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03/29/2016 08:42 AM EDT


By Lauren French (lfrench@politico.com or @LaurenNFrench)

TRUMP BRINGS GOP CIVIL WAR TO RYAN TERRITORY. Eli Stokols and Ben Schreckinger reports, "When Donald Trump plants a flag Tuesday in the hometown of House Speaker Paul Ryan, he'll be sounding the opening shot of a weeklong battle for Wisconsin - a symbolic beachhead in his fight to vanquish the Republican establishment... Trump has made a habit of holding rallies in his rivals' backyards, and this one was announced hours after Ryan condemned Trump's rhetoric - without naming the businessman - in a speech last week. Trump's visit comes on the heels of a campaign stop here by Ted Cruz as their campaigns duel for the delegates at stake in Ryan's district. An automated poll released by 0ptimus
on Monday showed Trump with 30 percent support in Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District..." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f030ba605e359690bde5d71a8a1cb3d3cc917e73b328efe20d64c744c5b2e97e

SUPREME COURT COMES HOME FOR GRASSLEY. Seung Min Kim reports, "Sen. Chuck Grassley had just launched his second town hall meeting of the day when a woman posed - at least for Republicans - a worst-case scenario: What if Hillary Clinton wins in November and nominates someone more liberal than Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court? Grassley, standing before more than 120 people in this northwest Iowa town, was unfazed... As the national battle rages over whether to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia this year, no one is under heavier scrutiny or facing more pressure back home than Grassley, a one-time farmer and sheet metal worker who was first sworn in to the Senate the same month that
Ronald Reagan became president." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f030ba605e3596901617fc5e24eeb9c89eb880a96ba726b3236818ff08993be1

CAPITOL HILL GUNMAN TESTED SECURITY BEFORE. NBC News' Tim Stelloh reports, "Larry Russell Dawson, the man who law enforcement sources say tried entering the Capitol building Monday with a gun, was arrested there last October after disrupting congressional proceedings. On Oct. 22 - Dawson's 66th birthday - the one-time funeral director and embalmer from Antioch, Tenn., stood up, began shouting bible verses and identified himself as a 'Prophet of God,' according to federal documents." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f030ba605e35969024c1da41935c7820e922b20acd4b7c280800236022f26c59

HAPPY TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2016 and welcome to the Huddle. The talented Seung Min Kim will be your Huddle guide for the rest of the week. You can find me at lfrench@politico.com and @laurennfrench on Twitter and her at skim@politico.com.

TODAY IN CONGRESS: Both the House and the Senate are out.

AROUND THE HILL: At 2 p.m., Rep. Chris Smith and human rights leaders will hold a media availability on Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Washington.

SENATE DEMOCRATS OUTLINE GARLAND TIMELINE. The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis and Kelsey Snell report, "If Senate Democrats have their way, Supreme Court nominee Merrick B. Garland would sit for confirmation hearings starting in late April and receive an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor about a month later, just before Memorial Day. That is the timeline proposed in a letter sent Monday to Republican leaders by Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Democrats, of course, are exceedingly unlikely to have their way, because the Republican leaders they are addressing - Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) - have
made clear that they will not act on any Supreme Court nomination made by President Obama in this election year." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f030ba605e359690c170ef5e5adfe5a3a4ae82e9ad1f8d23930416a285d8a8c5

GRASSLEY'S RESPONSE to Seung Min Kim, "" I would expect them to take that position but it's completely contrary to what a lot of their leaders over a long period of time, including people that are still in the United States Senate, have very clearly said. When there's a vacancy in an election year, it's not fair to the country, it's not fair to the Senate, it's not fair to the Supreme court, it's not fair to the nominee to put the person in the words that [Vice President Joe] Biden used, in the cauldron of a presidential election year when things are so highly politicized."

