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Four weeks from today, Republicans will try to hold on to the House of Representatives with a message that buries the tea party movement deep underground: Keep us in charge, and we won't touch Medicare or Social Security. In TV spots, Republican candidates promise that they'll protect entitlements and save the most popular parts of the Affordable Care Act. In attack ads, the National Republican Congressional Committee warns that Democrats "support cutting $800 billion from Medicare." In debates, Republican candidates argue that Democrats who favor Medicare-for-all would bring about "Medicare for None." (Weigel, 10/9)

With control of Congress at stake in next month’s midterm elections, Democrats have a rare opportunity to gain a foothold against President Trump’s Republican Party. But if they come up short, it may be in part because of a failure to pursue a key group of voters. It’s a constituency that makes up 13 percent of the voting population, enjoys high voter turnout and is especially concentrated in some decisive swing states. That group is military veterans — and in the battle for their votes, the Democratic Party lags far behind the Republicans. According to organizers on both sides of the contest, the Democratic National Committee seems to be pursuing a strategy that focuses on running veterans as candidates instead of organizing to reach veteran voters — the D.N.C. tried that approach more than a decade ago, and it didn’t work. (Craven, 10/10)

Democrat gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean said Tuesday he would happily sign Medicaid expansion into law in Tennessee, while his opponent Republican Bill Lee countered he would oppose such efforts. The two top candidates detailed their positions during the second gubernatorial debate at the Toy F. Reid Employee Center in Kingsport. Similar to the first debate, Dean and Lee refrained from aggressively attacking each other in an overall tame event — with Lee even making a point to thank Dean’s positive tone throughout the campaign during the opening remarks. (Kruesi, 10/9)

For the second time in as many weeks, Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean made their cases to Tennessee voters on Tuesday while remaining polite at an East Tennessee gubernatorial debate. ... Rather than take federal money to cover more residents under TennCare, Lee said the state should focus on a way to lower the cost of health care. Dean responded, insisting that Republicans in the legislature, after declining to hear Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s Medicaid expansion plan in 2015, had not proposed a solution to solve the problem of unaffordable health care. (Ebert and Allison, 10/9)

Republican Sen. Susan Collins landed herself at the top of Democrats’ 2020 target list when she voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Now, Democrats just have to find someone who can beat her in Maine. Whoever runs against Collins in the next election will be well-funded, thanks to a small-dollar rage-donating spree that put over $4 million in escrow for Collins’ 2020 opponent since she supported Kavanaugh. But that support is about to run up against the unique record of New England’s last remaining Republican senator, who has won by increasing margins in three straight reelection campaigns with a broad centrist coalition, including independents and Democrats who appreciate Collins’ bipartisan streak on issues such as Obamacare repeal. (Arkin, 10/9)

Cecile Richards is keeping the door open to a bid for public office. When asked whether she’s ever thought about running, the former Planned Parenthood president told POLITICO’s Anna Palmer that she has “thought about it.” (Flores, 10/10)

In a television ad released Tuesday, Colin Allred criticizes incumbent Republican Pete Sessions for voting for a health care plan that would have allowed states to develop health care plans without protections for residents with pre-existing conditions. In the ad titled "listening," Allred alludes to a March 18, 2017, raucous town hall meeting where Sessions chided the crowd for not listening. (Jeffers, 10/9)

The California Republican Party spent $5.8 million against two November ballot measures that would expand rent control and limit profits for dialysis clinics after accepting a similar amount of money from business interests. The money paid for “member communication” opposing Propositions 8 and 10, according to campaign reports filed over the last few weeks. (Luna, 10/8)

John Cox stood on a presidential debate stage and told the audience that he was glad abortion wasn’t legal in 1955. If it had been, he said, he wouldn’t have been born. “I wouldn’t be standing here before you today. This is personal to me,” Cox said in the 2007 GOP presidential primary debate, explaining that his biological father walked out on his mother. (Young, 10/9)

The 2018 Ohio Health Issues Poll, conducted for the health-education nonprofit Interact for Health, found sizeable majorities of Ohioans holding favorable opinions of the government health program for children and low-income adults. Seven in 10 Ohio adults had a favorable opinion of Medicaid, and when the responses were analyzed by political affiliation, nearly six in 10 Republicans and independents held a somewhat or very favorable view. (Saker, 10/9)

Nine states have legalized marijuana for so-called recreational use since 2012, including eight at the ballot box. Thirty-one states have authorized the drug for medical purposes. Four states have marijuana ballot questions this fall . Here's a look at them. (10/9)