We Did it: The primaries to watch tonight — Election officials grapple with pandemic, civil unrest — Pompeo is officially a no on the Kansas Senate race

Jun 02, 2020

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Quick Fix

— Nine states and the District of Columbia are voting today. Here are all the races to watch across the country.

— Some voting rights activists worry that voters will be disenfranchised in elections today due to widespread civil unrest across the country.

— Kansas' filing deadline has come and gone, without Secretary of State Mike Pompeo filing to run for the Senate. His absence leaves behind a messy Republican primary.

Good Tuesday morning. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com, or follow me on Twitter at @ZachMontellaro.

Email the rest of the Campaign Pro team at sshepard@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com and amutnick@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @POLITICO_Steve, @JamesArkin and @allymutnick.

Days until the Georgia, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and West Virginia primaries: 7

Days until the Democratic convention: 76

Days until the Republican convention: 83

Days until the 2020 election: 154

TopLine

ELECTION DAY — We have a busy evening ahead of us, with primaries across the country. A lot of the states are holding presidential primaries, which are only of limited interest at this point, but there's also a lot to watch down-ballot as well. We're firing up a livechat for tonight's results, so please follow along later.

Campaign Pro chief Steve Shepard has our full preview on the website this morning. But here's a quick run-through of what to keep an eye on (all polls closing times are Eastern):

District of Columbia (local and presidential primaries): Polls close at 8 p.m. If you're a D.C. resident and interested in the local races, check out DCist's guide.

Idaho (state primaries): Last ballots must be returned by 11 p.m. Voters could've registered and requested a ballot through mid-May for the all-absentee primaries, although none of the federal races were shaping up to be particularly competitive.

Indiana (state and presidential primaries): The last polling places in the state close at 7 p.m. There's two races to keep an eye on, featured in Monday's Score: The Republican primary in the potential IN-01 battleground, and the Democratic primary in IN-05.

Iowa (state primaries): Polls close at 10 p.m. The two biggest races to watch are the Democratic primary to face Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and the primary challenge to Republican Rep. Steve King in IA-04. Our own James Arkin had a preview of the Democratic Senate primary, where national Democrats are trying to push Theresa Greenfield across the finish line, while Campaign Pro's Ally Mutnick has a look at King's primary, where Randy Feenstra is his most prominent challenger. The other, less competitive House primaries to watch were featured in Score last week.

Maryland (state and presidential primaries): 8 p.m. polls closure time in the Old Line State. The two congressional races to watch in Maryland are the Democratic primaries in MD-05 and MD-07. In MD-05, Mckayla Wilkes is primarying House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Her campaign tells Score that she's raised over $400,000 for her underdog bid to unseat one of Washington's most powerful Democrats — but Hoyer has deployed his significant warchest to swamp any spending from Wilkes, and endorsements have rolled in for him. The Washington Post's Dave Weigel has more on the race.

Once-and-now-current Rep. Kweisi Mfume won a special Democratic primary in the Baltimore-based district in February, before cruising to a victory in the late-April special general election. But some of his April primary challengers are having another go at it. Here's more from The Baltimore Sun's Jeff Barker. Baltimore will also effectively elect a new mayor on Tuesday. Theo Meyer wrote about the race for POLITICO Magazine.

Voting booths | Getty Images

Americans across the country are heading to vote today. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Montana (state and presidential primaries): Polls close here at 10 p.m. In Big Sky Country (which wins my award for best nickname for a state), watch both parties' gubernatorial and at-large congressional seat primaries. Check out the Score preview from last week.

New Mexico (state and presidential primary): Polls close at 9 p.m. There ares two incredibly acrimonious primaries: Among Republicans in the battleground NM-02 and Democrats in the blue NM-03. Republicans will also pick their candidate for the open Senate race, but Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Luján is the favorite for that seat in November. Check out the Score preview here.

