We Did it: Trump looks to bury Sessions as Senate runoff nears — Biden rakes in $80.8M in May

Jun 16, 2020

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Quick Fix

— President Donald Trump is looking to bury former Attorney General Jeff Sessions' comeback bid in Alabama, reportedly planning a rally in the state as Sessions tosses everything at the wall to see what sticks.

— Joe Biden posted his best fundraising month ever. His campaign announced that he, the DNC and affiliated fundraising committees raised over $80.8 million in May.

— The GOP primary to challenge Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford in Nevada was called on Monday, with Republicans nominating former state Rep. Jim Marchant.

Good Tuesday morning. I'm back! Thanks to Steve for tackling Monday's Score, and thanks to James (jarkin@politico.com; @JamesArkin) for helping out with today's Topline. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com, or follow me on Twitter at @ZachMontellaro.

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Days until the Kentucky, New York and Virginia primaries and Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina primary runoffs: 7

Days until the Democratic convention: 62

Days until the Republican convention: 70

Days until the 2020 election: 140

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TopLine

SWEET HOME ALABAMA — Trump is looking to finish off Sessions, his former attorney general, in Alabama. Sessions is going up against former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville for the right to face Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) in November, and the president is doing everything in his power to make sure Sessions doesn't make a comeback.

The president has repeatedly lambasted Sessions on Twitter and has formally endorsed Tuberville's bid to challenge Jones. Tuberville greeted Trump on Air Force One in Dallas last week. But now the president is looking to drive the knife in further. CNN's Kaitlan Collins reported that Trump will rally for Tuberville in Mobile, Ala. — Sessions' hometown — in the "days before the runoff election" on July 14.

Tommy Tuberville | AP Photo

Republican Tommy Tuberville is running in the Alabama GOP runoff against former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. | AP Photo

Tuberville is also getting more help in the form of the Club for Growth. The anti-tax group's political arm, which has worked hard to get back into the president's good graces after railing against him in 2016, is going on the airwaves in Alabama as well. The ad highlights the fact that Trump backed Tuberville. The Club's TV campaign is nearly $750,000, starting today and running through runoff day.

As he tries to save his political career, Sessions has been launching various lines of attack, hoping something will stick. His campaign launched a new ad Tuesday highlighting a clip of Tuberville saying during a campaign event last year that he was "not an everyday resident of Alabama." Sessions remains unwilling to fully attack the uber-popular Trump in a deep red state, while not being able to tie himself to a president who very obviously loathes him.

"The people of Alabama will not be told who to vote for by anyone in Washington," he said in a pair of tweets on Monday, responding to CNN's report that Trump will visit Alabama. "It's always a good day when the President of the United States visits Alabama. That said, Alabama will vote solidly for [Trump] this fall, so his time would be far better spent in swing states he must win to be reelected." The former attorney general has also chastised Jones for wanting to rename military bases named after confederate soldiers, seeking to appeal to conservative voters in the cradle of the confederacy.

Sessions and Tuberville have also engaged in everyone's favorite type of debate: a debate about debates. Sessions has tried to goad the former coach into squaring off by consistently accusing him of being afraid, and saying the lack of debates shows he can't handle the work of a senator. But Tuberville, the frontrunner in recent public and private polling, has shown no interest in debating his opponent. ("If coaching taught me anything, it's that you don't let the losing team dictate the game when you're sitting on a lead," Tuberville memorably said in a statement last month.)

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Presidential Big Board

THE CASH DASH — Biden posted a big fundraising haul in May. Biden, the DNC and associated joint fundraising committees collectively raised $80.8 million in May, POLITICO's Marc Caputo reported. They did not release cash on hand totals. (Reminder: Saturday is the monthly FEC filing deadline!)

— President Donald Trump's campaign and the RNC announced they raised $14 million online on Sunday — which was the president's birthday — its best online fundraising day ever, per Fox News' Gregg Re.

STAFF RELATIONS — Attorneys for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg asked a federal court to toss a lawsuit brought by former field organizers, who sued after Bloomberg reneged on promises to employ workers through November even if he wasn't the nominee. POLITICO's Chris Cadelago reported that Bloomberg's lawyers wrote that employees signed offer letters and were given employee handbooks that stated they were "at will" employees.

THE PROCESS — Maine Republicans said they submitted enough signatures to force a referendum on whether ranked-choice voting in the state should be expanded to the presidential level. The Bangor Daily News' Jessica Piper and Michael Shepherd : If the Maine secretary of state's office "determines enough signatures are valid, the measure will be on the ballot this fall. Getting the initiative on the ballot automatically delays the law, meaning ranked-choice voting would not be used in the 2020 presidential election."

— Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, announced that his office will send every registered voter an absentee ballot request form. LaRose's office said the Ohio Controlling Board authorized the use of $1.5 million to send the forms (which will be entirely federal funds) and will start sending them out around Labor Day.

— The post office has struggled with the increase of absentee ballots in some primaries, an ominous sign for the beleaguered agency ahead of November. ProPublica's Ryan McCarthy and Maryam Jameel have a good report on how USPS's struggles — combined with election administrators not updating their practices in light of the coronavirus — could spell trouble.

— William Consovoy, one of Republicans' leading election lawyers who was behind the Supreme Court case that gutted the Voting Rights Act, was profiled by The New York Times' Danny Hakim and Stephanie Saul.

