With Ari Hawkins, Daniel Lippman

BALLARD PLANTS A FLAG IN RIYADH: Ballard Partners, the lobbying firm run by top Donald Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard, is opening a new Middle East outpost in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the latest link between the wealthy Gulf nation and the former president.

— Jasmine Zaki, a former senior legal counsel for Bechtel and the chair of the board of the Middle East Policy Council, will head up the new Ballard office and its Middle East and North Africa practice as managing partner. She’ll be joined by Saudi businessman Sheikh Abdullah bin Zaid Al-Meleihi and former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), who will be partners in the office.

— “After meeting with government officials during my recent trip to the region, I am confident in the success of the Kingdom’s strategic framework for reform, Saudi Vision 2030,” Ballard said in a statement, adding that the firm’s footprint there “will allow us to better serve our clients’ interests in the region and beyond.”

— The firm doesn’t currently represent any Middle Eastern governments, but it recently signed the Emirati-based frozen poultry distributor MHP Food Trading and previously lobbied for Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Qatar. Asked if there was any contract with the Saudi government in the works, Ballard told PI only that there's "lots of activity on the private and private side" and to "stay tuned." The Riyadh office isn’t the firm’s first in the Middle East; Ballard opened an office in Tel Aviv in 2020, and also has an office in Istanbul.

— But the Riyadh office adds one more point of connection to Trumpworld. Ballard has known Trump since long before he ran for president, and has bundled more than $1.7 million in contributions for his campaign so far this year, according to FEC filings.

— Trump’s ties to Saudi Arabia have long raised eyebrows in Washington, but those ties have only deepened since leaving office, with the Trump Organization recently signing a contract to lend its name to a real estate project there and Trump’s golf courses hosting tournaments for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund-backed LIV Golf league. His son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner is facing scrutiny from Democratic senators in part over his private equity fund’s backing from the sovereign wealth fund.

Happy Wednesday and welcome to PI. What should we be looking out for in this quarter’s lobbying disclosures? Plus, send all your takes, memos and gossip about the fallout of President Joe Biden’s announcement: [email protected]. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko.

SPEAKING OF LIV: Sportico’s Daniel Libit reports that the Saudi-financed golf league’s lobbying expenditures have dropped off this year, according to filings, as congressional investigations into its bid to join forces with onetime rival the PGA Tour have petered out. LIV Golf reported spending $90,000 in each of the first two quarters of 2024, down from $140,000 spent in each quarter of 2023.

— Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, which represents the Saudi Public Investment Fund bankrolling LIV Golf, also disclosed a dip in activity related to the league after an initial burst last year. “By contrast, Brownstein’s most recent FARA filing showed a lone LIV Golf-related contact—a Zoom session with Sen. Blumenthal earlier this year—in the six-month period from September 2023 through February 2024,” Libit writes.

MAILBAG: Amid all the earthshaking political events unfolding as of late, the all-Republican lobbying and public affairs firm CGCN Group is out with a new memo this week that seeks to break down the upheaval from the Republican point of view. The memo, titled “Navigating Uncharted Waters,” borrows the phrase used over the weekend by former President Barack Obama.

— “We’re Republicans, but we think the 44th President perfectly described the next one hundred and five days of the 2024 campaign,” the memo says, adding that “such apt phrasing also explains the previous three-hundred and sixty-five” days.

— For Republicans, the memo argues, “Biden’s performance in office and his exit” have “unified the party—around former President Donald Trump, his Vice-Presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), and their agenda heading into 2025,” making the party more comfortable straying from their messaging around the border, inflation and foreign policy and delving into accusations of a cover-up on the Democratic side of the ticket.

— Another new memo this week from Plurus Strategies dives into who the major players are likely to be across a variety of roles in a potential second Trump administration. “Given the uncertainty over the past several weeks, it has been difficult to compile similar information and make predictions for Democrats,” Plurus’ Jean Cornell told PI.

