| Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward this to you? Click here to subscribe. We’re Julia Manchester, Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley. Here’s what we’re watching today on the campaign trail.  LEADING THE DAY: Former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) formally set a joint fundraising agreement on Friday, giving him more power over the party’s fundraising functions going into the general election. The deal will essentially allow Biden to raise as much as $360,600 from individual donors, with $5,600 going to his campaign and the rest earmarked for the DNC. The New York Times was the first to report the story. While this is definitely not a surprise given Biden is the party's presumptive nominee, it comes as his campaign and the party prepare to face a number of unprecedented fundraising hurdles. First, Biden’s campaign and the DNC are far behind the fundraising apparatus established by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC). Trump and the RNC had a combined $244 million at the beginning of April, while Biden and the DNC had a combined $57 million. On top of that, Biden and the DNC, along with Trump and the RNC, will have to fundraise in the middle of a pandemic and economic downturn for the foreseeable future. Biden raised $46.7 million in March, marking his best monthly haul to date. But in the second half of March, Biden raked in about $13.7 million, less than half of what he raised in the first part of the month amid the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump campaign and the RNC raised a combined $63 million in March, about $23 million short of the roughly $86 million they raised in February. The Biden campaign is sounding positive about the new agreement. As part of the agreement, the Biden campaign was also granted its request to have DNC senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill serve as the committee's chief executive officer. “Mary Beth’s experience running presidential campaigns and managing the kind of complex operation it takes to win a general election will be invaluable, and I am thrilled to have her as a partner in this fight,” Biden's campaign manager, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, told the Times. Biden's former campaign manager Greg Schultz, who was replaced by O'Malley Dillon earlier this year, will serve as a go-between for the campaign and the DNC. --Julia Manchester READ MORE: Biden campaign, DNC set joint fundraising agreement, By Julia Biden builds early lead in battleground states, By Jonathan Easley
FROM THE TRAIL:
Progressive groups, Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement are calling on Biden to remove his newly appointed economic adviser Larry Summers. The move marks the first significant demand from progressives since Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) suspended his campaign. Summers is a former Treasury secretary under President Clinton who was also a part of the Obama administration. President Obama appointed Summers as director of the National Economic Council, where he served from 2009 through 2010 and worked on the economic stimulus measure after the financial crisis. The Hill’s J. Edward Moreno reports. Jill Biden said in an interview with CNN’s “New Day” on Friday that she would “love” to see former first lady Michelle Obama as her husband’s running mate in the general election. However, Biden said that she thinks the former first lady may be done with politics. The Hill’s Alicia Cohn reports. The former vice president predicted that Trump would try to push back the date set for November’s general election while speaking to supporters on Thursday at an online fundraiser. “Mark my words I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden said, adding that doing so is "the only way [Trump] thinks he can possibly win,” The Hill’s Marty Johnson reports.
PERSPECTIVES:
John R. LaPlante: Don't let the pandemic change into a crisis of self-governance FROM CONGRESS & THE STATES: State Democratic parties are scrambling to reconfigure their conventions and delegate selection rules ahead of the national convention this summer as the coronavirus upends months of detailed planning and forces delays of nominating contests nationwide, The Hill’s Max Greenwood reports. Several parties have already announced contingency plans, including massive “virtual conventions” and mail-in voting for delegates that state Democratic officials say could act as a model for the national convention in August should the coronavirus outbreak prompt the cancellation of an in-person gathering. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed an executive order on Friday requiring state elections officials to send a postage-paid absentee ballot application to every voter in the state, Max reports. The move comes after Cuomo issued another executive order allowing New Yorkers to vote absentee in the state’s June 23 primary elections without providing an excuse for doing so. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Friday that the November general election “must” go on, The Hill’s Cristina Marcos reports. The speaker’s comments come amid concerns from some Democrats that Trump could try to delay voting because of the coronavirus pandemic. "[Trump] has done a lot to undermine who we are as America, but the fact is, we cannot allow him to do that to our democracy. That will not happen. And God willing, maybe some Republicans might even stand up for our country, our Constitution, and our democracy, as well. I think they will," Pelosi said. POLL WATCH: FOX NEWS — FLORIDA Biden: 46 percent Trump: 43 percent
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: (Keep in mind these dates could change because of the outbreak.) April 28: Ohio May 2: Kansas Democratic primary May 12: Nebraska primaries May 19: Oregon primaries May 22: Hawaii Democratic primary June 2: Delaware primaries District of Columbia primaries Indiana primaries Maryland primaries Montana primaries New Mexico primaries Pennsylvania primaries Rhode Island primaries South Dakota primaries June 9: Georgia primaries West Virginia primaries June 23: Kentucky primaries New York primaries July 7: New Jersey primaries July 11: Louisiana July 14: Alabama Republican Senate primary runoff August 11: Connecticut primary August 17-20: Democratic National Convention August 24-27: Republican National Convention One hopeful thing LOSE YOURSELF: Rapper Eminem is showing gratitude to frontline medical workers in his hometown of Detroit. The musician teamed up with restaurant group Union Joints this week to deliver pasta to The Henry Ford Health System, a health care organization serving the Detroit area. The pasta, which was labeled as “Mom’s Spaghetti," is a reference to lyrics in his 2002 hit “Lose Yourself”: "There's vomit on his sweater already/mom's spaghetti." The Henry Ford Foundation even had a bit of fun with their Instagram post thanking Eminem for the meals. "Our #HealthcareHeros 'lost themselves' in the delicious Mom's Spaghetti donated by Detroit's very own Eminem," the organization wrote in the post. 
The Marshall Mathers Foundation and Union Joints told ABC News that the two groups plan to donate more food in the coming weeks. For more good news, be sure to check out The Hill's Selfless Acts page, where our reporters are detailing how Americans are helping each other through the coronavirus pandemic. We’ll be back tomorrow with more campaign news of the day. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment