North Carolina Rep. Robert Pittenger is the first incumbent of the 2018 cycle to lose, falling to former pastor Mark Harris in Tuesday’s 9th District Republican primary.

Two years ago, Pittenger defeated Harris by just 134 votes in a recount.

In a district President Donald Trump carried by 12 points in 2016, Pittenger and Harris sparred over loyalty to the president. 

After his close call two years ago, the incumbent seemed to be taking his re-election more seriously this year. His campaign had outspent Harris, as of the pre-primary reporting period. And Pittenger started earlier than he did two years ago. His campaign debuted a Christmas ad last year to try to undercut Harris’ message.

Pittenger wasn’t facing an FBI investigation that dogged him two years ago, when he was running a newly redrawn district and had to introduce himself to new voters. 

Harris could face a competitive general election against a Democratic recruit who’s outraised Pittenger. Solar energy financier and Marine veteran Dan McCready easily won his primary Tuesday night.

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Likely Republican.

Watch: 5 Things to Watch in Tuesday’s Congressional Primaries

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West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has won the Republican nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III in November in what’s likely to be one of the most closely watched races in the country.

He led the six-way GOP primary field, followed by Rep. Evan Jenkins in second and former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship in third.

The defeat of Blankenship, a former convict, is a win for national Republicans who spent upward of a million dollars attacking him.

Trump went as far as to tweet against Blankenship on Monday, saying he’d be unelectable in November and asking voters to “remember Alabama,” a reference to the Senate special election last December when Democrat Doug Jones upset controversial GOP nominee Roy Moore.

With the help of a super PAC supporting him, Morrisey hammered Jenkins throughout the campaign, accusing him of being a liberal. Meanwhile, Jenkins was also hit by national Democrats through a super PAC called Duty and Country. 

In the final days of the race, Morrisey turned his attention to Blankenship, who had seen a late surge in internal polling after last week’s Fox News debate. Morrisey released robocalls and a digital ad attacking the former coal executive for his role in a 2010 mine explosion in southern West Virginia and for serving time in prison in Nevada. He also attacked him for not filing his personal financial disclosure report, threatening to call Blankenship’s parole officer. (His parole ends Tuesday.)

Morrisey played up his conservative bona fides with endorsements from Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the pro-Trump Great America Alliance.

But as much as he campaigned as an outsider, often touting lawsuits he brought against former President Barack Obama’s regulations, he’s not without his own ties to Washington.

He used to work on Capitol Hill, and his past work for lobbying firms, as well as his wife’s lobbying work, were frequent sources of attacks in the primary. He previously ran for Congress in New Jersey, where he grew up and attended college.

Those are all attacks that could resurface in the general action. National Democrats spent heavily in the GOP primary, but a disproportionate amount of their spending was against Jenkins, suggesting they saw him as Manchin’s biggest threat. 

Morrisey end the pre-primary reporting period with $835,000 in the bank. Manchin ended the same reporting period with $5.3 million. 

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race a Toss-up.

ICYMI: Trump Throws Out Notes at West Virginia Event

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Businessman and former state Rep. Mike Braun won the Republican nod for Senate in Indiana on Tuesday. He’ll take on Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly in one of the most competitive races in the country.

Outspending his opponents, Braun defeated Reps. Todd Rokita and Luke Messer to win the nomination. With 68 percent of precincts reporting, Braun had 41 percent of the vote to 30 percent for Messer and 29 percent for Rokita, according to The Associated Press.

The three candidates, all of whom graduated from Wabash College, attacked each other in what was one of the nastiest GOP primaries in the country. In a state that President Donald Trump won by nearly 20 points in 2016, all tried to prove their loyalty to him.

But it was Braun, who embraced Trump’s outsider and businessman profile, who broke through. Largely self-funding his campaign, he had the money to blanket the airwaves. By the end of the pre-primary reporting period, he’d loaned his campaign $5.5 million.

He defined his two opponents as career politicians, and made an early play at separating himself by showing up to their first debate without wearing a suit, while Messer and Rokita sported nearly matching jackets and ties.

In one memorable ad, Braun carried around cardboard cutouts of his opponents and asked people to try to distinguish between the two.

Messer and Rokita accused him of being a Democrat since he voted in Democratic primaries for more than a decade and voted for a gas tax increase in the Legislature (that a Republican governor signed). 

Braun was elected as a Republican to the state House in 2014 and resigned last fall to focus on his Senate campaign. He’s argued that conservatives in southern Indiana had to vote in Democratic primaries if they wanted to have a say in local government and denies having weighed in on any federal races in Democratic primaries.

He’s also been attacked for taking votes in the state Legislature that enriched himself and his business, which are likely to come up again in the general election. Democrats are also expected to go after his business record at Meyer Distributing. 

