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02/26/2019 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 Campaign 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
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told supporters she'll ditch traditional campaign staples used to court big donors, a sign of the increasing importance small donors play in the Democratic Party.

- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) got his turn in the CNN town hall spotlight Monday, where he talked about taxes and his Medicare for All plan.

- Democratic activists launched a group to push 2020 presidential hopefuls to embrace expanding the size of the Supreme Court to cancel out conservative justices.

Good Tuesday morning. There's good people in this world: A big thanks to Janet and Mike Shock of Iowa, who rescued and housed my colleague Chris Cadelago after he drove his car into a snow drift while trying to cover Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). 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: 252

Days until the 2020 election: 616
THE TOPLINES
RISE OF THE SMALL DONOR - If you want a sign that Democrats will be relying on small-dollar enthusiasm even more in 2020, look no further than Warren's announcement that she'll shun the access game that big donors come to expect.

"That means no fancy receptions or big money fundraisers only with people who can write the big checks," Warren wrote in an email to her supporters, per POLITICO's Natasha Korecki. "It means that wealthy donors won't be able to purchase better seats or one-on-one time with me at our events. And it means I won't be doing 'call time'". This is also a change in practice for Warren; She regularly took donor-focused trips and had calls and meetings for her Senate run, Natasha and Maggie Severns reported.

Warren won't be the first Democrat to stake her campaign on the power of small donors. In the 2018 midterms, Democratic congressional candidates raked in small dollars through ActBlue en route to taking back the House - though many of those candidates also cashed big checks too. (Meanwhile: Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly has raised more than $2 million from 29,000 donors since jumping into the 2020 Senate race two weeks ago, per his campaign.) And of course, in the 2016 presidential election, Sanders raked in more in unitemized contributions in his primary run than Hillary Clinton did in the entirety of her presidential campaign.

Sanders has tapped into that small-donor base again in the opening weeks of his 2020 bid as well: He's raised $10 million from about 360,000 donors in the last week, per The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher.

But don't expect Warren or most Democrats to unilaterally disarm and rely only on small donors in the 2020 general, no matter who ultimately gets through to challenge President Donald Trump. Republicans "will have PACs and Super PACs and too many special interest groups to count, and we will do what is necessary to match them financially," Warren wrote in a Medium post explaining her policy.

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IN THE TRENCHES
PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - Sanders got a national cable audience Monday night with his CNN town hall. He sounded off on various progressive policies, promoting his Medicare for All plan and backing D.C. statehood. He defended democratic socialism: "To me, when I talk about democratic socialism, what I talk about are human rights and economic rights." He also pledged that harassment issues that plagued his 2016 campaign will not happen again.

Sanders is also preparing to release 10 years of tax returns, National Journal Hotline's Hanna Trudo reported.

- Another emerging flashpoint in the Democratic primary: Should the Senate filibuster remain? Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is the latest to come out against it. "I think it's got to go," he said, per NBC News' Mark Murray. "I just believe that the nature of economic change and social change and the integration of the world economy demands a functioning Senate."

- Former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's advice for 2020 hopefuls? ""[They] need not talk about how bad President Trump is, they just need to talk about what's good for the country," he told CNN's Bridget Nolan and Dana Bash. He also said his cancer is in remission and had nice things to say about just about every 2020 candidate - save for Trump and independent Howard Schultz.

PACK 'EM - Progressive activists are lobbying 2020 Democratic hopefuls to embrace a plan to expand the number of Supreme Court justices. "The recently created organization aptly named 'Pack the Courts' told POLITICO they have raised over $500,000 to jump-start their effort and have partnered with Demand Justice," POLITICO's Alex Thompson reported. "The group's strategy largely centers on influencing the left's political debate with a combination of producing social media videos, enlisting online influencers, conducting polling on individual court cases, and partnering with academics on research."

THE PRESIDENT'S CAMPAIGN - Alva Johnson, a former staffer for Trump's 2016 run, said in a lawsuit and interview that Trump "kissed her without her consent at a small gathering of supporters before a Florida rally, an interaction that she alleges in a new lawsuit still causes her anguish," The Washington Post's Beth Reinhard and Alice Crites reported. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed the allegations as "absurd on its face" in a statement to The Post, writing that "this never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts."

- Allies of the president are working to lock down support from Maryland Republicans in an attempt to undercut a potential primary challenge from Gov. Larry Hogan, The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson, Robert Costa and Arelis Hernández reported.

WEB WARS - Another week, another Facebook roundup. For only the second time this year, another candidate has outspent Trump on ads on the social network. Sanders dropped over $270,000 on Facebook ads last week, after he officially launched his bid for the White House. Also in the top five spending candidates in Democrat Dan McCready, who is back in campaign mode after another election was called in NC-09. Here's more for Pros.

ELECTION SECURITY - Christy McCormick, who rejected the intelligence community's fundings about Russian meddling in 2016, will chair the Election Assistance Commission, Pro Cybersecurity's Eric Geller reported.

NC-09, FOREVER - Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory opened and promptly re-closed the door on running in the new NC-09 election. The Republican told listeners on his radio show that he had been asked to run in the district but will not do so, instead keeping his options open for a future Senate or governor run, per Campaign Pro's Laura Barrón-López.

FIRST IN SCORE - WAY DOWNBALLOT - The Republican Legislative Campaign Committee announced its leadership team. North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger will be caucus chairman, and Michigan Speaker Lee Chatfield and Virginia Speaker Kirk Cox will be vice chairs.

AROUND THE SENATE MAP - Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is expected to face a competitive reelection battle, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post saying that, while he supports Trump's "vision" on the border, he will vote for a resolution disapproving of an emergency order because he's worried about separation of powers.

IN THE MAJORITY - Now that Democrats have taken over the House majority, more moderate members of the caucus are having to answer for the rabble rousing of the progressive wing of the party as they return home. VA-07's Rep. Abigail Spanberger "said she has had conversations with colleagues in more solid blue districts about the impact of both hard-line liberal policy and the tone of opposition," The New York Times' Catie Edmondson and Emily Cochrane wrote.

PAYING THE BILLS - Jill Stein, the 2016 Green Party presidential nominee, is paying long overdue fines from the FEC. "Stein's 2016 Green Party presidential campaign committee cut the Federal Election Commission a $41,735.31 check in late December - an effort to resolve the committee's mounting legal troubles," The Center for Public Integrity's Dave Levinthal reported.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "If you don't want to get re-elected, you're in the wrong business," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said to The New York Times.

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