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By Theodoric Meyer | 04/27/2016 10:00 AM EDT


With Kevin Robillard, Elena Schneider 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)

PRIMARY RESULTS - "Trump: It's over," by POLITICO's Shane Goldmacher: "Donald Trump declared himself the 'presumptive nominee' of the Republican Party after he won five Northeastern states in a landslide and set his sights on taking down" Hillary Clinton. "Trump romped across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut. His smallest margin of victory was roughly 30 percentage points; he led in two states by about 40 points. As of late Tuesday, Trump led in every single county across all five states. And most crucially, he swept at least 105 of the 118 bound delegates available." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d305443f4c54ef0993815b8aee2757c0db401110943dc0d9c275c0

- "Clinton's big night ratchets up pressure on Sanders," by POLITICO's Patrick Reis: "Bernie Sanders is still running against Hillary Clinton. But by the end of Tuesday night, Clinton made it clear she now sees Donald Trump as her real rival." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d30544f91c471a199cc209f7bff49b61862e6608b87d34043edb00 Catch more presidential race coverage below.

SENATE SHOWDOWNS - "Democratic establishment notches Senate wins," by POLITICO's Kevin Robillard: The Democratic establishment won two major Senate victories Tuesday as Rep. Chris Van Hollen and former White House aide Katie McGinty won heavily contested primaries in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Van Hollen romped over fellow Rep. Donna Edwards in Maryland, taking 53 percent of the Democratic vote to Edwards' 39 percent, while McGinty made a comeback against the party's 2010 nominee in Pennsylvania, Joe Sestak, winning about 43 percent to 33 percent. (Braddock Mayor John Fetterman took a surprisingly strong 19 percent of the Pennsylvania vote.)

- Sestak had led McGinty, who finished fourth in a gubernatorial primary in 2014, by double-digits at the beginning of the month. But the establishment rode to the rescue, with EMILY's List, SEIU and the DSCC - making a rare seven-figure expenditure on a party primary - all spending heavily to boost McGinty ahead. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden both endorsed McGinty over Sestak, who had a cold relationship with party leaders. McGinty featured Obama's endorsement constantly in advertising, and Biden campaigned with her twice. Now, she'll face GOP Sen. Pat Toomey in a key November battleground race. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d305447ec122765a204c1bac7187cf00c82caa32aa48ae5b7e31fd

HOUSE LOSS - "Fattah becomes first House primary loser of 2016," by Campaign Pro's Theodoric Meyer: Rep. Chaka Fattah, an entrenched Democratic incumbent from Philadelphia, lost his primary Tuesday night after being indicted on corruption charges last year. Fattah's legal troubles opened a lane for state Rep. Dwight Evans, who narrowly defeated Fattah. Evans led with 42 percent of the vote to Fattah's 34 percent, while two other challengers split the remainder of the vote. Evans' victory all but assures that he'll win a place in Congress from the deeply Democratic district. Much of the Democratic establishment in Pennsylvania abandoned Fattah after his indictment and backed Evans, who has
served in the state legislature for more than three decades. Gov. Tom Wolf and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney both endorsed Evans. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d3054435252dc01eb46c045cbdcf5cde6f3802bdad5a5b0c8b8cfa

NEAR MISS - "Shuster survives primary scare," by POLITICO's Jake Sherman: House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) narrowly beat back a primary challenge Tuesday from Art Halvorson, a poorly funded Coast Guard veteran and real estate executive who has never held public office. With all votes counted, Shuster led Halvorson by barely 1,000 votes, 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent. Halvorson had led in early returns, and Washington Republicans were on alert all evening, worried they would lose a senior committee chairman close to the leadership. Senior GOP lawmakers and aides had been under the impression that Shuster would win resoundingly.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d30544bbb8a04a918939a110d0802bd0bff247cab5c96e9e323f26

Days until the Indiana primary: 6. Days until the 2016 election: 195.

