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01/22/2019 10:00 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 Pro Campaigns 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 officials agreed to back one small-dollar platform in an effort to match Democratic fundraising behemoth ActBlue.

- Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) became the latest Democrat to formally launch a presidential campaign. Her past career as a prosecutor will be a focal point for supporters and critics alike.

- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is considering a 2020 run for Senate in Kansas, and top Republicans are encouraging him to do so.

Good Tuesday morning. The best way to celebrate your presidential bid is with an egg and cheese in New York, hands down. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com or DM me at @ZachMontellaro.

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: 287

Days until the 2020 election: 651
THE TOPLINES
TIME FOR ACTRED? - Democrats have held a significant fundraising advantage recently because the party coalesced around one online small donor platform - ActBlue - while Republican fundraising existed in a fragmented universe. It was easier for Democrats to pile up small-dollar donations, vexing Republicans in their inability to match.

But Republicans have taken a major step to forming their own ActRed. "Republicans have agreed to create a new platform dubbed Patriot Pass, which will be used to cultivate and process online donations," POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt reported. "The accord, revealed for the first time to POLITICO by officials at the center of the effort, has received the explicit blessing of party leaders. Under the arrangement, Data Trust, the Republican National Committee's designated clearinghouse of voter information, will form a joint venture with Revv, a donation processor used by the Trump campaign."

Patriot Pass is expected to launch next month. Details are still being worked out but those involved told Alex that it will mimic some of the most popular features from ActBlue. And crucially, once a donor gives money, the donor's information will be uploaded to their voter file in Data Trust, the GOP's massive data warehouse (where the party has an advantage over Democrats).
IN THE TRENCHES
PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - Harris is latest senator to officially get into the presidential race. "Truth, justice, decency, equality, freedom, democracy. These aren't just words. They're the values we as Americans cherish," Harris said in her announcement video, a less than subtle invocation of the president. She'll have a rally in Oakland on Sunday and attend a CNN town hall in Iowa on Monday (and here is her senior staff). The early messaging about her campaign - from both supporters and critics - will be about her career as a prosecutor and California's attorney general.

"Harris will court voters wary of law enforcement by presenting herself as a kinder and gentler prosecutor - a 'progressive' attorney who advocated for the vulnerable and served the public interest. At the same time, [her friends and strategists] believe leaning into her background will allow her to project toughness against Donald Trump," POLITICO's Christopher Cadelago wrote. "But it will be a tough balancing act. ... A scathing New York Times op-ed ... argued that Harris was overzealous against defendants in a slew of cases she or her office handled."

- Former New York City Michael Bloomberg doesn't seem like the candidate of the moment for the Democratic Party. So if he gets in, how will he run? "Unlike any of the other presidential hopefuls, Bloomberg plays a dominant leadership role on two of the top issues on the minds of progressives heading into the 2020 cycle: climate change and gun control," POLITICO's Marc Caputo wrote. "Bloomberg is polling and collecting 'data,' [a] source said, and climate change and guns are 'going to drive Democrats to the polls.'"

- Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz' advisers have been exploring a run for president as an independent, The Washington Post's Michael Scherer reported.

- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) leaned into her upstate New York roots in her first tour of Iowa. "But the pitch could also serve as a reminder that Gillibrand once held conservative positions far outside the Democratic Party mainstream," POLITICO's Elena Schneider reported.

- Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were in South Carolina on Monday for their first early state appearances of 2019, POLITICO's Nolan McCaskill and Holly Otterbein reported (where Sanders called President Donald Trump a racist). Sanders' team is also holding interviews for campaign manager, communications director and political director, The Wall Street Journal's Joshua Jamerson and Ken Thomas reported.

- Former Vice President Joe Biden was at an event hosted by Al Sharpton's National Action Network in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., where Biden said his support for various crime bills in the 1980s and '90s were a mistake, per The New York Times' Astead Herndon. Bloomberg, who was also at the event, avoided any mention of his support for stop-and-frisk. Gillibrand appeared at a second NAN event in New York, via POLITICO New York's Emilie Ruscoe.

- Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke is five states into "his stream-of-consciousness road trip across the American Southwest," POLITICO's David Siders writes. Some Democrats have also been complaining about his "go-it-alone style," The New York Times' Matt Flegenheimer and Alexander Burns reported.

- Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey said he won't run for president.

NC-09, CONTINUED - Arguments begin today in a state court over whether Republican Mark Harris should be certified the winner over Democrat Dan McCready amid election fraud allegations, via WSOC's Joe Bruno. Neither Harris nor McCready will be at the courthouse.

THE DATA BATTLE - Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, has an uneasy alliance with the Democratic Party after battles over data and campaign tactics. "During the 2017 gubernatorial and state legislature races in Virginia, party leaders and a Hoffman-funded group fought bitterly over strategy and access to voter data. By the summer before that year's November election, they had stopped communicating altogether," POLITICO's Maggie Severns and Alex Thompson reported. "Hoffman's defenders told POLITICO his investments through his political fund, Investing in US, were critical to Democratic startups that flourished after Trump's election."

UP NEXT - Pompeo is strongly considering a run for the Senate seat in Kansas in 2020. Alex reported that Pompeo had a meeting scheduled with veteran Republican strategist Ward Baker and that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been trying to persuade him to run.

- Former Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said he is considering a run for the Senate and will decide by March, via the Nashville Tennessean Joel Ebert.

- Kentucky Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes said she will not run for governor.

TRUMP'S PARTY - The RNC will likely vote this week to reaffirm its support of Trump, as some Republicans float a primary challenge, the Washington Examiner's David Drucker reported.

THE SENATE BATTLEFIELD - Doug Jones (D-Ala.) is the most endangered Senate Democrat in 2020, and with the battle still raging over the shutdown and border wall, his steep reelection chances got steeper. "Polling also shows that support for the wall among conservatives, who make up much of Alabama's electorate, has remained strong during the shutdown. Even supporters of Mr. Jones think he's in trouble," The New York Times' Lisa Lerer reported.

CYBERSECURITY - The DNC said it was a target of a cyberattack from Russia shortly after the midterms in a legal complaint filed last week, POLITICO's Rebecca Morin and Eric Geller reported.

PRIMARY WATCH - Rep. Steve King's (R-Iowa) primary challenger Randy Feenstra hit the ground running. "He claims he raised more than $100,000 and has a super PAC run by a former Iowa House speaker," the Des Moines Register's Robin Opsahl reported.

- Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has drawn a primary challenger after launching her presidential campaign from state Sen. Kai Kahele, the Honolulu Star Advertiser's Sophie Cocke reported.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I really wish @tonyromo would just tell us when the shutdown is going to end," Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Twitter, praising Romo's performance as a color commentator in the AFC championship game.

CORRECTION - The Jan. 18 edition of Morning Score mischaracterized the nominating process in Pennsylvania special congressional elections. Local party officials choose the nominees in special elections.

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