To the good people of Missouri: The Russians are trying to pick your next United States Senator. According to the Daily Beast:
- “The Russian intelligence agency behind the 2016 election cyberattacks targeted Sen. Claire McCaskill as she began her 2018 re-election campaign in earnest, a Daily Beast forensic analysis reveals. That makes the Missouri Democrat the first identified target of the Kremlin’s 2018 election interference.
- “McCaskill, who has been highly critical of Russia over the years, is widely considered to be among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats facing re-election this year as Republicans hope to hold their slim majority in the Senate. In 2016, President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by almost 20 points in the senator’s home state of Missouri.”
But McCaskill was not the the only politician to experience Russian hackers. Exclusive to News and Guts, former Rep. Brad Ashford (D-NE) fell victim to Russian hacking back in the 2016 Congressional cycle.
Ashford was in his first term in Congress when he was notified by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in August 2016 that his campaign had been hacked. Ashford said emails between his campaign and the DCCC were stolen, thus compromising his campaign strategy. The Nebraska Democrat and his top aides initially downplayed the threat caused by Russian hackers as his poll numbers at the time showed him leading by double-digits. Ultimately, he lost his re-election campaign by 3,000 votes, and has become a fierce advocate for safeguards against Russian interference in Congressional elections.
In text messages with N&G, Rep. Ashford describes the attacks on Sen. McCaskill as a “very similar situation” to his 2016 campaign. Ashford also tells us that he is now calling on Congressional leadership in both parties to “rally round” this issue. He is suggesting that Congress take immediate action by requiring that “any campaign that has knowledge of hacking must report it. Also, anyone connected with a campaign should be prohibited from using material that was hacked from a competitor.” The DCCC has called on their Republican counterparts to mutually agree to not used hacked material. So far, no agreement has been reached between Congressional leaders.
From extensive discussions both on the phone and in person with Rep. Ashford over the past week, he says it is far too easy to underestimate the potential impact of this sort of hacked material in the Missouri Senate race. Josh Hawley, the Republican nominee for Senate may have compromised material made available to him. Will he use it? This is a key test of both his election strategy and his personal character.
My reporting for MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Rep. Ashford last week led the DCCC to confirm that in two races in 2016, Florida’s 18th and 26th Congressional Districts, compromised material was used by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Super PAC aligned with Rep. Paul Ryan.
It took Rep. Brad Ashford almost two years to come to terms with what happened to his race. He told me it was a terrible tragedy for our country and that Congress must act. He may never know what really happened in his Congressional race in 2016, but it made for an ignominious end to his longtime career in public service. For Sen. McCaskill, who released a short statement tonight but did not conduct interviews or a press conference, Ashford said it’s time to pay attention. The Russians are out there and they’re at it again.