Pennsylvania (state and presidential primary): The polls here close at 8 p.m. Alas, we did not reach Pennsylvania on the whistlestop primary tour in Score, but there are three House primaries to watch. In PA-07, Republicans pick between the recently-Trump-endorsed Lisa Scheller and Dan Browning. There's a handful of Republican candidates to face Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright in PA-08, and the Democratic Party favors Eugene Depasquale in PA-10 to face GOP Rep. Scott Perry.

Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order on Monday extending the absentee ballot deadline in six counties — Allegheny, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Montgomery and Philadelphia — saying ballots that are postmarked by today and received by 5 p.m. on June 9 will count. The deadline remains 8 p.m. tonight to hand-deliver ballots, and in the rest of the state.

Rhode Island (presidential primary): 8 p.m. polls closure time here for the presidential primary only.

South Dakota (state and presidential primary): The last polls close at 9 p.m. here, but no races are on our radar.

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Presidential Big Board

THE PROCESS — Holding an election in the middle of a pandemic is tough enough. But add in countrywide civil unrest? That's even tougher — and election administrators will have to deal with that challenge today. Some voting rights advocates told me that — with widespread curfews keeping residents in their homes and some ballot-return locations shuttered — some voters could end up disenfranchised. "We are particularly concerned about how the protests, and particularly the response to the protests, are going to affect voting," said Suzanne Almeida, the interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. She cited two particular stress points: curfews and an increased police presence.

An example: In D.C., the city's curfew is set to start at 7 p.m. today — but polls are open until 8 p.m. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said voters will be exempt from the curfew. "Voting is essential, therefore D.C. residents voting will be exempt to the curfew," Susana Castillo, a spokesperson for Bowser, said in an email to me. But Castillo did not respond to follow-up questions on what steps the government of the plurality-black city will take to ensure that voters traveling to or from their polling place are not subject to the curfew, or whether voters will have to provide proof they actually voted.

— The Wisconsin state Supreme Court will decide if 129,000 voters in the state "whose addresses are in doubt" should be removed from the rolls, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Patrick Marley.

— The Republican National Committee and the Nevada GOP sued in Clark County to "force the county to turn over any communications made by county election officials or county commissioners related to concessions struck between the state's most populous county and Democratic groups, who filed an election-related lawsuit against the state in April," The Nevada Independent's Riley Snyder reported. The county's concessions are for the state's primary.

THE RESPONSE — President Donald Trump and Joe Biden's reactions to the country's sweeping unrest have been drastically different. Trump threatened to send the military into American cities to quell violence in a Rose Garden speech Monday evening, then walked across a Lafayette Park that had been cleared minutes before after law enforcement officers tear gassed and charged peaceful protesters for a photo-op holding a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal church, POLITICO's Caitlin Oprysko reported.

Biden, from Delaware, "used the moment to leave his self-imposed coronavirus quarantine and call for reconciliation. On Sunday, he met with demonstrators on the streets of Wilmington. On Monday, he met with black leaders in a church there before holding a virtual roundtable with the mayors of" major cities, POLITICO's Natasha Korecki and Marc Caputo wrote. He is set to leave Delaware to give a speech in Philadelphia today.

STAFFING UP — Biden's campaign has named two aides to help prepare for the convention: Addisu Demissie, who was Sen. Cory Booker's (D-N.J.) campaign manager, as a senior adviser to coordinate the convention and Lindsay Holst to lead special projects, per The New York Times' Alex Burns.

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Down the Ballot

POMPE-NO — The filing deadline came and went in Kansas on Monday, and Pompeo's hat remained firmly on his head for the Senate race. Now, unless one of the other candidates has a Scooby-Doo-style reveal and pulls off a mask to reveal they are actually Pompeo, the secretary of state will remain off the ballot, leaving a messy GOP primary in his wake, James writes . "The concern from national Republicans centers around Kris Kobach," James wrote. "Rep. Roger Marshall, the two-term congressman, has aimed to position himself as the candidate of choice for GOP supporters concerned that Kobach would put the seat in jeopardy."