FIRST IN PI — THE BIDEN (DROP OUT) BUMP: After Biden announced that he was dropping out of the presidential race, NGP VAN, the tech company that helps Democrats raise money online, saw a 600 percent increase in fundraising Sunday and Monday of this week over the same 48 hour period the previous week, Daniel reports.

— The firm declined to share what that translates into in terms of dollar amounts, but Chelsea Peterson Thompson, NGP VAN's general manager, told PI that the statistic “demonstrates an incredible boost in momentum for campaigns from the top of the ticket, down ballot.”

— The fundraising surge has been visible across the Democratic party. In the first 48 hours of Harris’ campaign, the party’s other major fundraising platform ActBlue took in $154 million sitewide from small donors, the platform said today, making Sunday and Monday ActBlue’s second and third largest days ever, respectively.

COMING ATTRACTIONS?: “In a likely preview of the months ahead, Vice President Kamala Harris knocked former President Donald Trump’s ties to the oil industry Tuesday during her first appearance on the campaign trail as Democrats’ likely nominee,” E&E News’ Robin Bravender reports.

— At a rally in Milwaukee, Harris accused Trump of “trading access in exchange for campaign contributions,” pointing to reports that Trump dangled favorable policy changes to oil industry executives while urging them to give $1 billion to help his campaign.

— “You all saw that a couple months ago at Mar-a-Lago, he literally promised Big Oil companies, Big Oil lobbyists, he would do their bidding for $1 billion in campaign donations,” Harris said, contrasting the reports with the flood of online donations her campaign saw this week.

— Robin notes that the vice president issued a similar line of attack in remarks to staffers at the campaign’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday. “As district attorney, to go after polluters, I created one of the first environmental justice units in our nation,” Harris said. “Donald Trump stood in Mar-a-Lago and told Big Oil lobbyists he would do their bidding for a $1 billion campaign contribution.”

SPEAKING OF: The Wall Street Journal’s Benoît Morenne and Collin Eaton report that oil moguls Harold Hamm, Kelcy Warren, Jeffery Hildebrand and George Bishop — along with their spouses and companies — have given $9.9 million to Trump-aligned PACs and the RNC since March.

— The checks “make the magnates among some of Trump’s biggest donors and represent an increase from past election cycles. Their contributions and those of another oil billionaire, Tim Dunn of CrownRock, topped $16 million since October, compared with the more than $20 million the tycoons donated to fund Trump’s 2016 and 2020 bids combined.”

— Meanwhile the New York Times’ Lisa Friedman outlines the “subtle softening” in Trump’s often critical rhetoric about electric vehicles, which “began after Mr. Trump met in March with Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla, in Palm Beach, Fla.,” who has since endorsed Trump’s campaign.

FIRST IN PI — NARRATIVE ADDS 3: Strategic comms firm Narrative Strategies has brought on Daraka Satcher as a managing director to lead its external engagement team. Satcher was most recently COO and executive vice president of federal affairs for Ohio River South, an Atlanta-based public affairs agency, and is a former Commerce Department appointee and Hank Johnson alum.

— Narrative has also hired Noah Vieux as a marketing associate and Sarah Flakus as a strategic communications associate. Vieux was most recently a graduate consultant at Accelerated Materials and is a Curley Company alum and Flakus was most recently a fellow at Seven Letter.

BEIJING’S EYE ON INDUSTRY: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on major U.S. industry leaders to lobby the U.S. Congress against policies cracking down on China’s technological and economic clout, Ari reports.

— The ask was delivered to a delegation of top U.S. executives visiting China this week to observe the results of the Chinese government’s third plenum, according to a translated statement from China’s ministry of foreign affairs.

— The delegation, which included Apple Inc. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Micron Technology Inc. President Sanjay Mehrotra, was led by the U.S.-China Business Council, which represents more than 270 U.S. companies that do business in China and regularly engages with Congress.

