Democratic presidential hopefuls cast off PACs Presented by the United States Postal Service

Editor's Note: This edition of Morning Score is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Campaigns subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro's comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here.

— Every Democrat who has taken a formal step to run for president has sworn off corporate PAC donations, and some have gone a step further by disavowing super PACs.


— Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke has left Texas for his solo road trip, while advisers plan for 2020.

— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y) appeared in a video promoting the Justice Democrats’ recruitment efforts, which focuses on primary challengers.

Good Thursday morning. Email me at [email protected] or DM me at @ZachMontellaro.

Email the great Campaign Pro team at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @DanielStrauss4, @JamesArkin and @lbarronlopez.

Days until the 2019 election: 293

Days until the 2020 election: 657

KEEP YOUR MONEY — One thing that every Democratic presidential candidate can agree on? They’re not taking money from corporate PACs. Every candidate who has either formally declared or launched an exploratory committee — Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Rep. John Delaney and former HUD Secretary Julián Castro — have all disavowed corporate PAC money, something that is quickly becoming a litmus test in the Democratic Party. (Gabbard said she wouldn't take PAC money in 2017, and her campaign did not respond to questions about her presidential campaign.)

Ultimately, presidential candidates are not leaving a whole lot of money on the table by disavowing corporate PACs. In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s campaign committee and her joint fundraising committee ( Hillary Victory Fund) received a combined $8 million from “other committees” — which includes corporate PACs, labor union PACs and other candidates’ committees. Even if every dime that was donated to the JFC ultimately made it to the campaign (it doesn’t, because the JFC’s fundraising was split between the Clinton campaign, the DNC and state parties), “other committee” money would still only account for around 1.4 percent of the more than $585 million raised by Clinton’s campaign. A candidate could disavow any money not coming from individual donors and still not see much of a dent in what’s sure to be an expensive presidential campaign.

And some candidates have taken it a step further. Gillibrand, Warren and Castro have all said they’d disavow the efforts of any super PAC that tries to support them. And while they can’t stop super PACs from weighing in, rejecting the groups is the next step for many Democrats seeking to cast themselves as not beholden to big-monied interests.

"I don’t think we should have individual super PACs, and I don’t want one," Gillibrand said at a press conference in Troy, N.Y., on Wednesday, per POLITICO’s Elena Schneider and Nick Niedzwiadek. A request from Score to the Gabbard campaign on whether she’d discourage super PACs went unreturned, while Ahmed Elsayed, a spokesperson for Delaney, said Delaney will not explicitly disavow the support of super PACs this cycle.

PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD — O’Rourke has kicked off his road trip, while top advisers are quietly trying to sketch out what a 2020 run could look like. “Becky Bond, a senior adviser to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and an adviser to O’Rourke’s 2018 Senate run, has been talking with operatives in recent days about potential jobs on a 2020 campaign,” POLITICO’s David Siders reported, noting that the effort was not directly ordered by O’Rourke. “In talks with Democratic strategists, Bond and David Wysong, O’Rourke’s former longtime chief of staff, have discussed ways for O’Rourke to expand the ‘distributed organizing’ form of field operations used by Sanders in 2016 and replicated by O’Rourke last year — with the campaign training low-level staffers and volunteers to orchestrate their own, phone banking, text and email operations.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) met Wednesday with former staffers who raised concerns about sexual harassment and assault during his 2016 campaign, POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein and Alex Thompson reported. Top aides like Jeff Weaver and Shannon Jackson, his 2016 and 2018 campaign managers, were also at the meeting along with Jane Sanders, his wife. The senator declined to talk about what was discussed.

— Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) is planning a trip to New Hampshire, kicking off the latest round of 2020 speculation, The Boston Globe’s James Pindell reported.

— After Gabbard’s history of anti-LGBTQ comments sufaced, her team reached out to advocacy groups, BuzzFeed News’ Alexis Levinson reported.

