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11/27/2018 10:00 AM EDT

By ZACH MONTELLARO (zmontellaro@politico.com; @ZachMontellaro)


Editor's Note: This edition of Free Morning Score is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Campaigns 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.
THE TOPLINES
IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR - And by that, I mean the last (federal) election of 2018. Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is trying to hold off Democrat Mike Espy. Polls open at 7 a.m. local time and close at 7 p.m. (or 8 a.m.-8 p.m. on the East Coast). We won't have a livechat, but you can follow along with the election results as they come in here.

Hyde-Smith has remained the favorite in this race, but a remark about attending a public hanging and her persistent praise of the Confederacy has made some Democrats hopeful that they can pull off an upset, a la Alabama. My Campaign Pro deskmate James Arkin had a great overview of the race that's worth re-reading.

The president also flew to the state Monday for a last-minute defensive play, hosting two rallies boosting Hyde-Smith. Both camps are deploying extensive resources in a last-minute push. More from James from Biloxi, Miss.: "More than 100 Republican operatives and field staff flocked to the state in the final stretch, spread out between Trump's two rallies here and in Tupelo, in opposite corners of the state, and in the capital of Jackson. The Republican National Committee had more than 100 staffers on the ground, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent campaign staff down the stretch. ... Democrats have amassed their own large field operation in a state where they rarely
compete statewide. Espy's campaign has knocked on 100,000 doors during the runoff, and volunteers have made more than 650,000 phone calls, according to a source with knowledge of the operation."

Good Tuesday morning. As always, email me at zmontellaro@politico.com or DM me at @ZachMontellaro.

Email the great Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, jarkin@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com and dstrauss@politico.com. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @JamesArkin, @ec_schneider and @DanielStrauss4.

Days until the 2019 election: 343

Days until the 2020 election: 707

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IN THE TRENCHES
THE LAST HOUSE RACE - Democrat TJ Cox has overtaken GOP Rep. David Valadao in CA-21. After more votes were counted, Cox now leads Valadao by 436 votes. POLITICO has uncalled the race (The AP called it for Valadao on election night only to retract its call on Monday), leaving it as the one uncalled House seat in the nation. More votes will come today and Wednesday, The Fresno Bee reported.

THE DONOR CLASS - Some major Democratic donors remain miffed at Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) for pushing former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign after several sexual misconduct allegations. POLITICO's Natasha Korecki and Laura Nahmias: "More than a dozen prominent West Coast, New York and national donors and bundlers - many of them women - said they would never again donate to or fundraise for Gillibrand or would only do so if she ended up as the Democratic presidential nominee. ... Among those donors is Susie Tompkins Buell, a prominent Democratic fundraiser and cofounder of Esprit and the North Face clothing brands, who said the matter remains fresh in her mind and among those in
her circles."

THE PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD - A clip-and-save quote from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): "If there's somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I'll work my ass off to elect him or her," he told New York's Gabriel Debenedetti."[But] if it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run" (you should read the entire profile).

- In the "not a no" category: Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) didn't definitively rule out a 2020 run. The Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek tweeted that O'Rourke said "he's currently focused on spending time with his family and finishing his term in the House. 'And then Amy and I will think about what we can do next to contribute to the best of our ability to this community.'"

- And who are the traditional early state operatives excited about? McClatchy's Katie Glueck found out: "[W]hen it comes to sheer star power on the ground, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey have activists glowing about their trips to several of the early states. ... The Vermont senator unquestionably maintains a following in key early states. But just because he was the liberal favorite last time doesn't mean Sanders has locked down the progressive base going forward."

RECOUNT WATCH - GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin, who lost to Democrat Jared Golden in ME-02 after the first-ever use of ranked-choice voting to decide a congressional seat, is calling for a recount. The Portland Press Herald's Kevin Miller: "[Secretary of State Matt Dunlap's] office has estimated that a hand-recount of the nearly 300,000 ballots cast in the 2nd District race could take up to four weeks to complete."

THE SENATE FIELD - Names are already being floated for the 2020 Senate map in a rundown from CNN's Alex Rogers and Clare Foran: GOP Rep. Bradley Byrne in Alabama, Democratic state Sen. Jeff Jackson in North Carolina, Democratic state House Speaker Crisanta Duran in Colorado and Democratic state House Speaker Sara Gideon in Maine. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) is mulling a run for governor, and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said he's "not necessarily" going to run again.

- Arizona GOP Gov. Doug Ducey's chief of staff, Kirk Adams, is stepping down. The Arizona Capitol Times' Carmen Forman reported that Adams is "rumored to be on the shortlist" to fill the Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Jon Kyl if and when Kyl steps down. Daniel Scarpinato, an NRCC alum, has been named Ducey's new chief of staff.

IN THE VALLEY - Remember Facebook's much vaunted election war room? That's been shut down, per Bloomberg's Sarah Frier: Back in September, "the company said the War Room might be deployed for future elections. But it's been disbanded. Facebook says it was never intended to be permanent, and the company is still assessing what is needed for future elections." But Facebook disputed that report, saying instead that the effort will be expanded.

DISTRICT LINES - Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, is creating a commission to redraw Maryland's infamously gerrymandered 6th District. The Washington Post's Erin Cox: "Hogan said his nine-member commission would adjust the boundaries of the 6th District, which are the focus of a partisan gerrymandering case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. ... Hogan on Monday said his commission will comply with the current court ruling, calling the situation 'an embarrassment to our state.'"

KIND OF A LABEL! - The centrist No Labels group considered busting out a label for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi - "bogeyman." The Daily Beast's Sam Stein and Lachlan Markay: "Emails obtained by The Daily Beast show that No Labels leadership contemplated a campaign to attack Pelosi aggressively after the primary campaign of centrist Rep. Dan Lipinski ... Pelosi had endorsed Lipinski. But No Labels leadership was convinced that her support was a fig leaf. [No Labels leader Nancy] Jacobson, according to a source familiar with the group's internal deliberations, was convinced that Pelosi had secretly tried to scuttle the congressman's reelection and proposed publicly attacking the
Democratic leader in the run-up to the midterms."

LOVE HURTS - Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), who lost to Democratic Rep.-elect Ben. McAdams in UT-04, had some sharp words for the president in a Monday press conference following her weekend concession. "The president's behavior towards me made me wonder: What does he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican?" she said, per POLITICO's Rebecca Morin. "This gave me a clear vision of his world as it is: no real relationships, just convenient transactions."

- Another concession: Democrat Nate McMurray conceded to GOP Rep. Chris Collins in NY-27, per The Buffalo News' Harold McNeil (POLITICO had called the race on election night).

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "People are capable of massive intellectual contradictions in politics," USC professor Jefferey Sellers on how the suburbs are changing, to the NYT Upshot.

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