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Quick Fix
— Kansas’ state GOP chair is urging some candidates to drop out of the Senate primary, as national Republicans are fearful of a potential Kris Kobach nomination.
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— President Donald Trump’s orbit is split on what to do next: Launch a scorched earth campaign against Joe Biden, or run an affirmative message supporting the president.
— Republicans in Utah are holding their virtual convention over the weekend, which will get the party closer to its nominees for the contested gubernatorial election and a battleground House seat.
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Days until the absentee ballot deadline for the Ohio primary: 4
Days until the 2020 election: 193
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TopLine
KANSAS BRAWL — Kansas state GOP chairman Mike Kuckelman took the unusual step of asking two candidates to drop out of the Senate primary, as national Republicans still fear that nominating former Secretary of State Kris Kobach could put the otherwise safe seat into play.
Kuckelman sent a letter to both state Senate President Susan Wagle and former Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Dave Lindstrom urging them to step aside and drop out of the race, The Kansas City Star’s Bryan Lowry reported. “Failure to suspend your campaign could negatively impact the outcome of the race — something we’ve seen in recent Kansas history — and could possibly cost Kansas Republicans the U.S. Senate seat,” Kuckelman wrote. Shannon Golden, the state party’s executive director, told The Star that the party wanted a clear primary between Kobach and Rep. Roger Marshall, but said it wasn’t favoring one candidate over another. Both Wagle and Lindstrom said they weren’t going anywhere.
Kobach’s candidacy has long been a thorn in the side of national Republicans, who think he could lose a Senate seat to Democrat Barbara Bollier, following his loss to now-Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in the midterms. Both the NRSC and Senate Leadership Fund have taken potshots at Kobach, who has done the same in return. Democrats have lined up behind Barbara Bollier, who relatively recently switched parties, as their best chance of winning the seat.
We haven’t had a primary poll in the state in a bit, so we don’t have a clear picture of what’s taking place on the ground. But none of the Republicans had a particularly stunning first-quarter fundraising report. Kobach raised $242,000 and reported $317,000 in the bank. Marshall didn’t do much better — raising $377,000 in the quarter — but has significantly more cash on hand at just under $2 million. (Marshall’s campaign said that he raised $250,000 in the three days following Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ruling out running in early January, which means the rest of his quarter was particularly underwhelming). Wagle barely broke $100,000 in fundraising in the quarter, with $515,000 in the bank (and some debt). Lindstrom raised $79,000 and had $266,000 left over. Businessman Bob Hamilton also entered the race at the end of the quarter and loaned himself $2 million.
The wild card remains the outside groups, which have been quiet for at least a bit. Club for Growth Action, which hasn’t been shy about spending money in primaries, still opposes Marshall’s candidacy and has airtime booked starting in June. Free Forever PAC, which is supportive of Kobach and almost entirely bankrolled by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, has also not made much noise recently (but Thiel did give the group $250,000 in the quarter). The pro-Marshall Keep Kanas Great super PAC has also not reported activity.
Presidential Big Board
THE REELECT — Different arms of Trumpworld are taking diverging paths forward. “The Republican National Committee has launched a massive effort to reach some 20 million swing voters to make an affirmative case for his performance. But Trump campaign officials are taking a different approach: Rather than devoting resources to boost Trump’s numbers, which haven’t moved materially since he was elected, they want to go scorched earth against Joe Biden,” POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt wrote. “The deliberations illustrate how the highest ranks of the Republican Party are grappling with the uncertainty the coronavirus crisis has injected into the race — and how best to prepare for a general election that looks nothing like what they'd been anticipating.”
Some advisers argue “there’s little public appetite in a slash-and-burn campaign at a time when Americans are suffering. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump adviser and ally, said the president should wait until the late August convention to begin a full-fledged campaign and instead focus on dealing with the crisis. Dealing with it effectively, he contended, would virtually cement Trump's reelection. … Yet campaign officials see reason to begin nuking Biden, especially as the former vice president ramps up his attacks. Liberal outside groups have spent millions of dollars on TV ads in battleground states going after Trump.”
— The Trump campaign launched an app that gamifies voter contact, CNN’s Dana Bash and Bridget Nolan wrote.
VEEPSTAKES — Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said she never spoke to Biden about being his potential running mate. “I never had any talks [with] him about any of that, because for me, what’s important is winning this election,” she told TIME’s Brian Bennett. But she did dodge a question on what she’d say if she was asked: “I am not engaging in the hypotheticals.”
FLORIDA, FLORIDA, FLORIDA — A new Fox News poll gives Biden a small lead over Trump, 46 percent to 43 percent (April 18-21; 1,004 registered voters; +/- 3 percentage points).
