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By Heather Caygle | 08/02/2016 07:51 AM EDT


By Heather Caygle (hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope)

With assistance from Rachael Bade and Daniel Lippman

DECISION DAY IN 'THE BIG FIRST'-Deep in the heart of the old stomping grounds of Wyatt Earp, voters head to the polls to choose between conservative Rep. Tim Huelskamp and his more moderate challenger, first time candidate and obstetrician Roger Marshall.

Rachael Bade brings us this dispatch from the heart of Kansas: "Often it's been an establishment-friendly incumbent scrambling to fend off a primary election challenger from the right. This time, it's one of the most uncompromising conservatives in the House - a man who instigated John Boehner's ouster as speaker and has bucked GOP leaders time and again on major votes - ironically being attacked as a D.C. insider and fighting for his political life."

Why it matters: A big test for the House Freedom Caucus-- The conservative group of rabble-rouses known for sinking leadership-based bills is being tested today for the first time: Can you continuously tick off your colleagues by killing legislation you feel isn't conservative enough and still keep your day job?

Bring in the boys: HFC lawmakers tied to help last week with chairman Jim Jordan, Steve King and Jim Bridenstine all flying down to the district to try to help Huelskamp on the stump. (Jordan, just days before hosting his daughter's wedding at his home.) But conservative insiders aren't sure it's going to do much good, and they feel they could have done more had they known he was in trouble earlier.

Jordan, Jody Hice, Justin Amash, Gary Palmer and Jim Banks, the HFC-backed candidate who won the GOP primary for Marlin Stutzman's seat, have all transferred about $20,000 from their campaign committees to Huelskamp's account.

Last-minute lifeline: Meanwhile, back in the Sunflower State, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce on Monday night gave Huelskamp a big boost by going against its national parent and backing the GOP incumbent. "'At the end of the day, I'm a fifth-generation farmer," Huelskamp said, and among voters, 'that beats an OB/GYN.'" Rachael with the Dodge City dispatch: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d525574e6288818bd9ad2e29698e31e4c26c5c6e9bc56a45a93a

ALSO ON TAP TODAY-The three-way Democratic primary replace to replace retiring Rep. Jim McDermott. Roll Call with more on who's vying to replace the long-time Washington lawmaker: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d525c3b3ac32b9494c02aa0a968ad0cb870661f0209997fef8e8

FIRST IN HUDDLE: HALVORSON'S COMING BACK-- Art Halvorson, the former Coast Guard captain who narrowly lost to Rep. Bill Shuster in the GOP primary, is taking on the Pennsylvania Republican again, this time as a Democrat. After losing the primary in a nail-biting finish, Halvorson won the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania's 9th District via a write-in campaign but didn't decide until today to officially accept the nomination. If elected, Halvorson has vowed to caucus as a Republican. A Shuster, Bill and before him, his father Bud, has held the seat since 1972. Yours truly with the story: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d52592234eb1bd0f12f656aaa6be76ab6011e89f750dd59c6612

SWING-STATE DEMS TO BERNIE: HELP PLEASE! So far, Sen. Bernie Sanders has stumped for only one Democratic hopeful this year, former colleague Russ Feingold, who's running against Sen. Ron Johnson. But other Senate hopefuls are clamoring for his support in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, where Sanders' progressive message could really resonate, reports Seung Min Kim.

Survey says: "POLITICO surveyed more than a dozen Democratic candidates running in this year's most competitive Senate races. Five said they would eagerly campaign with Sanders. ...[but] it's unclear at this point how much energy Sanders - a longtime independent who has never exactly been a Democratic Party stalwart - is willing to expend on behalf of the party." Seung Min with the deets: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d525528739360e8e1a3c8df348c89cc69e7603dd2d3b91f33069

HEY Y'ALL, it's Tuesday, August 2. You're reading POLITICO's Huddle, your play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Out until after Labor Day. Here's a song to get you through Tuesday: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d52571a85b03d0b8c1225e62bfe7b482a7c0b0741f5643011fb8

AROUND THE HILL- Source coffee at Firehook, 2 p.m. Get the snickerdoodle cookie, it's worth it.

WILL LATINOS SHOW UP FOR KAINE? Latino leaders were hoping Hillary Clinton would make history by picking a Hispanic running mate to join her on the presidential ticket. And while they only got a white guy from Virginia, Sen. Tim Kaine, Latino Democrats say there's a lot to love about the moderate lawmaker, and not just that he can speak Spanish.

Kaine has repeatedly shown up for the Latino community during his time as Richmond mayor, Virginia governor and senator, advocates say, and they're excited about what the future holds if Democrats take the White House. "He understands the challenges that the Latino community is confronting because he's lived them and worked on them," Labor Secretary Tom Perez told Burgess.

About those Spanish-speaking skills: "His Spanish is imperfect, voters say, but they appreciate the effort. 'The accent was a little strong,' said Maria Schecker, a Miami voter," Burgess and I report. "'That old white brother gets a point from me for just trying,' said Javier Palomarez, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce."