Braun ended the pre-primary reporting period with $1.3 million in the bank, but he likely has more of his own resources to pour into a race. Donnelly ended the same reporting period with $6.3 million on hand.

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the Indiana Senate race a Toss-up. 

ICYMI: Rokita Responds to Driving Memo

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Ohio Rep. James B. Renacci won the Republican nomination for Senate on Tuesday night to take on Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in November.

The Associated Press reported at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday that Renacci had 45.1 percent of the vote, with 44 percent of the precincts reporting. Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons, his closest challenger, had 32.5 percent of the vote. 

The four-term congressman had the endorsement of the GOP delegation and President Donald, who carried Ohio by 8 points in 2016. With Trump’s encouragement, Renacci switched from the gubernatorial contest to the Senate race in January after state Treasurer Josh Mandel unexpectedly dropped out.

As the 16th wealthiest member of Congress, according to Roll Call’s Wealth of Congress Index, Renacci will have his own resources to bring to the race against Brown. He had loaned his campaign $4 million by the end of the first quarter of this year but raised just $260,000, according to Federal Election Commission documents. (He did not file a pre-primary report with the FEC.) He ended the first quarter with $4.2 million.

Brown ended the pre-primary reporting period with $12 million in the bank. 

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Leans Democratic. 

Watch: Five More Candidate Intro Videos Worth Watching

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West Virginia state Del. Carol Miller won the Republican nomination for the open 3rd District on Tuesday night.

She will face Democratic state Sen. Richard Ojeda in November. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Miller had 23 percent of the vote in a seven-way GOP field, according to The Associated Press. Her nearest challenger, fellow state Del. Rupie Phillips, had 20 percent. 

Ojeda, elected to the state Senate in 2016, voted for President Donald Trump that year — as did 73 percent of the district. He previously ran for Congress in 2014, when he challenged former Rep. Nick J. Rahall II in the Democratic primary, but lost by 32 points.

Trump carried the 3rd District in the southern part of West Virginia by 49 points. But Democrats see it as their best pickup opportunity in the Mountain State because it’s an open seat. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added it to its target list early last year. 

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Solid Republican. 

Miller was the beneficiary of the first independent expenditure from a new outside group dedicated to electing Republican women. The five-figure digital buy, which came the week before the primary likely wasn't a deciding factor in the race but it could encourage outside groups to take a more active role helping GOP women through primaries. 

Democrats are also targeting GOP Rep. Alex X. Mooney, whom they love to attack as carpetbagger. He sits in a district Trump carried by 49 points in 2016. 

Two Democrats faced off for the right to take on Mooney, a former Maryland state senator and onetime chairman of the Maryland GOP, who moved to West Virginia to run for Congress in 2014 — and did so by just 3 points in a good year for Republicans.

He will face Democrat Talley Sergent in November. 

Sergent is a former State Department official who worked for Coca-Cola. She grew up in Huntington and moved back to West Virginia in 2016, when she served as state director for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She now lives in Charleston and bills herself as a sixth-generation West Virginian. 

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Solid Republican. 

Watch: Democrats Have At Least 20 House Takeover Opportunities in These 4 States

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Ohio Republican state Sen. Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny O’Connor, the Franklin County recorder, will face off in the August special election to fill former GOP Rep. Pat Tiberi’s seat in the 12th District.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Balderson won the GOP primary with 29 percent of the vote, finishing narrowly ahead of Liberty Township Trustee Melanie Leneghan, who had 28 percent. The fight between them had become a traditional Republican proxy war.

Balderson consolidated most of the mainstream Republican support in the crowded primary. He was endorsed by the Republican Main Street Partnership and benefited from ads run by the group’s super PAC, Defending Main Street. He also had the backing of Tiberi, who cut an ad for him.

Leneghan was backed by the House Freedom Fund, the political arm of the House Freedom Caucus. The group’s founder, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, also endorsed her and cut an ad for her. Meanwhile, Club for Growth Action ran ads against Balderson. 

On the Democratic side, O’Connor finished ahead of a seven-way primary field with 41 percent, with 98 percent of precincts reporting, according to the AP. 

Voters actually voted twice on Tuesday’s ballot — for the Aug. 7 special election for Tiberi’s remaining term and the regular November election for the next two-year term. They chose the same two candidates for both races and both drew similar vote percentages in each contest.

Tiberi resigned in January to head the Ohio Business Roundtable. Democrats are making a serious bid for his seat, having added it to their target list after he first announced his resignation. The district, which includes suburbs of Columbus and rural areas, voted for President Donald Trump by 11 points in 2016 and has a history of electing moderate, business-friendly Republicans, like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who held the seat before Tiberi.

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the special election Tilts Republican, noting that Democratic enthusiasm and dissatisfaction with Trump, particularly in well-educated, suburban communities, could help the party do well here.