— Wang urged the corporate leaders to “actively utilize their own connections and influence, and combine their development experience in China to tell the U.S. government, Congress and all walks of life about a real, three-dimensional and comprehensive China.” Wang further pressed the executives to “push the U.S. to set up a correct cognition of China, to stop the economic and trade and scientific and technological suppression of China,” the statement reads.

— China’s push for members of the USCBC to lobby in favor of China-friendly trade policies comes as the U.S. considers stricter restrictions on advanced technology from China, per Bloomberg. But for tech industry leaders, China still provides a critical production base and a key market for products. Apple, for instance, relies on Beijing for about 20 percent of its sales.

FLYING IN: Family farmers, small-size business owners, and state-level executives with the National Pork Producers Council hit the Hill today to highlight the industry’s economic impacts on the heels of a new report. They’ll also push for the inclusion in the farm bill of a fix to a California ballot initiative the industry says has driven up pork prices across the state.

— The National Automatic Merchandising Association, which represents the vending machine industry, was on the Hill today as well, alongside UFC Hall of Famer Rashad Evans, to lobby for ways to integrate the SNAP program into convenience services. They’ll also advocate for extending the 2017 tax bill and repealing Congress’ 2020 law to provide transparency into shell companies.

— The board of the biofuel group the Renewable Fuels Association is also making the rounds on the Hill and meeting senior officials from the White House, EPA and USDA this week. The trade group has meetings planned with its allies in the Midwest as well as staff for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.) to make the case for a permanent legislative solution for year-round E15 in this Congress as well as how IRA tax credits can help farmers and ethanol producers decarbonize their operations.

SPOTTED at a roundtable yesterday focused on artificial intelligence that was organized by Anthropic lobbyists Stoney Burke, Ryan Dattilo, and Austin Agrella of the Aquia Group, per a tipster: Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.), August Pfluger (R-Texas), Lou Correa (D-Calif.), Dale Strong (R-Ala.), Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), Jack Clark and Rachel Appleton of Anthropic, Shannon Kellogg of AWS, Dan Murray of Southern Company, Matt Haskins of Anduril, Jason Grumet of the American Clean Power Association, Rich Powell of the Clean Energy Buyers Association and Joel Miller of LinkedIn.

CORRECTION: Due to a since-amended lobbying disclosure, yesterday’s edition of PI misstated the largest contract of the second quarter. It was: Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck: Connect Holding II, LLC d/b/a Brightspeed ($1.1 million).

Jobs report

— Signal Group has hired Erika Bellido-Jin as vice president of operations. She was previously director of business operations at Sullivan. The firm has also promoted Madeleine Russak to senior vice president and Jackson Parker to senior associate.

— The Biotechnology Innovation Organization has named AquaBounty Technologies Chair Sylvia Wulf the interim head of its Agriculture & Environment Center of Excellence. Wulf was previously president and CEO of AquaBounty.

— Ben Branham has joined Weber Shandwick as head of corporate and public affairs for the firm's New York office. He most recently was COO and managing director of consulting firm Pythia Public and is an alum of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

— Eric Steiner has joined Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz’s government relations’ team as a senior policy adviser. Steiner was most recently a freelance photographer and is an American Forest and Paper Association, Kraft Foods, Elanco Animal Health and Senate Ag Committee alum.

— Michelle Penson is now chief of staff at Action Network, the Democratic donation processing platform. Penson was previously director of the data analytics and infrastructure resource department at the AFL-CIO.

— Nicole Gaudiano is now director of media affairs and storytelling at the American Federation of Teachers. She previously was a White House reporter at The Messenger, and is a Business Insider, POLITICO and USA Today alum.

— Arthur Bryant is now a partner and head of the Title IX practice at Clarkson Law Firm. He previously was a partner at Bailey Glasser, and is a Public Justice alum.

— Celina Stewart will be the next CEO of the League of Women Voters. She previously has been the organization’s chief counsel and senior director of advocacy and litigation.

— Rebecca Kern is now a public affairs officer at the FTC, working on privacy and technology issues. She most recently was a tech policy reporter at POLITICO.

