Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, sponsored by AARP.

And I'm Jake Sherman. Arizona Republican Debbie Lesko won a special election to fill the deep red seat Trent Franks attired from earlier this year.

Unofficial balloting had her up 52.9% to 47.2%. The victory is a bit close for comfort, considering Donald Trump's 21 point victory

there in 2016. This will do very little to calm Republican nerves ahead of election day.

Here are a couple interesting data points. Former Suffolk County legislators Steve Stern

won a special election Tuesday to become the first Democrat in 40 years to represent

the 10th New York State Assembly

District in Huntington on Long Island. The New York Times is reporting that Republicans have lost

support in every special election since Trump began president. We've got a playbook preview this morning.

NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers is hosting a fundraiser Thursday night for the first round of NRCC Primary Patriots,

lawmakers in tough intra-party battles back at home.

This week's event benefits Alabama's Martha Roby, North Carolina's Robert Pittenger, and New York's Dan Donovan.

Illinois Representative Rodney Davis started this program. Stivers expects to bring them

around $150,000. French President Emmanuel Macron is on Capitol Hill today to address a joint

session of Congress. The president is meeting this afternoon with Apple CEO Tim Cook. A fun spotted for you

this morning. Paul Manafort was eating lunch at Charlie Palmer's Tuesday.

Courtney Kardashian was at the restaurant at another table.

Here's the latest on Ronnie Jackson.

CNN is reporting that the VA nominee drunkenly banged on a female employee's door during an overseas trip.

Burgess Everett, Eliana Johnson, and Alana Shore report that Jackson's botched nomination is seen as emblematic of Trump's management style and could have been avoided if he had taken Senator

Johnny Isaacson's advice not to fire David Cholkin in the first place. NBC News is Heidi

Prisbolo's coordinator of view with Harry Reid in Las Vegas. His big piece of advice stopped

...