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE — Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is advising Biden’s presidential campaign, Bloomberg’s Jennifer Epstein reported, a move that will not thrill progressives.
Down the Ballot
eCONVENTION — Utah Republicans are (virtually) meeting this weekend, to start to winnow the field for a series of races in the state. Three primary races to keep an eye on: Governor, replacing Rep. Rob Bishop (who is running for lieutenant governor) in the red UT-01 and the battle to face freshman Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams in UT-04.
In Utah, candidates can get on the primary ballot in one of two ways: Submit enough signatures to qualify, or win enough delegates at the convention. (The former path did not exist back in 2010, when the late Bob Bennett was booted out of office at the convention.) If you’re going the delegate route, it’s a ranked-choice ballot that results in either one candidate qualifying with 60 percent of the delegates, or the top two making it. The voting is also being done over the internet using the Voatz app. (That may sound familiar to Score readers who remember some of our writing on internet voting.) Voting opened on Thursday and closes on Saturday. “We’ve had to reinvent a political process in about five weeks,” state GOP chair Derek Brown told Score. The convention will now largely be done at the leisure of the delegates. Candidates prerecorded speeches, and the only thing that will happen live is the results being announced on Saturday, Brown said.
For the governor’s race, three candidates submitted signatures for the ballot, according to the Deseret News’ Lisa Riley Roche: Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, former Gov. Jon Huntsman and former party chair Thomas Wright. Former state House Speaker Greg Hughes, Jeff Burningham, Aimee Winder Newton and Jason Christensen are all trying to win delegates. (And the three aforementioned candidates who have submitted signatures are also competing for delegates.)
In UT-04, three Republicans turned in signatures to be on the primary ballot: Burgess Owens, Jay Mcfarland and Trent Christensen. Four others — state Rep. Kim Coleman, Kathleen Anderson, Chris Biesinger and Cindy Thompson — are only competing for delegates, with the trio who qualified via the signature route also battling it out on the virtual convention floor. The UT-01 primary field is a messy one with a dozen candidates.
GETTIN’ CHIPPY — A pair of primaries in battleground House seats are getting a bit chippy. In TX-24, Democrats Kim Olson and Candace Valenzuela will face off in a runoff for the open battleground seat. Rumbling in the background is a military contracting controversy for Olson, The Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek reported. Valenzuela’s campaign has not mentioned it, but some outside supporters have started to raise it, and Republicans have beat that drum repeatedly. (The Trib’s story has more details on the scandal, which includes Olson’s commander defending her).
— A primary that’s had more direct elbows thrown is the GOP primary in NM-02. Republican Claire Chase is out with a new ad saying Yvette Herrell “undermined Trump’s campaign” in her latest campaign ad. Both candidates are trying to run as staunch supporters of the president for the ultimate right to face freshman Democratic Rep. Xochitl Torres Small.
ALL OVER — Republican Irina Vilariño is ending her campaign to challenge freshman Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in FL-26, per Florida Politics’ Ryan Nicol. That helps clear the field for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
ON THE AIRWAVES — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign released a new ad Friday highlighting his role in responding to crises throughout his time in the Senate. “When unexpected challenges confront us, there is one man, sent by Kentucky, to do the right thing for all of us,” a narrator says in the new one-minute long spot. “Experience when experience matters most.”
FIRST IN SCORE — ENDORSEMENT CORNER — BOLD PAC, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, is endorsing two Democratic Senate candidates: Sara Gideon in Maine and Cal Cunningham in North Carolina. “With so much at stake this November, BOLD PAC is committed to supporting Democratic candidates who will be integral to helping us take back the upper chamber,” Rep. Tony Cárdenas, the chair of BOLD PAC, said in a statement.
POLL POSITION — An early poll in New Jersey finds that the battle for the House in the five most competitive districts could be tight. A Monmouth University poll found that across the five districts — the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 11th — the generic House ball is 46 percent Republican and 45 percent Democrat. Democrats hold all of the seats except NJ-02, which is represented by party-switching Rep. Jeff Van Drew.
— Club for Growth PAC is out with an internal poll in SC-01 that has Nancy Mace as the favorite for the Republican nomination. The Club-backed Mace, who also has the support of most of party leadership, is at 42 percent in the poll conducted by WPA Intelligence. Kathy Landing is at 13 percent, Chris Cox is at 8 percent and Brad Mole is at 3 percent, with 34 percent undecided (401 likely primary voters; April 20-21; +/- 4.9 percentage point MOE).
CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Ever since I’ve come to Congress, it’s always been bizarre situations.” — Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) to POLITICO.
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