ANTI-ABORTION GROUPS DITCH ONE-TIME ALLY IN ELLMERS. Jennifer Haberkorn reports, "Anti-abortion groups are running from Rep. Renee Ellmers - whom they once considered a reliable ally - as she faces the most daunting primary of her career. Ellmers (R-N.C.) drew the ire of the anti-abortion community last year when she temporarily halted and forced changes to its top legislative priority in the House: passage of a 20-week abortion ban. She led a group of GOP women who insisted on eliminating the bill's requirement for rape victims to report the crime to police in order to get an abortion after 20 weeks." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f030ba605e3596908b75d1c26bba1d5dfcc8be8b50ff61d8bb09b289807f29e8

2016 DETOUR:

- Trump's popularity nosedives in critical stretch. By Steven Shepard, "Donald Trump wasn't wildly popular to begin with. And now he's becoming even more disliked among American voters, creating a significant threat to his chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination. Trump is, by far, the GOP delegate leader - and the only candidate with a realistic shot at winning a majority of delegates before the July convention. But at the same time, nearly two-thirds of Americans view Trump unfavorably - and his image rating has declined since Republican voting began in February." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f030ba605e35969006d9ed89a2becca77f769c82c80557dcf38ed8c4982d27ab

CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRAT GOES FOR SANDERS. Jennifer Bendery reports for the Huffington Post, "Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.), one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, says he'll cast his vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for president if he attends the Democratic National Convention in July. Peterson told Forum News Service on Saturday that his vote at the convention would reflect the will of his constituents, who overwhelmingly supported Sanders in the state's March 1 Democratic caucuses. Sanders won Peterson's district with 63 percent of the vote, compared to Hillary Clinton's 37 percent. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f030ba605e3596903e52a569bdb1edfbafaaa9df5a4a6c12d1518aaaeb3b1ab2

GOP WOMEN TRY TO GROWN PARTY'S BRAND WITH FEMALES. Carl Hulse reports for the New York Times, "When Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers took a position in the House Republican leadership after the 2012 elections, she knew she had a lot of work to do. Her party had just lost multiple key constituencies, and she was particularly bothered by the party's poor standing with women...Acutely aware that the Democrats will most likely have a woman at the top of their ticket in 2016, Ms. McMorris Rodgers and some of her female colleagues undertook an ambitious campaign - and an unconventional one by Washington standards. They decided to reach out to women via women's magazines and new media, hoping
to connect with them in grocery store aisles and through popular online forums." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f030ba605e359690bd423ce9f1296cfd5b0cd64a12816c566b7680ff4c873a52

NO GUNS AT REPUBLICAN CONVENTION. Niraj Chokshi reports, "The Secret Service on Monday quashed the hopes of gun rights advocates who were pushing for the open carry of firearms to be allowed at this summer's Republican National Convention in Cleveland. An online petition in support of the effort rapidly gained signatures and attention in the past week, applying pressure to pro-gun Republican officials and presidential contenders to walk the walk when it comes to guns. But on Monday, the Secret Service said that only law enforcement personnel will be allowed to carry firearms at the event." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f030ba605e3596909d57c58189fd76ee98012c28d4d1b7f4727724fe2068c5ab

PROGRESSIVE GROUPS BACK GRAYSON. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America announced this morning an endorsement of Rep. Alan Grayson in his primary fight against Rep. Patrick Murphy for the open Florida Senate seat. Grayon trails Murphy in any establishment support (President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid are all with Murphy) but has cleaned up with progressives. "Every step of the way -- from Wall Street reform to expanding Social Security to being a national leader for Medicare expansion -- Alan Grayson has stood with progressives as one of our boldest and most reliable allies. He's a national leader for expanding
Medicare and has consistently said no to cutting Social Security benefits. That's why we're proud to endorse him today," said Adam Green and Stephanie Taylor, co-founders, Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - We stumped you! John Maxwell and the Vegetarian Party in 1948 was the most recent candidate who ran for president and was declared ineligible due to being born in Britain.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - From yours truly. Wisconsin was the first state to pass a law establishing a state primary for voters. What year did a vote on that resolution occur and in what year did it extend to presidential primaries? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. E-mail lfrench@politico.com

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