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By Scott Bland | 07/13/2017 10:00 AM EDT


With Kevin Robillard, Elena Schneider and Zach Montellaro

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)

QUICK TURNAROUND - "Corey Stewart to announce run for U.S. Senate on Thursday, sources say," by the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Patrick WIlson: "A month after nearly toppling Ed Gillespie in the GOP race for governor with a campaign centered around the Confederate flag and restricting immigration, Corey Stewart on Thursday will announce a run for U.S. Senate in 2018, sources said. Stewart has called a news conference for 11 a.m. at his home in Woodbridge, where sources say he'll announce that he wants to be the GOP nominee to go up against first-term Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who is running for re-election." Full story.

BAWITDABA - Kid Rock is (maybe, probably not) considering a Senate run in Michigan: Kid Rock, the rap-rock musician and Macomb County native whose real name is Bob Ritchie, sent out two Twitter missives on Wednesday afternoon that grabbed users' attention, hinting at a run for Senate in Michigan against Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow in 2016. "Stay tuned, I will have a major announcement in the near future," he wrote, directing people to KidRockForSenate.com.

- Reasons to take this seriously: Kid Rock hasn't been quiet about his political opinions in the past, describing himself as libertarian-leaning Republican. His song, "Born Free," was Mitt Romney's campaign anthem in 2012, and he supported President Donald Trump in 2016. And it's hard to say Kid Rock can't win a Senate seat when a former Celebrity Apprentice host is in the Oval Office. Wes Nakagiri, a conservative activist in Michigan, said he thought Kid Rock could have the same type of appeal Trump did as he won Michigan for Republicans for the first time since 1988: "I think Kid Rock would reach that same voting bloc. He cares about the little guy," Nakagiri said. "He's not the typical
Republican."

- Reasons not to take this seriously: Kid Rock's announcement wasn't that he's running for Senate - it's that he has a website and would be making another announcement later. He hasn't filed with the FEC. And the "Kid Rock for Senate" merchandise he's hawking is hosted on a Warner Bros. Records site, which would be a huge campaign finance no-no that a major corporation would seem unlikely to make. Kirt Webster, a Warner Bros. spokesman, would only refer a reporter to Rock's Facebook page, but promised: "More soon!" Meanwhile, Republicans in the state said they've heard nothing. "We have not had any conversations with Kid Rock, so I can't speak to the validity of this," Michigan GOP
spokeswoman Sarah Anderson wrote in an email.

- For what it's worth: Nakagiri noted KidRockForSenate.com was registered on Feb. 17, a few days after the Detroit Free Press wrote up the activist's float of Rock at the state Republican convention. And a Democratic group has already assembled a one-page oppo briefing about the musician. Highlights include a 1999 sex tape that also featured Creed singer Scott Stapp and four female fans, a 2000 admission that he had smoked crack cocaine, and multiple accusations of assault.

WARR, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? $3.45 MILLION - via POLITICO Massachusetts' Lauren Dezenski: "Warren raised $3.45 million between April and June, bringing her total cash on hand to $11.03 million. It's the highest second-quarter fundraising haul announced so far, and follows a record-breaking first quarter which saw Warren bring in more money than any other Democratic Senate candidate." Full story.

- Ryan transferred another $2 million to NRCC in June: That brings the House speaker's total to $21.7 million for the year so far, plus another $3.3 million raised via Ryan-signed mail and email missives for the NRCC and yet more raised for individual members - Ryan attended fundraisers for GOP Reps. Sean Duffy, Martha McSally and Bruce Poliquin on Wednesday night, for example. Overall, Team Ryan has raised $32.7 million in 2017, the speaker's political office said. See more second quarter fundraising numbers after the jump.

Days until the 2017 election: 117.

Days until the 2018 election: 481.

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

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin and @danielstrauss4.

Q2 FUNDRAISING ROUNDUP - FIRST IN SCORE - CA-52: Democratic Rep. Scott Peters raised $440,000, finishing the second quarter with $1.7 million in cash on hand, per a statement from his campaign.

- Connecticut: Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy's campaign said he raised $2 million in the second quarter and now has $5.1 million on hand.

- Florida: Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson raised $2.1 million in the second quarter, the Tampa Bay Times reported, and now has over $5.1 million on hand.

- Indiana: GOP Rep. Todd Rokita's campaign, which is all but certain to jump from House to Senate, announced raising over $1 million in the second quarter and finishing with $2.3 million on hand.

- Pennsylvania: GOP Rep. Mike Kelly, who is considering a run against Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, raised nearly $370,000 in the second quarter and finished with $1.1 million in his federal campaign account. OF NOTE: There are no polling expenses in the report, after Kelly said in May he'd "spend much of the coming weeks thoroughly considering a campaign" for Senate. Contrast that to GOP Rep. Steve Pearce, whose federal campaign committee spent heavily on polling (and other things) in the second quarter before Pearce's announcement this week that he would run for governor of New Mexico.

