Graham tees up risky abortion-restriction play for GOP: The Note

The TAKE with Rick Klein

Most GOP Senate candidates would prefer to talk just about anything other than abortion these days -- with some even taking pains to scrub their websites of what they've said on the subject in the past.

Enter South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham with a piece of offense that few GOP candidates in tight races wanted to see. On the very day rough inflation numbers gave an opening on an issue any Republican would love to run on this fall, Graham put forward a bill that would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks, with limited exemptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother.

"I thought it would be nice to introduce a bill to define who we are," Graham said in introducing his bill.

As for what that means, he said he was sure a Republican Senate majority would bring up a bill like his for a vote. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that most of his members "prefer that this be dealt with at the state level."

Wisconsin's Ron Johnson -- perhaps the most endangered incumbent Republican senator -- said the issue has "got to be decided in the states." The campaigns of Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and Colorado Senate candidate Joe O'Dea also said they opposed the bill, with O'Dea attacking it as "partisan peacocking" and restating his support for keeping abortion largely legal through 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker put out a less-than-clear statement saying he "WOULD support this policy" but that "the issue should be decided at the state level."

Advocacy groups including the Susan B. Anthony List, which hosted GOP luminaries at its annual gala on Tuesday, are applauding the Graham bill as a way to clarify conservative messaging and put abortion-rights proponents in the position of explaining why they favor later-term abortions.

But if Graham's goal is making clear where Republicans stand on abortion, it's Democrats who are now more eager to make that happen.

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

Republican primaries in New Hampshire on Tuesday put intraparty divisions on full display with races between election-denying Donald Trump acolytes and more moderate candidates.

It is still up in the air which Republican will be on the ballot facing off with Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, who is considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents this election cycle. State Sen. Chuck Morse had the backing of establishment Republicans like Gov. Chris Sununu and Senate Minority Leader McConnell. It remains to be seen if it was enough to defeat 2020 election-denying retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc.

Bolduc -- embraced by many Trump supporters -- was also spotlighted by Democrats, a controversial strategy that had played out in several other GOP primaries, in which Democratic groups focused on conservative candidates perceived to be weaker opponents against the Democratic nominee in the general election.

In New Hampshire's 1st District, Trump White House alum Karoline Leavitt is a step closer to being one of the first Generation Z members of Congress after winning the Republican nomination. She was endorsed by Rep. Elise Stefanik and Sen. Ted Cruz, while Matt Mowers -- another Trump administration alum -- was backed by Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise in a matchup that put Republican House leadership at odds.

Leavitt espouses the same election lies as former President Trump. Mowers said that Biden is the rightful president while voicing concerns about election integrity.

The close races featuring election-denying candidates are the latest demonstration of the hold the "big lie" continues to have on important portions of the GOP.

The TIP with Alisa Wiersema

With less than eight weeks to go until Election Day, the nation's supply chains -- and some passenger transportation -- are hanging in the balance of a potential railroad strike that could go into effect as soon as midnight on Friday. The possibility of a strike, which is rooted in negotiation holdouts by two groups that represent engineers and conductors, would lead to disastrous economic aftershocks across the nation.

If a strike were to happen, about 60,000 railroad workers who are seeking better wages and work hours could walk off the job. According to the Association of American Railroads, which lobbies on behalf of rail companies, a potential strike could lead to a loss of $2 billion a day in economic output. Economists say the fallout would exacerbate the existing impact of inflation on consumers.

The situation also stands to send precarious shockwaves across the political landscape with President Joe Biden -- an ardent union defender who is also known as "Amtrak Joe" -- caught in between just as recent economic progress helped reinvigorate Democrats' favorability ahead of the midterms.

"We have made crystal-clear to the interested parties the harm that American families and businesses and farmers and communities would experience if they were not to reach a resolution," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.

In the meantime, the White House says it is "working with other modes of transportation including the shippers and truckers, air freight [...] to see how they can step in and keep goods moving" should a strike happen.

NUMBER OF THE DAY, powered by FiveThirtyEight

40. That's the percentage by which monkeypox cases have fallen between the middle and end of August in the U.S. In other words, as FiveThirtyEight's Maggie Koerth writes, monkeypox was, in many ways, the pandemic that wasn't. That doesn't mean that the U.S.'s response was perfect but, as Maggie writes, the fact that monkeypox has been relatively contained in the U.S. offers some important lessons for how the country should handle contagious diseases moving forward.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. "Start Here" begins Wednesday morning with ABC's Sam Sweeney on a possible railroad labor unions strike. And ABC's MaryAlice Parks, in a special report from Michigan, speaks to swing voters to get a sense of what they are really thinking ahead of the midterm elections. Then, Quartz reporter Scott Nover breaks down what happens now that Twitter shareholders have voted in favor of Elon Musk's takeover deal. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

• President Biden travels to Michigan on Wednesday where he will tour the Detroit Auto Show and deliver remarks at 1:45 p.m. ET highlighting electronic vehicle manufacturing.
• Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appears on "The View."
• Mike Pence headlines a fundraiser in New Hampshire.

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The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day's top stories in politics. Please check back Thursday for the latest.