House Republicans pretend Trump doesn't exist Presented by the United States Postal Service

With Kevin Robillard and Elena Schneider

The following newsletter is an abridged version of Campaign Pro's Morning Score. For an earlier morning read on exponentially more races — and for a more comprehensive aggregation of the day's most important campaign news — sign up for Campaign Pro today. (https://subscriber.politicopro.com/proinfo)


"YOU KNOW WHO" — "Endangered House Republicans: Trump who?” by POLITICO’s Lauren French: “Vulnerable House Republicans are adopting a strategy for campaigning with Donald Trump as their nominee: Bury their heads in the sand and hope for the best. POLITICO interviewed a half-dozen lawmakers in tough reelection races, ones who have perhaps the most to fear about Trump as their general election standard bearer. Their plan, in a word, is to ignore him. Disregard the racket in the presidential race and keep it local. Whether voters will do the same is another matter, but they're playing the hand they've been dealt. Few of the Republican lawmakers were comfortable discussing Trump. Some wouldn't utter his name.”

— "Freshman Rep. Mike Bishop (R-Mich.) said he 'probably' wouldn't share a stage with Trump. 'I'm hoping that if he is the nominee, he'll modulate, he'll be presidential and I won't have to defend his words,' Bishop said. Trump's influence on down-ticket races is a hot topic of debate in both parties. Senior Republicans have argued that his appeal to independent voters could help the GOP in November. But one influential pollster told GOP House leaders earlier this year that Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz would be a drag on Republican candidates nationally." http://politi.co/1UasCVw

MO’ OPPO, MO’ PROBLEMS — RGA hunting for black lung victims in West Virginia governor's race: An opposition researcher working for the Republican Governors Association is on the hunt for miners stricken by black lung while working in mines owned by Jim Justice, a wealthy Democrat running for governor in West Virginia, or people who knew about wrongdoing by Justice, according to a letter obtained by Campaign Pro. The timing suggests that Republicans may be preparing to attack Justice ahead of the May primary, in which Justice faces two prominent challengers. It also foreshadows a 2016 election campaign that could be one of the country's most expensive.

— The researcher, Terry Cooper, wrote to a Democratic lawyer who had worked on black lung cases — including some where he sued Justice — asking if he knew “individuals with first-hand knowledge of Justice’s companies’ deceptive and unsafe practices who are willing to go on the record” and participate in the filming of TV ad. The film crew, Cooper wrote, would be on site from March 29 to March 31. “You have clearly stood up for ill coal miners,” Cooper, the RGA researcher, wrote. “Helping to deny Jim Justice the governorship of West Virginia will be another major step in that direction.” Read the letter: http://politico.pro/1Mc7NWN

— Here’s the response from Jon Thompson, an RGA spokesman: “We've been contacted by many West Virginia residents who have personally been hurt by the bad practices of Jim Justice, and we want folks to feel they have a voice. Just in the last few weeks he has been ruled in contempt of court, fined millions and had property seized for not paying his bills. But somehow, he finds money to fund his campaign for governor. This is just a small, recent example of the many ways we are hearing Justice has treated people.”

Days until the Arizona and Utah primaries and the Idaho Democratic caucuses: 4.

Days until the 2016 election: 235.

Thanks for joining us. You can email tips to the whole Campaign Pro team at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally about our midday mistakes: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @kyledcheney.

STILL CLOSE — Kirkpatrick ties McCain in a second poll: GOP Sen. John McCain and his Democratic challenger, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, are tied in another independent survey of the race. According to a new Merrill Poll, 41 percent of registered voters would support McCain and 40 percent would support Kirkpatrick, with 16 percent undecided and 3 percent supporting neither candidate. The statewide poll surveyed 701 voters from March 7 to March 11, and it had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. (The poll did not test former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who's challenging McCain in the primary but hasn't gotten much traction so far.) The results echoed a Rocky Mountain Poll conducted in January that found McCain with 38 percent support among registered voters and Kirkpatrick with 37 percent. Full results: http://huff.to/1Xz872x.

DELEGATE CHASE — 22 GOP delegates still too close to call in Missouri: Two congressional districts and the overall statewide vote are still uncalled in Missouri, according to The Associated Press. Donald Trump holds a mere 0.2 percentage point lead over Ted Cruz in the state, putting him in the driver’s seat for 12 statewide delegates. But Cruz is clinging to tiny leads in two congressional districts. The overarching lesson: March 15 easily could have been even worse for Team #StopTrump. In the current unofficial count, Cruz leads MO-04 and MO-05, and the race for their whopping 10 delegates, by less than 0.7 percentage points each (under 1,300 votes combined in the two seats). http://on.mo.gov/1S6SKwF

FIRST IN SCORE — Portman to unveil Snapchat filter: Ohio Sen. Rob Portman will be the first Republican Senate candidate to use Snapchat today, unveiling a Snapchat filter that will be available near Strickland’s downtown Columbus headquarters. The filter reminds users: “UNDER GOV. STRICKLAND, OHIO LOST OVER 350,000 JOBS.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee has run Snapchat ads in the past and released a memo earlier this month encouraging campaigns to adopt the technology.