- AZ-09: Republican challenger Steve Ferrara raised $253,000 for his campaign against Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and finished with $245,000 on hand.

- CA-45: GOP Rep. Mimi Walters announced raising nearly $702,000 in the second quarter and finishing with over $1.1 million on hand.

- CA-49: GOP Rep. Darrell Issa announced raising $455,000 in the second quarter and finishing with over $671,000 on hand.

- NJ-07: Democrat Lisa Mandelblatt raised just under $260,000 in the second quarter, finishing with $200,000 in cash on hand, per a statement from her campaign.

- NJ-11: GOP Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen raised over $498,000 in the second quarter and finished with almost $981,000 in the bank. Democrat Mikie Sherrill raised just under $250,000 in the last two months, per a statement from her campaign, which did not include cash on hand.

DOWN THE BALLOT - "Let America Vote and iVote join forces, will work on Secretary of State races," by Campaign Pro's Maggie Severns: "Let America Vote, the nonprofit started earlier this year by former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, is joining up with the voting rights group iVote and will partner on iVote's campaigns to elect Democratic secretaries of state in five battleground states in 2018. ... In 2018, Let America Vote will target secretary of state races in Michigan, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada and Ohio. Let America Vote and iVote will also operate a ballot initiative campaign backing automatic voter registration in Nevada." Full story.

REBOOT? - "Gillespie's primary scare has White House, others urging 'Trump world' hires," by the Washington Post's Laura Vozzella: "Alarmed that Ed Gillespie barely won the Virginia GOP primary for governor in June, top Republicans from the White House on down are pushing him to hire some of the president's strategists and more aggressively court Trump voters, according to Republicans with direct knowledge of those efforts. ... The White House, former Virginia governor George Allen and state lawmakers have been urging Gillespie to tap Trump's strategists, six Republicans familiar with that outreach said. Some were pushing Corey Lewandowski, Trump's bombastic early campaign manager, they
said. ... 'He's surrounded himself with "Never Trumpers," and they don't know how to navigate this new dynamic in the party,' said a Republican familiar with the outreach. White House officials 'want to help and they want to embrace, but you've got to want to be hugged. You can't blanch.'" Full story.

JERSEY POLL - Democrat Phil Murphy has a sizeable lead over GOP Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, leading 53 percent to 26 percent in a new Monmouth University poll for the 2017 gubernatorial election. The silver lining for Guadagno: 6-in-10 voters say they don't know the candidates well enough to form an opinion of them.

FIRST IN SCORE - New job: The Democratic digital consulting firm Well and Lighthouse is adding Preston Elliott, former deputy executive director of the DSCC, as a senior vice president and political director, per a statement from the group.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW - "Patrick Murphy to chair newly launched millennials political committee," by POLITICO Florida's Sergio Bustos: "Murphy, who also lost in a bid to defeat incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio last year, is going to lead the newly created Future Forum Foundation, a political committee whose mission is to speak for the nation's millennials. ... They said they will follow the work of the House Future Forum, a group of the 26 youngest Democratic congressional members." Full story.

TECH TITAN - "Silicon Valley venture capitalist Sam Altman says he wants to recruit candidates to run for office in California," by the Los Angeles Times' Seema Mehta: "Sam Altman, 32, said in May that he was considering a run for governor. But he said in an interview with The Times this week that he has no plans to run for office - at the moment - and will instead roll out an effort Wednesday to enlist candidates around a shared set of policy priorities - including tackling how automation is going to affect the economy and the cost of housing in California - and is willing to put his own money behind the effort. ... He said he hopes to recruit a slate of four candidates to run for office -
possibly for governor, lieutenant governor, mayor of a major city in California and Congress - and could provide technology platforms and seed money for their campaigns." Full story.

#AWK - "Colorado Senate Democratic leader surprised by Andy Kerr 'endorsement' email," by Colorado Politics' Peter Marcus: "Colorado Senate Democratic Leader Lucia Guzman says she is supporting both members of her caucus that are competing in the 7th Congressional District, despite an email from Andy Kerr. [But] ... Guzman said she approved a graphic that accompanied the Kerr email." Full story.

FOR YOUR CALENDAR - Maverick PAC hosts conference in D.C.: The Mavericks Conference, a conservative gathering, kicks off today with a keynote address from Vice President Mike Pence, per a statement from the group. House Speaker Paul Ryan and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham will also speak to the group. Check out the full program here.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "In my 25 years of doing this professionally, I haven't seen the kind of war chest of this size as early and as massively as we're seeing in Illinois." - Former Republican Governors Association executive director Phil Musser, on the potential quarter-billion-dollar gubernatorial race shaping up in Illinois between GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrat J.B. Pritzker, who is already spending freely on TV ads, via POLITICO.

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