Sanders sprints out of the gate in his presidential bid

Editor's Note: This edition of Morning Score is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Campaign 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.

— Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid got off to a quick start, posting strong fundraising numbers that highlight the strength of his grassroots base.


— President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign is instituting a top-down structure in a departure from 2016’s chaotic atmosphere.

— Some congressional Democrats and governors have started to wade into presidential endorsements. But so far, nobody has picked up an endorsement from outside their home state.

Good Wednesday morning. The most important 2020 content: Quartz’s list of presidential hopefuls’ dogs (Sen. Sherrod Brown’s dog Franklin is my personal favorite). 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: 258

Days until the 2020 election: 622

STILL FEELING THE BERN — Sanders (I-Vt.) is officially in and off to a strong start. He raised $4 million since Tuesday evening from about 150,000 individual donors (unsurprisingly, this qualifies Sanders for the first Democratic debate). Compare that to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who had the previous opening day high-water mark at $1.5 million from 38,000 donors in her first 24 hours.

And Sanders’ camp has already started making electability arguments, saying the Vermonter could knock off Trump. “As Bernie has showed, as Trump has showed, I don’t think we are in a binary, two-dimensional, left-right paradigm anymore,” Ben Tulchin, Sanders’ pollster, told POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein. Sanders’ camp also argued that he would be a strong candidate in the Midwest, which many Democrats see as key to retaking the White House.

Sanders picked up the endorsements of the other two federal officeholders in Vermont: Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch, per Seven Days’ Paul Heintz. Notably, Leahy was a backer of Hillary Clinton in 2016, while Welch endorsed Sanders then, too. Sanders will also get the cable news spotlight with a CNN town hall Monday, per CNN’s Devan Cole.

— Faiz Shakir, the national political director of the ACLU, will be his campaign manager, the Daily Beast’s Gideon Resnick, Spencer Ackerman and Sam Stein reported.

Join us for POLITICO’s Ninth Annual State Solutions Conference on Friday Feb. 22. On the sidelines of the National Governors Association Winter Meeting, the program features a series of exclusive conversations with governors from across the country to share their innovative solutions to the states’ complex challenges. RSVP here.

PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD — New Hampshire has been giving Harris a hard time for not devoting a lot of time to the first primary state. “[H]er chances of capturing New Hampshire were viewed with such a jaundiced eye by local media that one of Harris’ first exchanges during a two-day swing — with an in-state reporter — included a not-so-subtle reminder that she waited weeks after announcing her White House bid to travel to the Granite State,” POLITICO’s Chris Cadelago reported.

— For you invisible primary watchers: I’ve compiled all the Democratic primary endorsements from current members of Congress and sitting governors for your perusal. So far, nobody has picked up an endorsement from outside their home state, while Harris and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) are the two senators who have not picked up an endorsement from their Senate batterymate. This only counts endorsements for candidates who have taken a formal step to running for president. I’ll keep this list continually updated, so email me if I’m missing one. One new endorsement: Rep. Colin Allred (TX-32) has endorsed Julian Castro. Allred previously sent a fundraising email for Castro, and his spokesperson told me that he has also endorsed him.

— Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke would likely make immigration central to his campaign, POLITICO’s David Siders reported. O’Rourke also said he is trying to make a decision by the end of the month, and didn’t rule out a Senate run.

— Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is a frequent Wall Street foil in Congress. But compared to others in the 2020 presidential field, some in banking say he’s “earned a reputation as someone open to dialogue with the industry,” POLITICO’s Zachary Warmbrodt and Daniel Strauss report.

THE PRESIDENT’S CAMPAIGN — Trump’s 2020 campaign is set to look very different (and a bit un-Trumpian) from his 2016 bid. “Trump is assembling a sprawling, corporate-style reelection campaign with 11 divisions reporting to a single senior adviser, campaign manager Brad Parscale — a top-down structure that represents everything Trump’s improvisational 2016 effort was not,” POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt reported. “The campaign has hired more than 30 full time staffers so far and has begun building out a surrogate network devoted exclusively to putting pro-Trump talking heads on TV and radio.”

NC-09, CONTINUED — The second day of hearings into alleged election fraud in NC-09 focused on the testimony of Andy Yates, a consultant for Republican Mark Harris. “Though Yates' firm, Red Dome, oversaw the payment of [Leslie McCrae] Dowless, Yates testified Tuesday that he did not know Dowless before joining the Harris campaign. Yates said Dowless was already working for Harris before Yates' firm was brought on,” Campaign Pro’s Laura Barrón-López reported. The hearing will continue today, with Harris is set to testify.

— The Charlotte Observer’s editorial board reiterated its call for a new election after the first day of the hearing. “Ninth District voters deserve the confidence of an election free from fraud,” the board wrote.

UP NEXT — Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) is set to make “an announcement” today at 5 p.m. CT. Inside Alabama Politics reported that Byrne will announce he’s running to take Democratic Sen. Doug Jones’ seat.

FALLING UPWARD? — Democrats who fell in House battles are now considering running for Senate, like Kentucky’s Amy McGrath or Georgia’s Jon Ossoff. “All of these Democrats proved they could raise the money necessary to compete in high-profile races last cycle and narrow the partisan performance gap in their districts. But they all also lost,” Roll Call’s Simone Pathe and Bridget Bowman wrote. “Would their potential statewide bids be any different?”

THE GOLDEN STATE — California Republicans have a major decision to make about who will be the next leader of the state party. “A battle over the state party chairmanship offers two competing visions for the future,” POLITICO California’s Carla Marinucci reported. “One tightly embraces President Donald Trump, while the other focuses more on the nuts and bolts of party-building and organizing.”

ON THE AIRWAVES — Former Rep. John Delaney is going up with at least $112,000 in ads in Iowa markets from Feb. 20-24, per Advertising Analytics. Some of the money is on broadcast, and he’ll be the first candidate to go up on broadcast in the state this year (with this ad, focused on technology and work).

STAFFING UP — The DGA is rounding out its senior staff, announcing a bevy of hires that includes Wendi Wallace at deputy executive director, David Turner as comms director and Marshall Cohen as political director, Daniel reported.

THE DEBATE STAGE — The ACLU is looking to host debates and forums for presidential candidates, HuffPost’s Kevin Robillard reported. The organization’s executive director also said the group won’t formally endorse a candidate.

WEB WARS — Another week, another roundup of Facebook ads. Mark Kelly, fresh off announcing his bid for Arizona Senate, topped all the Democratic presidential candidates in ad spending on the social network last week, at just under $87,000. The president is still outspending everyone. Here’s more for Pros.

PRIMARY PROBLEMS — Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who has done little to tamp down speculation that he could try to primary the president, said Trump is vulnerable: “The chance of him losing a general election are pretty good,” he told CBS’s Ed O’Keefe and Camilo Montoya-Galvez.

— But how do Marylanders feel about a run? In a new Goucher Poll, 55 percent think he should not run for president, while a third says that he should (808 Maryland adults, Feb. 7-12).

NUDGE, NUDGE — Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) picked up an endorsement from Club for Growth PAC — even though he hasn’t officially said he is running for reelection (and has sparked rumors that he might not run again with his public musings).

CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: “It was either stand up or start screaming in pain,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, explaining that he needed to stand up, mid-interview, because of a cramp.

Follow us on Twitter Steven Shepard @politico_steve



Zach Montellaro @zachmontellaro



James Arkin @jamesarkin



Ally Mutnick @allymutnick