Voters in Ohio’s 16th District also chose their nominees to face off in November for the seat of Rep. James B. Renacci, who won the GOP Senate nomination Tuesday night. 

Former NFL player Anthony Gonzalez won the Republican nod for the largely rural seat, which includes some Cleveland and Canton suburbs.  

Gonzalez defeated state Rep. Christina Hagan 53 percent to 41 percent. Hagan was backed by the House Freedom Fund, the political arm of the Freedom Caucus.

Gonzalez was seen as the establishment choice and had the support of the state’s GOP senator, Rob Portman. The Democratic was still too close to call, with health care executive Susan Moran Palmer ahead with 35 percent of the vote, with 89 percent of precincts reporting, according to the AP. 

Inside Elections rates the general election race Solid Republican.

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The Trump administration on Monday outlined a roughly $15 billion “rescissions” request it plans to send to Congress on Tuesday, targeting unspent health care and green energy funds for the largest share of the cuts.

The bulk of that request proposes eliminating $7 billion in budget authority from the Children’s Health Insurance Program — $5 billion from fiscal 2017, for which there is no authority to spend the money, and $2 billion from a contingency fund for states that the White House doesn’t expect any states to draw from, a senior administration official said.

Congress regularly rescinds CHIP funds, including almost $7 billion in the fiscal 2018 omnibus spending law, but typically uses the money to pay for other health-related priorities.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested in a statement that members of her caucus were not ready to play ball.

“These Republican rescissions show the hypocrisy of a GOP Congress that insists on tight budgets for children and families while handing enormous, unpaid-for giveaways to corporations and the wealthiest,” Pelosi said.

House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Democrats shouldn’t object to the CHIP and other proposed rescissions.

“It looks like most of it is stuff ... that I don’t know why a Democrat would want to leave money in the CHIP program that we cannot spend, because the authorization’s run out. Again, if it’s things like that, that’s just sort of cleaning up the garden a little bit,” Cole said.

Another $4.3 billion would come from the Energy Department’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program, plus another $523 million from the same agency’s Title 17 “innovative technology” loan guarantee program, both of which have not generated new loans since 2011.

Other proposed rescissions in the package include:

The official said the $15 billion package includes 38 proposals that will score as reducing the deficit, most of which lawmakers would continue to propose as “pay-fors” for increased spending elsewhere if not rescinded.

The administration was never looking at as much as $60 billion in total fiscal 2018 rescissions, as some initial media reports had suggested, the official added, suggesting the sum total of its requests will be lower than that.

The initial request doesn’t include any money from the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill President Donald Trump begrudgingly signed into law in March. But, the senior administration official hosting a call with reporters said the White House does plan to send such a request later this year.

“We plan to follow up with another rescissions package down the line that does address the omnibus bill, but that is not in this package,” the official said.

The official said there is no targeted dollar amount or timeline for a second rescissions request, but the official said it would include spending the White House believes is wasteful, ineffective and duplicative.

“I think what you do is you start with incremental steps and hopefully what we’re able to do is show that we can start here,” said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C. “This is I believe the first of many rescission packages that you’ll see. To suggest that this is the closing chapter of the rescission narrative is not accurate.”

However, Meadows said if this one fails it would be the end of the narrative for this fiscal year.

“If this one doesn’t get through I think it does kill any future rescission packages until we have midterm elections,” Meadows said, noting the Senate dynamic may improve dramatically after the elections.

Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker said he spoke by phone with Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Monday, and that he believes the $15 billion rescission package is “a good first step.”

“We’ll get that across the finish line and see what happens,” said Walker, R-N.C.

The senior administration official was optimistic about the package’s chances in the House. The official was more cautious about its prospects in the Senate where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., among other Republicans, has expressed skepticism.

The official said the Trump administration hopes the special message focusing on unobligated funds will help to “start a conversation with the Senate” about using rescissions authority to “cut billions of dollars.”

Kellie Mejdrich contributed to this report. 

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The House Appropriations Committee advanced its $3.8 billion fiscal 2019 Legislative Branch spending bill to the floor Tuesday, after adopting an amendment to eliminate funding for a Capitol Hill office perk for former speakers.

The panel backed the bill 47-0 after adopting by voice vote a manager’s amendment from Legislative Branch Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., which would end taxpayer funding for an office for former House speakers, along with staff and other resources.

The overall measure would provide $132 million more than the fiscal 2018 enacted level to fund operations of the House and legislative branch agencies including the Capitol Police, Architect of the Capitol and the Library of Congress. Senate-only spending will be considered for addition to the bill by appropriators in that chamber.

The bill is the smallest and among the least controversial of the annual appropriations bills, but it nevertheless attracts regular attention from members seeking to address the use of tax dollars by lawmakers for staff salaries and their offices, and in this case, those of former speakers. Member salaries have been frozen since 2010 and would remain unchanged under the bill.