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

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and almost as much about the Cubs now that baseball's back: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, and @theodoricmeyer.

NOVEMBER PREP - Santarsiero will face Fitzpatrick in PA-08: State Rep. Steve Santarsiero won the Democratic primary for the open seat in Pennsylvania's 8th District tonight, setting up the general election in a key battleground House race. Santarsiero took 60 percent of the vote to 40 percent for Shaughnessy Naughton, a chemist and two-time candidate backed by EMILY's List, according to The Associated Press. Santarsiero will face Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent and the brother of retiring GOP Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, in the general election. He's taken moderate policy positions that might prove a good match for a suburban swing district that is nearly evenly divided between Democrats
and Republicans.

- Hoeber wins GOP primary in MD-06: Amie Hoeber, a former Reagan administration official, won an eight-way Republican primary in Maryland's 6th District with 29 percent of the vote on Tuesday. She got some help from Maryland USA, a super PAC funded by her husband, who's written checks for more than $2 million so far. She'll take on Democratic Rep. John Delaney, a wealthy self-funder in his own right, in the general election.

IN THE SAFE SEATS - Raskin wins MD-08 primary, beating Trone: State Sen. Jamie Raskin won the Democratic primary to replace Rep. Chris Van Hollen in Maryland's 8th District. Raskin had 34 percent of the vote with every precinct reporting. Multimillionaire David Trone finished with 27 percent and Kathleen Matthews finished with 24 percent. Raskin, one of the more prolific small-dollar fundraisers among 2016 House candidates, overcame the biggest self-funder in House history in Trone, who gave his own campaign more than $12.7 million.

- Brown wins three-way MD-04 primary: Former Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown won the Democratic primary to replace Rep. Donna Edwards in Maryland's 4th District. Brown, who suffered a shocking loss when he ran for governor in 2014 but retained name recognition from that run and his years in state office, had 42 percent of the vote with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Brown beat former Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey, who had 34 percent, and state Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk, who had 19 percent

- Smucker prevails in PA-16: State Sen. Lloyd Smucker won the Republican primary to replace retiring GOP Rep. Joe Pitts in Pennsylvania's 16th District, defeating Chet Beiler, who owns a local gazebo business. Smucker took 54 percent of the vote to Beiler's 46 percent with all votes tallied. He'll face Democrat Christina Hartman in the fall. The southeastern Pennsylvania district leans Republican, but Barack Obama eked out a win there in 2008.

STAFFING UP - "Congressional super PAC brings on Romney aide to defend Senate," by POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt: "A congressional Republican super PAC has tapped Mason Fink, former senior advisor to Mitt Romney, to help spearhead its fundraising efforts - a move that comes amid mounting concern within the GOP that a Donald Trump or Ted Cruz nomination would paralyze the party in down-ballot races. Fink, who was Romney's 2008 and 2012 finance director and oversaw fundraising for the pro-Jeb Bush Right to Rise super PAC, will serve on the board of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a group devoted to protecting and expanding the House Republican majority.

- "While Republicans are favored to retain their majority, many of the party's top donors and operatives have grown worried that, with Trump or Cruz likely to lead the ticket, they will sustain losses. ... In recent weeks, Fink was personally approached by House Speaker Paul Ryan to take the job, according to one source briefed on the outreach. The two forged a friendship during the 2012 campaign, when Ryan served as Romney's vice presidential nominee." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d30544b1d6a8700407212a65df79ae2c3ee01d160ed8fa26aa065d

FIRST IN SCORE - Club for Growth ad attacks McGinty after primary win: The Club for Growth's super PAC is starting a TV ad campaign attacking Pennsylvania Democrats' newly minted Senate nominee, Katie McGinty, the morning after her primary victory. The ad previews a general election attack line that also recurred in her primary: that McGinty has made trips through the "revolving door of government." (The Club also had an ad prepped attacking Sestak if he won the Dem primary to take on GOP Sen. Pat Toomey.) http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d30544c06efe2c5caa624fad466c388f66448eb89edbea78ec28d8