ON THE AIRWAVES — One Nation, the Republican dark money group focused on the Senate , is launching a $27 million summer ad blitz in six Senate battlegrounds where Republican incumbents are seeking re-election, James writes (for Pros). The ads will run in Iowa, North Carolina and Montana starting in June; Colorado and Maine starting in July; and Arizona starting in early August.

One Nation also released a new ad featuring a physician and physical therapist touting Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for her role in the Senate's coronavirus legislative response. The ad is part of a $510,000 statewide buy.

— FIRST IN SCORE — Majority Forward, the Democratic dark money group, is up with a new ad criticizing Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.). "We still don't have enough testing in Arizona," the ad's narrator Dr. Gregory Jarrin says. "We have eight tests at our hospital as I speak and McSally still won't support a bill to get us that equipment." The ad, which is backed by a six-figure statewide buy, also criticizes her over preexisting conditions protections.

— The NRSC's ads in Michigan and Arizona have landed. The Michigan ad attacks Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) over manufacturing jobs, and Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly by linking him to China.

THE SENATE MAP — Colorado's Independent Ethics Commission voted Monday to subpoena former Gov. John Hickenlooper, to compel his testimony at an ethics hearing on Thursday, per The Denver Post's Justin Wingerter.

THE CASH DASH — Money is flowing through ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform. "Sunday was the single largest day of giving in all of 2020, with donations of $19 million," according to The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher . Monday broke that short-lived record, Shane later tweeted, raising $20 million as of 9 p.m.

POLLS POLLS POLLS — A poll from Remington Research Group, a Republican pollster, has a tight race in TX-23. The mixed-mode poll, which Remington paid for itself, has Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones at 45 percent to Republican Tony Gonzales' 43 percent (669 likely general election voters; May 19-20; +/- 3.75 percentage point MOE).

THE DEBATE STAGE — Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) met on the debate stage for the first time since February on Monday night, but they still have a long way to go before the Sept. 1 primary in Massachusetts, POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook's Stephanie Murray writes in.

The hourlong debate was planned for mid-March but was postponed due to coronavirus. And when Markey and Kennedy finally met yesterday, the socially-distanced debate illustrated how the pandemic has upended the primary contest. The candidates debated at podiums spaced far apart in a studio without an audience. Even the debate moderators joined by video stream.

During the debate, Kennedy sought to clarify why he's running to unseat Markey, an answer he struggled with in February. In Kennedy's words: "This moment requires stronger presence, better judgment and clearer vision than Sen. Markey has delivered."

— Democrat Amy McGrath, the DSCC-backed candidate in the Kentucky Senate race, debated fellow Democrats Charles Booker and Mike Broihier on Monday. The AP has a recap of the race.

— The four Republicans vying to challenge freshman Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams in UT-04 met for a debate on Monday, the Deseret News' Lisa Riley Roche has a recap.

PRIMARY PROBLEMS — Republican Dennis Taylor, a former Gov. Sam Brownback administration member, jumped into the primary in KS-02 to challenge freshman Republican Rep. Steve Watkins, per The Wichita Eagle's Jonathan Shorman and Bryan Lowry . Watkins was already being challenged by state Treasurer Jake LaTurner. The Eagle also reports that former state Rep. Tom Love, who served one term as a Democrat in the 1990s, joined the Republican primary to challenge freshman Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids in KS-03.

— Progressives are starting to coalesce in the primary to challenge Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel in NY-16. Andom Ghebreghiorgis dropped out of the race on Monday and backed Jamaal Bowman. Shortly afterward, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) aligned group, backed Bowman.

ENDORSEMENT CORNER — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy backed Republican Matt Mowers in the NH-01 primary, per WMUR's John DiStaso.

CODA — ???? OF THE DAY: Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was paid by someone to do a Cameo video encouraging a child through potty training.

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