— Carter Christensen is now senior communications strategist at ActBlue. He previously was on the strategic communications team at Bully Pulpit International.

— Arjun Malhotra has joined Chime as director of regulatory affairs and public policy. He previously served as a senior policy adviser on capital markets at Treasury and is a Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) alum.

— Nicole Petrosino has joined MetLife as a vice president on its U.S. government relations team. She was previously a senior vice president for government relations at LPL Financial.

— Elizabeth Daniels is now executive director of the Conservative Climate Foundation. She previously was senior communications director at Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions.

— Seth Nelson is now deputy communications director at Evergreen Action. He was previously vice president at public affairs firm Frontwood Strategies.

New Joint Fundraisers

Bradshaw-TNDP Victory Fund (Tennessee Democratic Party, Marquita Bradshaw for U S Senate)

Caroline Victory Fund (Committee to Elect Caroline Gleich, Utah State Democratic Committee)

Evans Victory Committee (NRCC, Thin Blue Line PAC, ElectGabeEvans.com)

New PACs

Committee to Revive America (Super PAC)

GRATEFUL Foundation for American Leadership (Super PAC)

HEALTH ACCESS PAC (PAC)

RIGHTLY PAC (Hybrid PAC)

Road2Rights (Super PAC)

WOMEN4US, Inc. (Super PAC)

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

Aegis LLC: Pharmaceutical Research And Manufacturers Of America

Aegis LLC: Tris Pharma, Inc.

Axadvocacy Government Relations: Vertical Aviation International

Capitol City Group, Ltd.: Vineyard Offshore LLC

Chipps, Caffrey And Dubilier, P. S. C.: Chipps, Caffrey And Dubilier, P. S. C.

Commonwealth Strategic Partners, LLC: Granite Construction Incorporated (Formerly Granite Construction Company)

Commonwealth Strategic Partners, LLC: Marque Ventures

Delta Development Group, Inc.: Butler County Commissioners

Fern Abrams, LLC: Enviri

Forethought Advisors, LLC: Libertas Holdings, Inc.

Husch Blackwell Strategies: Washington University In St. Louis

Key Bridge Advisors: Flexa Inc.

Mindset Advocacy, LLC: Stable Value Investment Association (Svia)

Portfolio Strategies LLC: North American Stainless

Spinnaker Government Relations Fka C.H. Fisher LLC: Boulder Museum Of Contemporary Art

The Ferguson Group, LLC: South Sutter Water District

The Petrizzo Group, Inc.: American Association For Homecare

The Petrizzo Group, Inc.: North Carolina Healthcare Association

Townsend Public Affairs, Inc: City Of Wheatland

New Lobbying Terminations

Allison Partners: Healthcare Leadership Council

Alpine Group Partners, LLC.: Trilliant Health

Christopher Heinz: Central States Funds

Fs Vector LLC: Bam Trading Services, Inc./Binance.US

Integrated Strategy Group, LLC: National Mining Association

Jackson Lewis Pc: Art Dealers Association Of America

Michelle Nawar: Bolton-St. Johns LLC On Behalf Of Justleadershipusa

Michelle Nawar: Bolton-St. Johns LLC On Behalf Of The Immigration Hub LLC

Mindset Advocacy, LLC: Rock Central

Mindset Advocacy, LLC: Sofi Technologies, Inc.

Mindset Advocacy, LLC: Stellar Development Foundation

Saxa Innovation LLC: D Initiatives LLC (O/B/A Fama/Femsa)

The Ferguson Group, LLC: Agricultural Floodplain Management Alliance (Afma)

The Ferguson Group, LLC: Daly City, Ca

The Ferguson Group, LLC: Mark Iv Capital

The Ferguson Group, LLC: National Special Districts Coalition

Townsend Public Affairs, Inc: Tgr Foundation

Vitello Consulting: Stonington Global On Behalf Of Pyle USa

Vitello Consulting: Virginia Seafood Council