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02/25/2019 10:01 AM EDT

By ZACH MONTELLARO (zmontellaro@politico.com; @ZachMontellaro)


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

QUICK FIX
- Top Republican donors are worried about President Donald Trump's reelection, saying he hasn't prepared a strategy to win the Midwest again.

- Republicans are in a pickle in NC-09: They believe Mark Harris would be difficult to beat in a new primary but would make for a weak general election candidate after a contractor for his 2018 campaign was implicated in election fraud.

- Two veteran Democrats stepped back from 2020 Senate speculation, with former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack saying no and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper saying he and the Senate wouldn't be a good fit.

Good Monday morning. I (finally, belatedly) set up a Signal account. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com or DM me at @ZachMontellaro if you want it to get in touch.

Email the great Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, dstrauss@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com and lbarron-lopez@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @DanielStrauss4, @JamesArkin and @lbarronlopez.

Days until the 2019 election: 253

Days until the 2020 election: 617
THE TOPLINES
THE MONEY MEN - The president's reelection campaign has been projecting confidence, touting a new organizational structure and raising cash since just about the moment Trump was sworn in. But after attending a donor retreat at the Trump International Hotel, some big donors are concerned about a lack of strategy.

"They are chiefly worried about how he intends to prevail again in the Rust Belt states that voted for Trump in 2016, but where Democrats performed strongly in last year's midterms," POLITICO's Anita Kumar and Maggie Severns report. "But there are also concerns about whether the president's fundraising apparatus is up to the task, and whether Trump will trample on any strategy or message the campaign does develop, as he frequently does."

"Donors are concerned that the Trump reelect might draw the wrong conclusions from the Republicans' defeat in the 2018 midterms," Dan Eberhart, a major Republican donor who did not attend the retreat, said. Donors also worried about how America First, the primary pro-Trump super PAC, was spending funds.

But the campaign insists it is more than fine. "Anyone who believes we lack a strategy must be slipping from reality," said Kayleigh McEnany, Trump's campaign spokeswoman. "On strategy, we are better equipped than any campaign in history."

POLITICO PLAYBOOK: The 2020 Election. The New Congress. The Mueller Investigation ... Keep up with POLITICO Playbook. Be in the Know. Sign up today here.
IN THE TRENCHES
PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - Another story detailing Sen. Amy Klobuchar's (D-Minn.) treatment of her staff: The New York Times' Matt Flegenheimer and Sydney Ember write that some former aides "say she was not just demanding but often dehumanizing - not merely a tough boss in a capital full of them but the steward of a work environment colored by volatility, highhandedness and distrust" (this is also the origin of all the jokes about eating with a comb).

Klobuchar's campaign also announced her senior staff, including Justin Buoen as campaign manager and Julia Kennedy as deputy campaign manager.

- The first two stops for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as an official candidate: a rally in Brooklyn on Saturday and a rally in Chicago on Sunday. Sanders' team also sent an email to surrogates, asking them to "respectfully engage" with rivals and said he condemns "bullying and harassment of any kind," per HuffPost's Daniel Marans.

- Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has cultivated supporters in Silicon Valley. But could it actually hurt him? Recode's Theodore Schleifer writes about "Booker's bind: How can he tap Silicon Valley's largesse without being caricatured as the candidate of the neoliberal rich?"

- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-N.Y.) alternative campaign motto: "Never tell me the odds." The Post-Star's Kathleen Phalen-Tomaselli details Gillibrand's first run for Congress, where she overcame long odds.

- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said his decision on if he'll run for president "could be as soon as" this week, when pressed on Face the Nation.

NC-09, FOREVER - With a new election on the way in NC-09, Republicans aren't sure who will be their standard bearer. "Republicans on the ground think that Harris would now be a weak general election contender in the GOP-leaning district, after North Carolina's board of elections voted unanimously to call a new campaign," Campaign Pro's Laura Barrón-López reported. "But if Harris does decide to run again, his name recognition - and the belief of some Republican voters that he 'got a raw deal' - could make him difficult to beat in a GOP primary, said Patrick Sebastian, a Republican strategist."

Harris still hasn't said if he'll run again or not. Strategists told Laura that other potential candidates include Matthew Ridenhour, former Mecklenburg County commissioner; Kenny Smith, a former Charlotte city council member; and former state Rep. Andy Dulin. National and local Republicans are pushing former Gov. Pat McCrory, who previously ruled out a run, to jump in.

NOT ME - Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is considering a presidential run, doesn't seem interested in running for Senate. "I'm not cut out to be a senator," Hickenlooper told POLITICO's Nolan McCaskill in Iowa. He also said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and DSCC Chair Catherine Cortez Masto had spoken to him about running for Senate.

- Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack won't run for Senate. "I didn't feel that I could make that commitment," he told the Des Moines Register's Brianne Pfannenstiel and Austin Cannon. "I'm confident there are going to be a lot of people stepping up that will have the commitment."

PRIMARY WATCH - Former Colorado House Speaker Crisanta Duran said she will challenge Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) in a primary in CO-01. "The district has changed a lot since 1997, when Congresswoman DeGette was elected, and I applaud the work that she has done," she told Denver7's Anne Trujillo and Blair Miller. "[But] it is time for something new and different."

THE GOLDEN STATE - A beaten-down California Republican Party elected Jessica Patterson, a party operative and ally of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, to lead the GOP over two vocal Trump supporters, POLITICO California's Carlina Marinucci and Jeremy White reported.

THE LATEST IN VIRGINIA - State Republicans are moving to hold a hearing with the women who accused Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault, over the objections of some Democrats who said they didn't want the hearing to overwhelm a potential criminal investigation. "One of the women immediately accepted the invitation. The other reiterated her desire to testify but said she wanted the format to be bipartisan," The Washington Post's Laura Vozzella and Gregory Schneider reported. Fairfax later compared himself to lynching victims in a surprise speech at the state Senate on Sunday, via the AP's Alan Suderman.

- And expect the controversies surrounding top Democrats to surface in the 2019 state elections. "A national embarrassment," a video from the state GOP said. "While Democratic leadership has brought chaos to the Capitol, Republicans in Richmond have delivered results."

REPLACING RAHM - Chicago voters head to the polls Tuesday to replace retiring Mayor Rahm Emanuel. But with a field of 14, the election is likely headed for a runoff, POLITICO's Natasha Korecki and Shia Kapos reported. A late contender: Bill Daley, former Obama chief of staff and son of former Mayor Richard Daley.

THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY - This isn't your grandfather's Democratic Party, and it isn't even the same Democratic Party from the turn of the 21st century. Gallup's Lydia Saad, Jeffrey Jones and Megan Brenan have a look at how the party has changed since 2001, including that a higher percentage of party members now have college degrees and that more of them are nonwhite. A plurality of Democrats now self-identify as liberal, as opposed to the beginning of the 2000s, when more identified as moderate.

I'M WITH HIM - Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said he'd be "delighted" if Trump or Vice President Mike Pence stumped with him this year ahead of his re-election battle, during an interview with Campaign Pro's Daniel Strauss at POLITICO's State Solutions Conference.

NEW BATTLEGROUNDS - Texas could be loaded with battleground House seats in 2020, from those Democrats flipped in the midterms to the three districts won by former Rep. Beto O'Rourke in his Senate bid but are still represented by a Republican, via The Texas Tribune's Ross Ramsey.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "If this goes well, I think we should follow it with a big party in Times Square the night before New Year's Day." - Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) reacting to the president's announcement that he'll celebrate the Fourth of July.

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