THE NEXT PRIMARY - Senate Leadership Fund attacks Stutzman in new spot: Senate Leadership Fund released a new negative TV ad Tuesday bashing Rep. Marlin Stutzman ahead of Indiana's GOP Senate primary, leveling a slew of charges at the "career politician." Watch the ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d30544673adaecc807632577b3ab414c75ba2cf192374adbade7c6

FIRST TO ACT? - FreedomWorks PAC endorses Holding over Ellmers in NC-02: FreedomWorks PAC is backing Rep. George Holding in his member-versus-member GOP primary against fellow Rep. Renee Ellmers. "George Holding is the credible, proven conservative running in North Carolina's Second District, and we're endorsing him in the Republican primary," FreedomWorks PAC Chairman Adam Brandon said in a statement. "He is committed to the rule of law, fighting cronyism, and pro-growth policies that will restore prosperity and opportunity." Holding has an 85 percent lifetime rating on FreedomWorks' congressional scorecard, while Ellmers has a 61 percent lifetime score from the group.

- FreedomWorks backed Ellmers' previous primary challenger, Jim Duncan, but he dropped out when court-ordered redistricting shifted the congressional map and put Holding and Ellmers in the same seat. The Club for Growth had also backed Duncan, but hasn't weighed in on Ellmers-Holding yet. Holding has a 86 percent lifetime vote score from the Club; Ellmers' rating is 61 percent. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which also plays in the occasional GOP primary, has scored Ellmers higher: 89 percent for her to 78 percent for him.

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Five takeaways from Tuesday's primaries," by POLITICO's Glenn Thrush: "Not since Ozymandias has a colossus stood on such crumbly legs. For all his big primary wins Tuesday night, the easy money (right now, anyway) is that he'd lose every single one of them in a general election - Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut and even Pennsylvania - by massive, perhaps unprecedented margins. Two-thirds of American voters disapprove of Trump - and a significant percentage of those people have said they will never, ever, not-if-he-was-the-last-man-on-earth vote for him." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d3054468f658086be8fe5b590f8f5763a6c496ca4b4fb332d78293

- "Clinton's refusal to quit in 2008 haunts her in 2016," by POLITICO's Annie Karni in Philadelphia: "In the wake of her victories in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware, some of Hillary Clinton's top operatives are ready for Bernie Sanders to call it quits. But Clinton's own refusal to give up in 2008, even after she had no real path forward, remains an obstacle to ramping up that pressure. Indeed, some veterans of Clinton's 2008 campaign are urging empathy and space for Sanders, emphasizing that the decision to slog on is not about having a viable path forward - it's about feeling that you've gone as far as you can go." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d30544a6b2683d95a4d9ea8f3777fdf8c98ad9d2522aabf40c690b

- "Kasich's Indiana allies rebel against Cruz pact," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck and Kyle Cheney: "John Kasich may have agreed to cede Indiana to Ted Cruz as part of a coordinated strategy to stop Donald Trump, but Kasich's top backers in the state say they're frustrated and confused by the tactical maneuvering - and they have no plans to play along. ... Interviews with the Ohio governor's top Indiana allies reveal that many are deeply reluctant to support the Texas senator, who is campaigning aggressively in the state, which offers perhaps his last chance to slow Trump's momentum and force a contested convention. Kasich's team on Sunday indicated that the Ohio governor would be effectively
pulling out of the state, while Cruz would steer clear of New Mexico and Oregon, in an effort to keep Trump from clinching the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d3054473ea7992008ac3c76cbb2124bcf7bda651a8f5335a6da1a6

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "There comes a time when the baton is wrested from our hands." - Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), who became the first congressional incumbent to lose a primary in 2016 on Tuesday, via The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeremy Roebuck. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3cf877e539d3054441e7fac1147fbd712afbe606580117018b7b16bf066ef9ce

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