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By Elena Schneider | 02/09/2018 10:00 AM EDT


With Zach Montellaro and Kevin Robillard

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)

THREE WEEKS OUT (ALMOST) - Texas primaries shape up with less than a month to Election Day: Primary voters will head to the polls in Texas in three and a half weeks, so we want to check in on where these Lone Star state battles stand. A sampling of Texas primaries signal that it's going to be an expensive 2018.

- TX-02: Kathaleen Wall, a GOP activist, seeded her bid to replace retiring Rep. Ted Poe with $2.7 million of her own money, the largest personal contribution for any candidate last quarter. But state Rep. Kevin Roberts, who raised the second most in the district, holds name recognition as a local elected official.

- TX-03: State Sen. Van Taylor has five times more cash on hand than any other candidate in the race to replace retiring Rep. Sam Johnson.

- TX-05: The Club for Growth waded into a crowded House Republican primary in Texas, in an effort to keep two candidates they consider to be "too liberal" out of a potential runoff for retiring Rep. Jeb Hensarling's seat. The Club hasn't endorsed in the race, but the group released a TV ad today that attacked state Rep. Lance Gooden and former state Rep. Ken Sheets as "two of a kind when it comes to raisin' taxes." Bunni Pounds leads the pack in fundraising, but Gooden and Sheets have name ID in the district.

- TX-07: Three Democrats jockeying to take on GOP Rep. John Culberson are all up on TV with ads ahead of the primary. Democrat Alex Triantaphyllis, who leads the pack in fundraising last quarter, said "it won't be easy to take our country back from Donald Trump," but he'll "fight every day until we do." Lizzie Pannill Fletcher talked about protesting the closure of a Planned Parenthood in her ad, while Jason Westin, a physician, also focused on Trump, saying: "When President Trump denies facts, he's denying the very essence of America."

- TX-11: GOP Rep. Mike Conaway, who's running unopposed in his primary, is still airing TV ads on broadcast and cable stations ahead of Election Day.

- TX-16: Veronica Escobar, a former El Paso County judge, is up on TV, and she's picked up endorsements from national groups, like Daily Kos and LCV Action Fund. But her bid to replace Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke isn't clear, as Dori Fenenbock, a former El Paso School Board president, nearly matched Escobar in fundraising and holds more in cash on hand. Groups backing Fenenbock are also airing TV ads on her behalf.

- TX-23: Gina Ortiz Jones and Jay Hulings are dueling for a shot at GOP Rep. Will Hurd. They're both up with TV ads, and they're both attracting national support from groups like EMILY's List and the Blue Dogs.

- TX-29: Tahir Javed, a health care executive, dropped a $400,000 personal loan into the Democratic primary, potentially upending state Sen. Sylvia Garcia's glidepath to the nomination for retiring Rep. Gene Green's seat.

- TX-32: Three former Obama administration officials are all running against each other for a shot at GOP Rep. Pete Sessions. Ed Meier leads the pack in fundraising and cash on hand. He's also out with TV ads that focus on health care. But several other candidates are in the race, including two other former Obama administration officials, Colin Allred and Lillian Salerno, who's picked up an endorsement from EMILY's List.

FIRST IN SCORE - SPECIAL ELECTION SEASON - "CLF pops new TV ad in PA-18," via Campaign Pro's Elena Schneider: "The Congressional Leadership Fund released its fourth TV ad in Pennsylvania's special election race, attacking Democrat Conor Lamb for 'working under the Obama administration.' ... CLF has spent more than $1.7 million on TV ads to boost Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone." Check out the ad here. Full story.

Days until the 2018 election: 270.

Upcoming election dates - Arizona 8th District special primary: Feb. 27. Texas primaries: March 6. Pennsylvania 18th District special election: March 13. Illinois primaries: March 20.

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

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

THE DAY AHEAD (IN OHIO) - Candidates beg Ohio Republican State Central Committee to not endorse opponents: Mary Taylor and Mike Gibbons, who are running for governor and for Senate respectively, urged the state's GOP Central Committee, which meets today, to not endorse their primary opponents. Taylor also told a local radio host that if Mike DeWine won the primary, she wouldn't support him because he's an "establishment" politician, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Gibbons "is trying to fend off official party backing for U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci of Wadsworth, who was all but endorsed by President Donald Trump this week during a factory visit in suburban Cincinnati."

THAT WAS FAST - Former Jets player tweets he won't run for Congress: POLITICO New Jersey reported Thursday morning that local Republicans were recruiting former New York Jets center Nick Mangold to run to replace GOP Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, who announced his retirement last month. But by that afternoon, Mangold tweeted: "I am not running for Congress. While it would be an amazing opportunity and honor to serve the people of New Jersey's District 11, I am not at a place where I could commit to that." He also apparently needs to charge his phone.

HUH? - "Former U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright to run as Republican for 2nd District seat," from WSFA: "Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright will run as a Republican for Alabama's 2nd congressional district seat. Bright made the announcement at the Alabama Republican Party Headquarters in Birmingham Thursday morning saying he has always been a conservative and will be more effective in Washington as a Republican." Full story.

ON THE AIRWAVES - VoteVets backs Baldwin with $1M buy: "VoteVets, a group focused on promoting veteran candidates and defending Democrats on veterans' issues, is going up with a $1 million buy boosting Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin. The ad aims to counter a $1.5 million buy from the Koch-backed Concerned Veterans for America, which is attacking Baldwin over her handling of a scandal at a Wisconsin veterans facility where doctors overprescribed opiates, leading to at least one death." Watch the ad here. Full story.

POLLING DATA - Internal poll gives Rosendale edge in Montana GOP Senate primary: "Montana state Auditor Matt Rosendale released an internal poll showing a healthy lead in the GOP primary to challenge Sen. Jon Tester - but with a significant number of voters still undecided. The poll, conducted by WPA Intelligence, found Rosendale earning 28 percent of the vote in the GOP primary, compared to 12 percent for veteran Troy Downing, 11 percent for former Judge Russell Fagg and 5 percent for state Sen. Al Olszewski. Forty-three percent of voters aren't committed to any candidate." Full story.

NOT ONE, SIX - "'I'm Not a Career Politician': 6 Teenagers Run for Kansas Governor," by The New York Times' Jose A. Del Real: "But in Kansas, there are no minimum age restrictions to run and at 17, Mr. [Aaron] Coleman is one of six teenagers who have announced their bids in the last year to become chief executive of the state. Now, amid significant interest in their novel candidacies, some state lawmakers are clamoring to reform the eligibility process. The attention could create a carnival-like note to the race, and some lawmakers are calling for clearer election guidelines." Full story.

THE CONSENSUS - "George W. Bush: 'Clear evidence Russians meddled' in election," by USA Today's Kim Hjelmgaard: "Former President George W. Bush appeared to take aim at President Trump on Thursday when he said at an economic summit that there was 'pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled' in the 2016 U.S. president election. ... 'Whether [Russia] affected the outcome is another question," Bush added." Full story.

- "Russians penetrated U.S. voter systems, top U.S. official says," by NBC News' Cynthia McFadden, William Arkin and Kevin Monahan: "In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Jeanette Manfra, the head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, said she couldn't talk about classified information publicly, but in 2016, 'We saw a targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated.'" Full story.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "You can make a point all you want. But points are forgotten. There's not a whole of history books about the great points of the American Senate." - North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis on Sen. Rand Paul's shutdown showdown, POLITICO reported.

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