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01/23/2019 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 Campaign 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
- The stalemate in NC-09 continues, after a state judge ruled against an effort by Republican Mark Harris to force the state elections board to certify him as the winner.

- The Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on whether a question about citizenship should be on the 2020 census.

- Democrats are mulling major changes to the Iowa caucuses, including considering allowing "tele-caucusing" on a broader scale.

Good Wednesday morning. 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: 286

Days until the 2020 election: 650

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THE TOPLINES
NC-09, CONTINUED - We continue to tread water in NC-09, with no end in sight. On Tuesday, a North Carolina state judge denied a request from Harris' campaign to force certification of him as the winner over Democrat Dan McCready.

"The board of elections ... will be in the best position to weigh the factual and legal issues associated with this pending protest," Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway said in the hearing. "The petitioner has not shown that the board has a legal obligation to issue a certificate of election prior to the completion of its investigation."

The hangup here is that the state board of elections was dissolved in December, and a new board won't be seated until Jan. 31 at the earliest, leaving the House seat open for at least another week (and likely much longer). An evidentiary hearing on the election fraud allegations was originally scheduled for Jan. 11 and will eventually be rescheduled after the new board starts its duties. "Only after a full hearing on the record will State Board members be able to make an informed decision on whether to certify a winner or order a new election," a statement from the board of elections said.

David Freedman, an attorney for Harris, told reporters after the hearing that the Harris campaign hasn't decided yet if it will appeal Ridgeway's decision, per WSOC's Joe Bruno. Robin Hayes, the state GOP chair, said that the ruling doesn't change that Harris "won the election, has more legal votes, and no public evidence has put the outcome in doubt."

Democrats, meanwhile, praised the ruling. "We are pleased that Harris' frivolous request has been denied and that North Carolina can get back to investigating allegations of systematic electoral fraud," state Democratic chair Wayne Goodwin said in a statement. Democratic attorney Marc Elias, who argued on behalf of McCready, contributed a shorter version: "We won!"
IN THE TRENCHES
PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - Sen. Kamala Harris brought in a big fundraising haul in the 24 hours after announcing her presidential bid. She raised $1.5 million from more than 38,000 online donors, per POLITICO's Christopher Cadelago.

- When Harris makes her first visit to South Carolina, she'll be surrounded by thousands of people from the state's most powerful voting bloc: black women, POLITICO's Nolan McCaskill reported.

- Welcome news for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti: The Los Angeles teachers union has struck a deal with the school district to end the strike, the Los Angeles Times' Howard Blume and Sonali Kohli reported.

- Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is heading to Iowa this weekend, per The Denver Post's Nic Garcia.

- House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said he won't endorse a presidential candidate until close to the South Carolina primary, if at all, via Nolan.

- Progressive operatives are pushing Democrats to adopt labor policies for their campaign workers that they support as broader policy, like $15 minimum wage and unionization, McClatchy's Katie Glueck and Alex Roarty reported.

THE CITIZENSHIP QUESTION - The Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to take up an appeal of a district court order last week stripping a question about citizenship from the 2020 census. Justice wants the Supreme Court to hear the case ahead of any appeals court ruling because of how soon census questionnaires need to be printed. "The government must finalize the census questionnaire by the end of June 2019 to enable it to be printed on time," U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco wrote in a filing. "It is exceedingly unlikely that there is sufficient time for review in both the court of appeals and in this Court by that deadline."

- Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will testify about his decision to push for a question on citizenship onto the census, the House Oversight and Reform Committee announced. The hearing will be held on March 14, per a release from the committee.

THE CAUCUSES - Massive changes could be coming to the Iowa caucuses, driven by the expectation of huge Democratic turnout in 2020. "The party is shopping for larger facilities to fit expected overflow crowds, investing in new technology to stave off check-in and head-counting snafus and pushing individual 2020 campaigns to create their own voter registration programs," POLITICO's Natasha Korecki reported. " Iowa Democrats are even studying the possibility of what once would have been unthinkable: 'Tele-caucusing,' which would allow absentee voting by phone or possibly online for any Democrat who couldn't make it on caucus day."

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN - Could Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) have been Vice President Ernst? In a court filing from her divorce, she wrote that "in the summer of 2016, I was interviewed by Candidate Trump to be vice president of the United States. I turned Candidate Trump down, knowing it wasn't the right thing for me or my family," The Guardian's Ben Jacobs reported.

UP NEXT - Kansas Republicans are actively trying to avoid having Kris Kobach as their 2020 Senate nominee. The Kansas City Star's Bryan Lowry reported that strategists are trying to recruit Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while a PAC supporting Kobach has been conducting polling and his former campaign manager says he still talks to the president regularly.

- Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards officially launched his re-election campaign,releasing a video touting the work his administration has done in his first term (relatedly, he also sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about the blown pass interference call in the Saints-Rams game).

- Alabama state Auditor Jim Zeigler, a Republican, launched an exploratory committee to run for the Senate in 2020 with a Facebook post.

- Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) hired John Jackson to be his campaign manager, per Campaign Pro's James Arkin.

NEW CHAIRS - DCCC chief Cheri Bustos named three co-chairs for the committee's Women LEAD program, which helps female candidates in competitive districts: Reps. Lois Frankel of Florida, Robin Kelly of Illinois and Deb Haaland of New Mexico, per Campaign Pro's Laura Barrón-López.

THE MAJORITY LEADER - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is one of the most influential men in Washington, and his rise to power all started with his steadfast opposition to campaign finance reform. "From the outset, McConnell understood two essential aspects of the campaign-finance-reform debate. The first was that senators - certainly his Republican colleagues and, more quietly, many Democrats - were more interested in being seen as supporting campaign-finance reform than actually enacting it," The New York Times Magazine's Charles Homans wrote in his profile of McConnell. "The second was that the popularity of the reform proposals among the public, while real, was also shallow,
unlikely to factor in many constituents' votes."

WEB WARS - For the second week running, President Donald Trump is vastly outspending every other federal candidate on Facebook ads, dropping $561,000. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) spent the most out of any Democratic 2020 hopeful during her launch week, at a bit under $62,000. Pro subscribers can see the other big spenders here.

PRIMARY WATCH - Marie Newman, the Democrat who narrowly lost her bid to primary Rep. Dan Lipinski in IL-03 in 2018, is moving towards challenging him again. "We're going through a formal exploratory process and meeting with constituents throughout the district. I'm looking at a time frame that's looking like two to three months," she told TPM's Cameron Joseph. "Personally, my family and I are ready to go."

CODA - HEADLINE OF THE DAY: "Thief steals former Maryland Sen. Mikulski's famed footstool, employee reports," from The Baltimore Sun.

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