Good morning. Welcome, Naxios today. It's Friday, September 30th. I'm Nyla Boudou. Here's what we're covering today. Florida starts its Hurricane Recovery Efforts, and January 6th, election deniers in the midterms. Our Friday Politics Wrap is today's one big thing.

Hurricane Ian continues its path of destruction up the east coast. It's expected to make landfall in South Carolina this afternoon, and in Florida, a massive cleanup and recovery effort has begun.

This could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida's history. The numbers of still are still unclear, but we're hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life.

That was President Joe Biden yesterday at FEMA headquarters in Washington. Yesterday, the White House declared nine Florida counties major disaster areas. That frees up significant federal funding to state and local governments and allows individuals to apply for FEMA assistance.

Florida Governor Rhonda Santas said yesterday, truckloads of food and water will soon be in the affected areas to aid those in need. For those who'd like to help, there are various ways to contribute. We'll put all of that info in our show notes.

Hurricane Ian even had its effects in Washington this week, where the January 6th Committee postponed their ninth public hearing, but in a closed-door session yesterday, Ginny Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, met with the Committee for a voluntary interview after months of the Committee trying to speak with Thomas about her role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Excuses managing editor for politics Margaret Tulliv and the Cook Political Reports Senate and Governor's editor Jessica Taylor are here to talk about that and more Jessica Margaret, welcome.

Thank you, Nala. Thanks for having me.

Margaret, what do we know about this meeting between the January 6th Committee and Ginny Thomas? It wasn't public.

It was not, but Benny Thomas, who's the chairman of the panel, came out and talked with reporters and said two things that I think are probably the most important.

One is that she was at least somewhat cooperative in this closed-door interview. The other is that she is continuing to maintain without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen.

And I think that's important. It goes to her state of mind. It goes to where this investigation is going.

Jessica, do we know what effect the January 6th Select Committee hearings have had on congressional races in particular the midterms, how voters have responded to it?

Count me in the skeptical camp that at first that it was going to really sway things, you know, in the spring and when they sort of started these, the economy was still sputtering, inflation was still rising gas prices were still high.

And then it does feel like this past summer there was a bit of a sea change add in the dobs decision on abortion, nullifying row.

And these were getting a lot of viewership. And I think it was a way that Trump was reinserted in the race.

He'd already been hovering there and very involved in candidates that he was backing in different things. But again, midterm elections are supposed to be a referendum on the current president.

We have never had a former president that is still this involved. And so I think it is having an impact, but I think we will just have incredibly high turnout across both parties for the midterms.

Just like a what does from the standpoint of the cook political report, what is it looking like in terms of control of the Senate in the House overall what's the prognosis at the moment?

Okay, so what we have seen in the House, which my colleague David Wasserman covers is that, you know, this could have been a pickup for Republicans of over 30 seats when it was looking like a red wave.

Now it could just be more of a red trickle. Of course, they only need a few seats to flip control. And that is very much within the feasibility.

So I think if one thing is going to happen, we still believe that the House is going to flip control to Republicans.

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