VEEPSTAKES — Over 100 liberal activists and celebrities sent a letter to the Biden campaign pushing for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to be his running mate, per The Washington Post's Sean Sullivan . Warren also headlined a fundraiser for Biden on Monday night that raised $6 million, per pooler Hanna Trudo of The Daily Beast, the biggest Biden Victory Fundraiser yet.

POLLS POLLS POLLS — We got a tight race in Iowa. A New Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa, conducted by Selzer & Co., has Trump at 44 percent to 43 percent for Biden (674 likely voters; June 7-10 +/- 3.8 percentage point MOE).

HAPPENING TODAY at 12 p.m. EDT/9 a.m. PDT: A VIRTUAL INTERVIEW WITH LOS ANGELES MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI: Los Angeles is grappling with a rising number of Covid-19 cases and a wave of protests for racial justice after the killing of George Floyd. California Playbook authors Carla Marinucci and Jeremy White will find out how Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is dealing with these twin crises during a virtual interview TODAY. REGISTER HERE.

Down the Ballot

THEY MATTER — We can now close the books on the Nevada primaries. On Monday, the AP called the race to face Horsford in NV-04, with Marchant emerging from a crowded primary. The two will square off in this seat that backed Hillary Clinton by about five points in 2016.

FIRST IN SCORE — POLL POSITION — A new poll for Alaska's at-large House seat shows what could be a sleeper race. The text-to-web poll from liberal pollster Data for Progress has GOP Rep. Don Young at 42 percent to independent's Alyse Galvin's 43 percent (589 likely voters; May 21-May 27; +/- 4.0 percentage point MOE). Galvin, who's running with the backing of Democrats, lost to Young by about five points in the midterms. DFP paid for the poll itself.

— FIRST IN SCORE — An internal poll from Democrat Hillary Scholten in MI-03 has a tight race between her and the leading Republicans in the district. In the poll from ALG Research, Scholten and Republican Peter Meijer are at 40 percent and 39 percent, respectively. In a potential head-to-head between Scholten and Republican Lynn Afendoulis, both are at 40 percent (502 likely general election voters; June 3-7; +/- 4.4 percentage point MOE). However, the poll does not test the race if current Rep. Justin Amash was on the ballot as a Libertarian or independent; Amash hasn't made his plans clear since he nixed a presidential run. (The filing deadline for the major parties have passed, but not for independent or minor parties.)

— A Club for Growth PAC poll pours cold water on the primary challenge to GOP Rep. Thomas Massie in KY-04. A poll from WPA Intelligence found the Club-backed Massie at 77 percent, to 11 percent for primary challenger Todd McMurty (411 likely primary voters; June 10-11; +/- 4.9 percentage point MOE). Trump's call to boot Massie from the Republican Party just three months ago seems like a lifetime ago at this point.

ENDORSEMENT CORNER — Clinton had waded into the primary in NY-16. The former secretary of state made her first Democratic primary endorsement of the year, The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher reported, backing Rep. Eliot Engel over Jamaal Bowman — who has the support of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and most progressive groups.

— FIRST IN SCORE — EMILY's List announced it was backing Democrat Joyce Elliott, who is challenging GOP Rep. French Hill in the Republican-leaning AR-02. "As a state senator and chair of the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus, Joyce has used her position of power to represent marginalized communities and address the issues most important to her constituents," EMILY's List president Stephanie Schriock said in a statement.

— Sanders made two more endorsements on Monday, backing Arati Kreibich, who is primarying Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer in NJ-05, and Beth Doglio, who is running in the open-seat WA-10.

— Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) backed Democrat Mondaire Jones in the open-seat primary in NY-17.

FIRST IN SCORE — ON THE AIRWAVES — Club for Growth Action is going up with a new campaign in the Republican primary in the safe, red AL-02. The ad, a positive biographical spot of Barry Moore, says he was "with Trump from the start," using footage of a 2015 rally. Moore is facing Jeff Coleman in the primary runoff in the district on July 14. This ad will air start airing today, and the Club will return to the airwaves from July 1-14.

— The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching TV ads boosting Republican senators in Maine, Colorado and North Carolina this week, James reported. The ads are positive spots aimed to support Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. They are backed by a seven-figure buy.

— Democrat Brigid Callahan Harrison, who is one of the Democrats running for the right to challenge party-switching GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew in NJ-02, is out with her first television ad. The ad leans on Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who promotes Harrison as a champion of the working class.

— Collins launched a new TV ad criticizing Sara Gideon, the frontrunner in the July Democratic Senate primary. The ad uses footage of Betsy Sweet, one of the other Democrats in the race, criticizing Gideon for not taking part in a virtual debate.

— Majority Forward launched a new ad in North Carolina hitting Tillis over his role in blocking the state from expanding Medicaid. The ad is backed by a seven-figure buy, according to a release.

— Democrat Charles Booker is launching a new ad in the Kentucky Senate primary attacking Amy McGrath for her response in a debate over why she had not, at the time, attended protests over police brutality in the state.

THE SENATE MAP — Another brutal story for former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. The AP's Nick Riccardi lays it out thusly: "Former Colorado governor and current Senate hopeful John Hickenlooper apologized Monday for comments he made six years ago comparing politicians to slaves being whipped to row 'an ancient slave ship.'" Hickenlooper, who in the video compared political schedulers to the ones whipping slaves, said in a statement "I recognize that my comments were painful. I did not intend them to be. I offer my deepest apologies."

CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The only bad thing is I have completely lost sense of taste and smell. CAN'T TASTE BACON!!!" — Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.), announcing that he has a fairly mild case of the coronavirus. (His entire household has been infected.)

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