Editor’s note: the election digest tracks lawmakers whose constituencies include civilian nuclear reactors that are being decommissioned.
Most lawmakers with big nuclear constituencies look, as usual, safe to win reelection this November. However, a few are retiring and some are in tight races. The Exchange Monitor’s election digest is tracking them all.
Senate:
Among the expected Senate retirees were:
- Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.). Butler was appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to serve the remainder of the late Dianne Feinstein’s term. California includes the Energy Technology Engineering Center, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a satellite campus of the Sandia National Laboratories, the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating System, among others.
- Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). Similar to Romney, Stabenow said that “[i]nspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate.” Michigan is home to the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which plant owner Holtec International is trying to restart with a $1.5 billion Department of Energy loan.
A special case in the Senate this cycle is Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who was convicted on July 16 of 16 charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent, and obstruction.
Menendez had pleaded not guilty and was considering still running as an Independent prior to the conviction and subsequent calls from fellow Democratic Senators to resign. New Jersey is home to Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating System and Holtec International, the company decommissioning that plant, and many others outside of the state, including Palisades in Michigan.
Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who is running for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Menendez, had a 7% lead against Republican real-estate developer Curtis Bashaw in a June poll by Kansas City, Mo.-based firm co/efficient.
In an April poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, N.J., Kim was up 9 percentage points against Bashaw and another Republican challenger, Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner. That lead was well outside the older poll’s 4.3% margin of error.
House
Kim, running for Menendez’s Senate seat, is highly likely to leave the House. House members typically do not run for reelection if they seek other office and Kim is polling ahead in his race. Democrat Herb Conaway was the runaway winner of a June primary for the Democratic nomination in New Jersey District 3 that Kim now represents. The district includes Oyster Creek and Kim won its House seat by more than 10 points in the 2022 mid-term election.
Another representative in a tight races is Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) whose district includes the shuttered Indian Point Energy Center in Buchannan, N.Y., another Holtec decommissioning project.
Polling was scarce for New York District 17, but according to a poll last year that is among the the only public research about the race, Lawler was in a virtual tie with Mondaire Jones, a former Democratic Congressman who entered this year’s contest after losing his seat following a 2022 redistricting in New York state.
Safe
The rest of the Hill’s nuclear cohort appears likely to be reelected without trouble. The list of safe-seeming incumbents is:
- Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.). Vermont includes the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station.
- Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.). Michigan District 6 includes the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station.
- Rep. Michael Flood (R-Neb.). Nebraska District 1 includes the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station.
- Rep. William Keating (D-Mass.). Massachusetts District 9 includes the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
- Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.). California District 49 includes the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
- Rep. Bradley Schneider (D-Ill.). Illinois District 10 includes Zion units 1 and 2.
- Rep. Michael Simpson (R-Idaho). Idaho District 2 contains the Idaho Site and the Idaho National Laboratory.
In addition to the list of seemingly safe Representatives are the Senators likely to retain their seats. These Senators include:
- Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)
- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
