Capitol Hill Gossip, Strike Ripple Effects, The Phillips Insurgency

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon dispatch of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Lauren Sherman spotlights the uncanny fashion acumen of designer Trish Wescoat Pound and her upstart label, TWP—one of the rarefied brands nailing the modern distribution pipeline.

Plus, below the fold: Peter Hamby rings up Dean Phillips, Biden’s new primary foe, to discuss the liberal insurgent’s strategy. On Somebody’s Gotta Win, Tara Palmeri digs into Mike Johnson’s early days as House Speaker, and chats with Shelby Talcott about Biden’s accumulating weak spots. On The Town, Matt Belloni and Lucas Shaw reveal how the strikes scrambled the ’24 movie calendar. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Abby Livingston map out the new power structure on Capitol Hill.

PETER HAMBY

The little-known Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips believes he can successfully primary Biden by leaning hard (of course) into the gerontocracy argument. But neither time, nor math, appears to be on his side.

LAUREN SHERMAN

Finally, a feel-good story: Trish Wescoat Pound, with the help of Andrew Rosen, revived the contemporary formula, priced it perfectly, and nailed the modern distribution pipeline. In the process, she created a paradigm for how young brands can scale these days.

TARA PALMERI

Tara begins the pod with an update on the Democratic primary race and Mike Johnson’s first days as the new House Speaker. Then, she’s joined by Semafor’s Shelby Talcott to discuss Joe Biden’s age issue, how it’s contributing to his dwindling polling numbers against Trump, and more.

MATTHEW BELLONI

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss how the strikes have affected the 2024 movie calendar after several studios pushed the releases of blockbuster films, whether these moves can be seen as strategic or simply responses to production delays caused by the strikes, and more.