, 2022.

U.S. House Updates

Democrat Mary Peltola won the special, ranked-choice election to serve the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s (R-AK-AL) term.

Republican Joe Sempolinski won the special election to serve the remainder of former Rep. Tom Reed’s (R-NY-23) term.

Democrat Pat Ryan won the special election to serve the remainder of former Rep. Antonio Delgado’s (D-NY-19) term.

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL-13) resigned his seat after winning the Democratic nomination for governor.

Axios charted the number of U.S. House candidates that lost renomination in primary elections since the 1940s.

2022 House Race Rankings

The Cook Political Report currently lists Republican candidates as favorites in 213 House races and Democratic candidates as favorites in 190 races; 32 races are listed as toss-ups. With 218 seats needed to win majority status, the GOP remains in a strong position to regain control of Congress’ lower chamber. 

Despite modest improvement in Democrats’ fortunes since the last Political Update—all six updated race ratings moved in their favor—the party faces an uphill battle to hold on to their majority. An unpopular president, inflation, and the historical tendency for the party out of power to gain ground in the midterm elections represent obstacles to that goal. As it stands, the party would have to win an overwhelming proportion of the races currently rated toss-ups to win the House majority.

Blue type indicates seat currently held by a Democrat; red type indicates seat currently held by a Republican.

Source: Cook Political Report, September 1, 2022.

State Updates

Axios charted the partisan composition of state Houses of Representatives and Senates.

2022 Governor Race Rankings

Twenty Republican-held and 14 Democrat-held governor’s seats are up for election in November. Since the last Political Update, The Cook Political Report has made no changes to its outlook on any races. Four seats are currently rated toss-ups—Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, and Wisconsin (the latter three held by Democrats)—and represent the most likely to flip parties.

Blue type indicates seat currently held by a Democrat; red type indicates seat currently held by a Republican.

Source: Cook Political Report, July 26, 2022.

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Questions? Comments? Feel free to contact Ryan Jackson, Senior Vice President, Government & Political Affairs, at RJackson@nma.org. Thank you for your continued support of the Political Action Committees of the National Mining Association!