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By Theodoric Meyer | 07/05/2016 10:08 AM EDT


With Elena Schneider, Kevin Robillard, Maggie Severns and Scott Bland

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. (http://www.politicopro.com/proinfo)

KASICH INSTINCT - "Ohio's bromance: Kasich goes all-out to save Portman," by POLITICO's John Bresnahan: "Sen. Rob Portman faces a grueling and costly reelection battle this fall, with Donald Trump causing him serious headaches from the top of the ticket. But the Ohio Republican is counting on some critical help from an old pal: John Kasich." Their political alliance, in Portman's battle against former Democratic Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, "is about more than just political expediency. The two go back decades in Ohio politics. Portman remained loyal to Kasich during the governor's failed bid for the GOP presidential nomination, despite heavy pressure to throw his support to Jeb Bush; Kasich
gets a chance to repay that allegiance now. As for Kasich, it's another opportunity to stick a dagger in Strickland, the man he toppled in a bitter campaign six years ago to become governor. The enmity between them is still clearly visible." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6f16272bd5226e6486f42aba41bf23262ab80f4b16550be1ec78896928bfee6e

SCORE INTERVIEW - Joe Heck chats with Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: With GOP Sen. Marco Rubio having decided to run for reelection in Florida, there's only one major open race remaining on the Senate map. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's retirement in Nevada cleared the way for a pair of touted candidates to battle for his seat: Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, a former state attorney general, and GOP Rep. Joe Heck.

Here's our Q&A, for Campaign Pro subscribers: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6f16272bd5226e6406ecca4726412d3969a08a7404afd16149389451fa23ac72

Thanks for joining us. You can email tips to the Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com, krobillard@politico.com, tmeyer@politico.com and mseverns@politico.com.

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally old clips from "The Wire": @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @maggieseverns.

NEW THIS MORNING - Cooper launches first statewide ad in N.C.: North Carolina Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is challenging GOP Gov. Pat McCrory, released his first TV ad on Tuesday, in which he is referred to as a "national leader." It says that during his tenure as the state's top law enforcement official, Cooper showed "steady and thoughtful leadership on school violence" and was "first-rate on consumer protections." And it touts how Cooper took on "scam artists, including Medicaid fraud" and "targeted sexual predators who contact children online." The ad, which will air in Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro, ends with this slogan: "He stands up for millions of North
Carolinians who are fed up." Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6f16272bd5226e6449e6f9c9478537efc7b46a5ffa08f50a768b7937ec09360f

STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM - "Meet the challengers who could decide Senate control," by Campaign Pro's Kevin Robillard and Elena Schneider: "This time six years ago, Patrick Murphy was working for a family business - under circumstances that have recently caused him trouble. Joe Heck and Maggie Hassan were state senators. Ted Strickland was about to lose reelection as the governor of Ohio. Now, the fate of the U.S. Senate majority lies in the hands of challengers like them scattered across the battleground map." Here's a look at the challengers in six swing states and their chances this fall: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6f16272bd5226e64134fe5fc1829576b7249a27bd5cade3eed68b5743ef80f64

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Obama and Clinton rally against Trump," by POLITICO's Annie Karni: "When Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama publicly reconciled eight years ago at a celebrated summer rally in Unity, New Hampshire, the two recent rivals were still closer to being opponents than friends. ... When President Obama takes the stage at the Charlotte Convention Center with Clinton Tuesday afternoon for their first joint rally of the 2016 campaign, it will be most notable for how far the two leaders of the Democratic Party have come in the eight intervening years. 'It is as far from fraught as can be,' said Obama's former chief strategist, David Axelrod, of Obama's long-anticipated campaign
trail debut. 'He's been chomping at the bit to get out there.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6f16272bd5226e64677db38c25f12b9cc5e767bade18c46f6cf454224a45e369

- "The quiet fixer in Donald Trump's campaign? His son-in-law, Jared Kushner," by The New York Times' Michael Barbaro and Jonathan Mahler: "Kushner has become involved in virtually every facet of the Trump presidential operation, so much so that many inside and out of it increasingly see him as a de facto campaign manager. Mr. Kushner, who is married to Mr. Trump's daughter Ivanka, helped recruit a sorely needed director of communications, oversaw the creation of an online fund-raising system and has had a hand in drafting Mr. Trump's few policy speeches. And now that Mr. Trump has secured the Republican nomination, Mr. Kushner is counseling his father-in-law on the selection of a running
mate." The most awkward part: He's working alongside Chris Christie, who put Kushner's father in prison a decade ago when Christie was a federal prosecutor. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6f16272bd5226e64f33ed6f58c16faff7c34534df2c45d254d013afa48f4a3e3

- "Trump's anti-trade rhetoric rattles the campaign message of Clinton and unions," by The Washington Post's David Nakamura and David Weigel: Hillary "Clinton, who scrambled to move left on trade during her tough primary fight against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, now finds herself again facing attacks on the issue - this time from Trump. ... For Hillary Clinton, the risk is not necessarily losing support directly to Trump but rather not inspiring enough enthusiasm among rank-and-file union workers, whose turnout and ground-level organizing have traditionally been crucial for Democrats." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6f16272bd5226e64116f454f4b2c9f6b88bd1a7e78627d692bd670b9a936e67e

- "Tim Kaine's abortion predicament," by POLITICO's Darren Samuelsohn and Daniel Strauss: "Kaine has been here before: a leading vice-presidential contender with a complicated stance on abortion that doesn't neatly align with the one held by the top of the ticket. His personal opposition to abortion generated significant scrutiny back in 2008 when Barack Obama, an abortion rights supporter, included the then-Virginia governor on his shortlist of running mates. ... Eight years later, Kaine is again a front-runner in the Democratic veepstakes, and again his views on reproductive rights - an issue central to the Democratic base - are under a microscope in the event Hillary Clinton selects him
as her No. 2." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6f16272bd5226e640ecf20157b68422bdbb43ea07d541dea7d4ee79091783e44

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "When you're a 28-year-old who doesn't live, work or has never voted in the district, I guess you try whatever campaign strategy you think might get traction." Rep. Scott DesJarlais, who faces a primary against Grant Starrett, a 28-year-old lawyer who moved into the district last year. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6f16272bd5226e640216ca7e52e3a5b6cb26a1c87b86ba475a9d2b23d88c9b31

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