| | | | | |  | | By Zach Montellaro | Editor's Note: Weekly Score is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Campaigns policy newsletter, Morning Score. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
| | | — It was an eventful weekend in Georgia: GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock met for the only debate of their special election on Sunday, one day after outgoing President Donald Trump rallied for Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue — spreading conspiracies about the election and attacking Republican officials in the state, while encouraging supporters to not skip the runoff. — Former South Carolina Senate candidate Jaime Harrison is the frontrunner to be President-elect Joe Biden's pick to lead the DNC, with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) serving as an influential booster in public and behind the scenes. — Luke Letlow won the all-Republican runoff in the deep-red LA-05, leaving just two House seats left undecided. Good Monday morning. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com and follow me on Twitter at @ZachMontellaro. Email the rest of the POLITICO Campaigns team at sshepard@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com, amutnick@politico.com and srodriguez@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @POLITICO_Steve, @JamesArkin, @allymutnick and @sabrod123. Days until the Georgia Senate runoffs: 29 Days until the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections: 330 Days until the 2022 midterm elections: 701 | | | ON MY MIND — In their only debate on Sunday night, Loeffler repeatedly declined to acknowledge that Biden has won the presidency, POLITICO Campaigns' James Arkin wrote, while labeling Warnock as a radical. Warnock, meanwhile, attacked Loeffler for her stock trading, and skipped answering a question on expanding the Supreme Court. (Plus, here's the local coverage from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Patricia Murphy.) Earlier in the evening, Democrat Jon Ossoff "debated" an empty podium earlier in the evening, after Perdue skipped out and said he wasn't debating Ossoff for the runoff. (Here's The AJC's coverage from Murphy.) Meanwhile, Trump traveled to Valdosta, Ga., Saturday evening to rally for Loeffler and Perdue. The president "spent a surprising amount of time forcefully urging Georgians to vote in 'the most important congressional runoff, probably in American history,'" POLITICO's Meridith McGraw wrote. "But in the end, the performance didn't change — Trump mostly promoted himself. He falsely claimed the election was rigged and he won the election … He complained about investigations against him. And he stepped up pressure on Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to overturn the results of the election, following their call this morning." On that call, Trump tried to pressure Kemp to call a special session of the state legislature to try to overturn the results in the state, but Kemp rebuffed him, The Washington Post's Amy Gardner, Colby Itkowitz and Josh Dawsey first reported. Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan put out a statement on Sunday evening, saying the rogue legislature idea breaks the law. "While we understand four members of the Georgia Senate are requesting the convening of a special session of the General Assembly, doing this in order to select a separate slate of presidential electors is not an option that is allowed under state or federal law," they said. "The judicial system remains the only viable — and quickest — option in disputing the results of the November 3rd election in Georgia." POLITICO's Allie Bice has a roundup of Sunday show appearances from Georgia Republicans, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Duncan, also pushing back on the idea of a special session. Underpinning the president's trip to Georgia is concern among Republicans that their voters will stay home for the Jan. 5 runoff — something that's been explicitly promoted by certain corners of the MAGAverse, like the conspiracy theorists/lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood. "In interviews with more than two dozen voters in the state over the weekend, not a single person told POLITICO they thought Joe Biden won the election, despite two recounts in Georgia and elections being certified in enough states for him to be above 270 electoral college votes.," James reported . "But all of the voters said they planned to vote again on Jan. 5, heeding calls from Trump, Pence and most every other Republican to show up again with the Senate majority hanging in the balance." — Plus more TV ads. Ossoff has an ad attacking Perdue over his stock trading and saying he is blocking relief. Loeffler also has a pair of ads with constituents, one a business owner and another on unemployment, praising her for helping. An ad for Warnock has a man whose wife died from coronavirus attacking Loeffler over the pandemic response.