PRIMARY DAYS — Steve King draws a primary challenger in IA-04: State Sen. Rick Bertrand will challenge GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa in the Republican primary, he told The Sioux City Journal, the latest fault line to emerge in a simmering conflict within the Iowa GOP. Bertrand is betting that Republican voters in the district may be looking for a more mainstream conservative than the outspoken King, who is one of the House's best-known immigration firebrands. "I am not going in there to be a national figure," Bertrand told the paper. "I am going to be likable and effective." BUT: Bertrand enters the race less than three months before the June 7 primary, and King's years in office give him numerous advantages, though the incumbent only had $119,000 in the bank at the end of 2015. King has fundraised well when threatened in the past, though. http://politico.pro/1McN8Sc

— "Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden 90 percent sure he’ll run for Cedric Richmond's congressional seat," by The Advocate's Andrea Gallo: Holden, a Democrat, "said he expects to commit to a decision by the second week of April and that he is conferring with his family, friends and political allies. ... 'It’s a natural progression for me,' said the term-limited mayor who was previously a state senator, state representative and East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council member. Holden lost a bid to become the state’s lieutenant governor last year." http://bit.ly/1VgnbU0

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ — “Anti-Trump forces contemplate the end,” by POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt: “With Donald Trump marching toward a nomination that few believed he could win, Republicans once bent on defeating him are now reassessing their efforts to stop him. … While some Republicans insist on standing firm against the businessman, more and more are contending that it’s time to reach a point of acceptance — and that a drawn-out primary or convention battle could be worse. ‘I’m soul-searching right now,’ said Penny Nance, the president and CEO of Concerned Women for America, who last year explored the possibility of launching an anti-Trump campaign. 'There’s still a pathway to defeating him, but it’s getting harder to see that.'" http://politi.co/1MdtTbe

— “Rubio nears Cruz endorsement,” by POLITICO’s Marc Caputo: “Marco Rubio is close to endorsing Ted Cruz, but the two proud senators — and recent fierce rivals — have some details to work out first. Cruz has to ask for Rubio's endorsement, and both sides need to decide that it will make a difference, according to sources familiar with the thinking of both senators. … The buzz about a Rubio endorsement of Cruz intensified after the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Thursday reported that the Florida senator called his Texas colleague ‘the only conservative left in the race.’” http://politi.co/1pP9dfI

— “Ryan huddles with GOP donors,” by POLITICO’s Isaac Arnsdorf, Kenneth P. Vogel and Jake Sherman in Palm Beach, Fla.: "House Speaker Paul Ryan met Thursday night at a pricey French restaurant here with some of the Party's biggest donors to assess a political landscape dominated by one vexing question: what to do about Donald Trump. … Sources familiar with the gathering said it was not intended to rally a last-ditch anti-Trump cabal, and that, in fact, there was a diverse array of opinion represented among the donors in attendance. Some seemed open to supporting Trump if he wins the nomination, while others are backing his remaining rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich. But many of the two dozen or so donors in attendance ― including [hedge fund titan Paul] Singer and Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts ― have given millions to super PACs devoted to attacking Trump or supporting his now-vanquished rivals, including Marco Rubio, Scott Walker and Jeb Bush." http://politi.co/1MqxkWU

— "Insiders: Kasich could win a contested convention," by POLITICO's Steven Shepard: "In the event of a contested Republican convention this summer, John Kasich is the candidate most acceptable to GOP delegates. That’s according to members of The POLITICO Caucus — a panel of political insiders in seven battleground states — who said Kasich would be the most palatable of the three remaining Republican presidential candidates in a contested convention, despite the fact the Ohio governor is last in delegates and the only one mathematically eliminated from clinching a majority before the July convention." http://politi.co/1Lupe4C

CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We are negative on it.” — Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, on a bizarre video shared by Donald Trump on Instagram, which features images of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an Islamic State fighter, with text describing them as “our toughest opponents.” The video then cuts to Hillary Clinton barking like a dog, followed by footage of Putin laughing. Demonizing Russia, Peskov added, is “a mandatory feature of the American election campaign.” http://bloom.bg/1MqqDnU

Follow us on Twitter Steven Shepard @politico_steve



Zach Montellaro @zachmontellaro



James Arkin @jamesarkin



Ally Mutnick @allymutnick