Kaine can bridge the divide: "'What he's going to be able to do is be a cultural translator for that white person that doesn't really believe Donald Trump but doesn't really see any way out,' said Voto Latino President María Teresa Kumar." Our story: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d525eac1a15651f25caf37c7f34275bfbf7b860ee7976251aa4c

McCONNELL OP-ED ON ZIKA- "Senate Democrats chose politics over funding Zika fight," from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Lexington Herald-Leader: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d525d78bc99648c68bd6196c76c577e64d2163a28d5ae6699ef4

BEHIND THE SCENES: THE GOP FAILURE ON GUN CONTROL-House Speaker Paul Ryan's promise to vote on an anti-terrorism package that included a gun control measure in July never came to fruition after hard-line conservatives and Democrats promised to oppose the bill for different reasons. But there's more to the story of the bill's failure, reports the Huffington Post's Matt Fuller: The National Association for Gun Rights.

"NAGR is the much leaner, more pugnacious version of the NRA. ...And it's found an effective way to take a relatively small budget and kill measures like the Republican counterterrorism package. 'We not only killed it, but we peed on the fence post when it was dead,' the group's president, Dudley Brown, recently told The Huffington Post." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d525c494c9b4f0dd3439fa59f451886bb0ff60d7ffecac57860c

TRUMP TROLLING DU JOUR- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump): "Thanks to @pnehlen for your kind words, very much appreciated."

For the uninitiated, that's the Twitter handle for House Speaker Paul Ryan's primary opponent, Paul Nehlen. Rachael breaks it down: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d52585141d0c75c588a25cbe077a1fc9e4fe6a3cdac6e4aa17fa

MONEY TALKS-The Koch brothers may not be spending their billions to get Donald Trump elected but they are funneling plenty of cash into down-ballot races to help Republicans hold onto the Senate majority. Their group, Freedom Partners Action Fund, will be spending another $4 million in ads against Democratic Senate candidates this week, reports Time.

"The ads, which are set to start this week in Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania, bring Freedom Partners Action Fund media spending on Senate races to $24 million. That number is expected to hit $42 million by Election Day in November. In all, the Koch network plans to spend $250 million on politics this cycle," writes Philip Elliott. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d525f22d9369c1b4e033346aada0a1d6f22a0f769346ed2f7a85

McCAIN CAUGHT BETWEEN TRUMP AND A HARD PLACE-The Hill: "John McCain is in a precarious spot in what he's called his toughest reelection bid to date. And he can thank Donald Trump. The Republican senator from Arizona on Monday ripped into Trump in a nearly 700-word, emotionally charged rebuke of the GOP presidential candidate's attack on Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Muslim parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq," but didn't withdraw his endorsement of the GOP presidential nominee. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d525bd940f3c274d098571131ddce85794e59445061167a51b9d

-Related read: The AP's Erica Werner with more on Senate Republicans put on the spot by Trump's latest controversy. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d5257e968cee85c8a6ff60fd64c38d70837524304608b225a574

RYAN SOUNDS WARNING BELL ON TRADE- "House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday warned the nation's top Republican donors that their party was 'flirting with these various forms of progressivism,' sounding the alarm about the GOP's now less-than-ironclad support for foreign trade deals," reports CNN's Theodore Schleifer.

'Hard time' with free trade: "'As Republicans, our challenge is to become a pro-market party and not a pro-business party,' Ryan said. 'Free trade is one of the things that helps knock down those barriers -- which we're having a hard time with our party these days.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d52558ee5644388b374b6cb569ba91777eef3224d068b56fe983

DEMOCRATS' UPHILL HOUSE CLIMB- "Democrats are hoping for big gains in House elections this fall...But many analysts believe shortfalls in recruiting and money, due in part to the unusual amount of attention being absorbed by a chaotic presidential race, will leave the Democrats shy of the 30 seats they need to retake the House," reports the Wall Street Journal's Michelle Hackman. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a6baf5904be2d52538ca077096a92dabf04312141271d9a1f8cbaabf4dbf1ab6

ARRIVAL LOUNGE-Sen. Jeff Flake has a new state director, Michael Vargas, who will oversee the Arizona Republican's on-the-ground outreach. Vargas was previously the manager of state government affairs for Arizona Public Service, the state's largest electric company.

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Bale Dalton, a distant relative of James K. Polk, was the first to guess that the former president held several offices before being elected to the White House, including serving as speaker of the House and governor of Tennessee before twice losing races for the governorship.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Bale with today's question: Congressmen turned governors seem to be all the rage, at least when it comes to vice presidential nominees. Only two presidents were formerly military governors, and only one of those was also a former member of Congress.

Who was that President, what offices did he hold, and what territory did he govern? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in tomorrow's Huddle. Email me: hcaygle@politico.com

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