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| | | LEADING THE PARTY — Harrison, fresh off a $130 million-plus losing Senate campaign , is the frontrunner to become the next DNC chair — with the support of Clyburn. "The House majority whip has spent the last few weeks publicly and privately advocating for Harrison, and has even spoken to Biden about the DNC chair position, an aide to the congressman" told POLITICO's Holly Otterbein. Harrison's past as a state party chair is also seen as a plus. "Though their financial support has been boosted since then, many state party chairs still want one of their own to lead the party and, they hope, adequately fund their organizations." IGNORING THE PEOPLE — Dozens of GOP state legislators in Pennsylvania, including the speaker of the state House, called on members of Congress to challenge Biden's victory in the state when Congress votes to certify the results in early January, POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reported. The effort, which totally ignores the fact that they, too, were elected on the very election they're trying to reject, "is the most aggressive effort to date from GOP elected officials to block Biden's election." Meanwhile, Biden has more than 270 electoral college votes from states that have certified their results, with California pushing him over that magic number on Friday, the AP's Michael Blood and Nick Riccardi wrote. — Most congressional Republicans continue to deny the reality that Biden won the election. Reporters for The Washington Post contacted every Republican member, and just 27 said that Biden is president-elect. Well over 200 members didn't respond or have given unclear public statements, and two delusional members said Trump won. FIRST IN THE NATION? — From the technical failure that was the caucus to disappointing results up-and-down the ballot in November, it was a bad year for Iowa Democrats. Could it cost the state its first in the nation status in 2024? POLITICO's David Siders : "The road back to relevance is going to be a slog, with deep ramifications for a national party that is laboring to regain a durable foothold in the Midwest. Following the election, Mark Smith, the current state party chairman — who stepped in after his predecessor, Troy Price, resigned following the caucuses — announced he will not seek re-election. Though a handful of Democrats have already signaled their intent to run for the post, some of the most high-profile Democrats in the state, including J.D. Scholten and Deidre DeJear, had been recruited for the position but told colleagues they will not run — something both Scholten and DeJear confirmed." LEGAL EAGLES — Rudy Giuliani, who has spent much of the past two weeks traveling across the country to allege election fraud without evidence, has tested positive for the coronavirus. Allie has more. WEB WARS — Biden's "Twitter isn't real life" digital operation was part of his winning formula. And while "figuring out whether any particular online strategy decisively moved the needle for Mr. Biden is probably impossible," The New York Times' tech columnist Kevin Roose wrote, his piece has a good look at the campaign's operations.
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| | | WINNER WINNER — We have a winner in LA-05. Letlow easily beat state Rep. Lance Harris in LA-05 — a sprawling, deep red district along the Mississippi River down to the Florida Parishes, in a runoff on Saturday. Letlow will replace retiring GOP Rep. Ralph Abraham, his former boss. Turnout was incredibly low, The Advocate's Tyler Bridges reported, with just 15 percent of the district's voters casting a ballot. This leaves two House races outstanding, both battleground districts where the vote margins are razor-thin. In IA-02, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks is up six votes in the certified results; Democrat Rita Hart said she'd skip a challenge in state court and asked the House to review the election under the Federal Contested Elections Act. ( The Gazette's Erin Murphy has more.) The other uncalled race is between Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi and former GOP Rep. Claudia Tenney. Tenney has a dozen vote lead in a race that has been marred by awful election administration. There's a hearing set for today, The Syracuse Post-Standard Mark Weiner reported. THE GOVERNATORS — Virginia Republicans will select their 2021 gubernatorial nominee via a convention instead of a statewide primary, spurring a controversial state senator to announce she will run as an independent, The Washington Post's Laura Vozzella reported. State Sen. Amanda Chase, who has been compared to Trump (and embraces said comparison), said she'd run as an independent. More from WaPo: "Chase's name did not come up during the committee meeting, but some members voiced fears about a weak candidate eking out a win in a crowded primary with perhaps 35 percent of the vote." NOW IN CHARGE — John Billings will be the executive director for the NRCC in 2022, succeeding Parker Poling. Billings led the NRCC's incumbent-protection program this cycle. POLITICO Campaigns' Ally Mutnick has more (for Pros). CODA — WEIRD POLITICAL MEMORABILIA OF THE DAY: A jersey that former President Barack Obama wore while playing high school basketball in Hawaii sold for $192,000 at an auction, per CNN. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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