— With potentially more than a dozen candidates eying a presidential run, quality campaign staffers are in high demand, especially in early states, McClatchy’s Adam Wollner reported.

COMMITTEE LEADERSHIP — NRCC chief Tom Emmer announced his committee’s leadership team for the cycle. Reps. Ken Calvert, Jodey Arrington and Tom Graves were all named deputy chairs. Meanwhile, he named eight vice chairs, including Rep. Susan Brooks for recruitment, Rep. Richard Hudson for finance and Rep. John Katko for the Patriot program, which bolsters incumbents in competitive districts (here’s more from Campaign Pro’s Laura Barrón-López).

— The Republican Attorneys General Association hired Danielle Cleveland as deputy executive director and promoted Ashley Highlander to finance director, Campaign Pro’s Daniel Strauss reported.

PRIMARY TIME — Ocasio-Cortez appeared in a video for the group Justice Democrats, which initially recruited her to run for Congress and is now recruiting candidates to challenge some Democrats in primaries. But does that mean she backs primary challenges? “Pressed on whether Ocasio-Cortez supports the Justice Democrats’ primary effort, [Corbin] Trent, her spokesman, said she’s not ‘focused’ on their campaign,” Laura and Heather Caygle reported. “But ‘yes, with 70 percent of people living in a safe red or safe blue district, for most people that’s going to happen through the primary process.’” The group also said it’s keeping an eye on Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) as a potential primary target.

— Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) will almost certainly draw a primary challenge this year. A spokesperson for NARAL Pro-Choice America told The Hill’s Lisa Hagen that the group will again be meeting with candidates who want to challenge him, while his 2018 primary challenger, Marie Newman, said she is considering another run.

LEGAL TROUBLE — A former staffer is suing Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), alleging retaliation. The woman claims she was fired because she had planned to sue the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation after she says she was raped by a CBCF employee, BuzzFeed News’ Zoo Tillman reported. Jackson Lee’s chief of staff told BFN that “we had nothing to do with any of the actions that have been cited and the person was not wrongfully terminated.”

UP NEXT — File away in the “not a no” category: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) wouldn’t give a straight no to Metro News on if he’s interested in running for his old job as governor. “Let’s just see what unfolds,” Manchin said.

ANYONE HOME? — Nine Senate Democrats sent a letter to FEC Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub expressing concern over how the shutdown was preventing the agency from enforcing campaign finance law, POLITICO’s Katie Galioto reported.

— The president again nominated James Trainor III to be on the FEC. The Senate failed to vote on his nomination in the 115th Congress.

OPEN SEAT WATCH — Or in this case, a potentially open seat closing: Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) said he would not run for mayor of San Diego and will instead seek reelection in CA-52, a safe blue district.

FIRST IN SCORE — BIG TECH — ACRONYM, the progressive digital-oriented organization, acquired Groundbase, a peer-to-peer SMS and customer-relationship management tool, and will launch Shadow, a tech company that will operate Groundbase and build other products. Shadow will work to “harness, integrate and manage data across the platforms and technologies,” and the organization said it will build on top of whatever data warehouse the Democratic party ultimately settles on.

CAMPAIGN CASH — Not every politician is on the anti-corporate PAC train. Sludge’s Donald Shaw reported that eight representatives — four Democrats, four Republicans — got at least two-thirds of their campaign funds from PACs representing corporations and corporate trade associations.

THE DEMOCRATIC BASE — Two top MoveOn executives are leaving the activism group later this year. Anna Galland and Ilya Sheyman, who were executive directors of MoveOn Civic Action and MoveOn Political Action, respectively, will step down after the organization completes a search for new leadership.

CODA — VIDEO OF THE DAY: “Senators Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand Play How Well Do You Know Your Co-Worker” from Marie Claire.

Follow us on Twitter Steven Shepard @politico_steve



Zach Montellaro @zachmontellaro



James Arkin @jamesarkin



Ally Mutnick @allymutnick