“Taxpayers should not be on the hook to fund an office for former speakers,” said Nita M. Lowey of New York, the top Democratic appropriator, who worked with Yoder to include the provision.

She said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is also a former speaker, supports the elimination of the office funding. Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who is entitled to this perk when he retires or departs Congress, also supports the rollback, according to his spokeswoman AshLee Strong.

Since 1970, House speakers have been entitled to a Capitol Hill office for five years after they retire or leave Congress. The Legislative Branch Subcommittee last month added language to slash the length of funding to just one year, but the full committee took it further Tuesday.

The move to eliminate the benefit was eased because no former speakers are currently maintaining such an office. John Boehner gave up his Capitol Hill digs in 2016 when he joined the firm of Squire Patton Boggs later that year.

Still, taxpayers spent about $183,000 on Boehner’s office in fiscal 2016 and about $28,000 in fiscal 2017, according to House disbursement records. Former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., spent about $1.5 million running his post-speaker office between 2008 and 2012.

The taxpayer-funded benefit for ex-speakers can’t be used for political purposes, but is intended to wrap up a former speaker’s congressional and constituent service.

The adopted manager’s amendment would also require a study on staff salaries in the House. California Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee praised the provision as a move to tackle the “huge gaps between staffers of color and white staffers on wages.”

“When we don’t keep pace with the private sector, the executive branch and frankly, the Senate, we lose or fail to attract talented professionals who are essential to the legislative process,” added Lowey. She criticized the underlying bill as “prioritizing property over people.”

The bill would provide a 7 percent increase for Capitol Police over enacted 2018 levels, to $456.4 million. Yoder said threats against lawmakers have reached an “unprecedented level” in the year since the shooting at the GOP baseball practice.

Approximately 260 House members have installed additional security equipment in their district offices, Yoder told the panel. He pointed to the Capitol Police efforts to coordinate with local law enforcement to keep lawmakers and staff safe in their districts.

The bill would also increase by 9 percent, to $5.4 million, spending for the Office of Compliance, which oversees workplace safety and anti-harassment training and response.

These funds, along with the $147.6 million for the House chief administrative officer, will support the House’s effort to respond to “the sexual harassment that has been pervasive since longer than any of us have been members of Congress, but has only recently become a national scandal,” said Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan.

Funding proposed for other legislative branch agencies include:

The panel, in advancing the bill, rejected a call for cuts made Monday by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. In a letter, he stressed that the bill’s total is $327 million more than President Donald Trump proposed in his fiscal 2019 budget request and that it should reduce spending on members’ office accounts, the Library of Congress and other agencies.

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House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer does not believe that Tony Cárdenas needs to step down from his leadership role over allegations that he sexually abused a 16-year-old girl in 2007 when he was serving on the Los Angeles City Council.

Cárdenas, who has denied the allegations raised against him in a lawsuit filed last month, serves in an elected leadership position House Democrats created in 2016 for a member serving for five terms or less to have a seat at the leadership table. The California Democrat is the highest-ranking lawmaker to be accused of sexual misconduct to date.

In conversations with colleagues about the lawsuit, Cárdenas has made it clear that he has not committed the alleged offenses and that he will cooperate with any investigations, Hoyer said.

“My position is we have a process in America where you’re innocent until proven guilty,” the Maryland Democrat said. “Now if he were in a leadership position ... where he is in a place of speaking for the party, then I think that would be a different situation. He is not in such a role.”

Cárdenas is also a member of Hoyer’s whip team, a role Hoyer is also fine with him keeping for now.

Hoyer, however, emphasized that “the allegations are very serious” and should be investigated by the appropriate authorities.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has called on the Ethics Committee to investigation Cárdenas. However, the committee may not have authority to do so.

The Ethics Committee can only investigate allegations occurring since the third previous Congress, meaning the panel cannot investigate allegations occurring before 2011 unless they directly relate to an alleged violation in a more recent Congress.

Since the only allegation against Cárdenas that has surfaced is from 2007, it would appear Ethics does not have the authority to investigate him.

Democratic leaders have handled other allegations of sexual misconduct raised against other members differently.

Former Michigan Rep. John Conyers Jr. had to step down from his position as ranking member of the Judiciary Committee amid allegations he sexually harassed former staffers. He was eventually pressured to resign and did so.

Pelosi called on Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen, a freshman with no leadership role, to resign after allegations surfaced that he sexually harassed a campaign staffer, although he did not comply with that request and instead opted not to run for re-election.

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The White House hopes the Senate will get spending bills done and curtail the nominations backlog before the August recess, but it is backing a call to cut down the break if needed to overcome delays in confirming President Donald Trump’s nominations.

Marc Short, the White House legislative affairs director, made that clear during an event on Capitol Hill Tuesday with conservative leaders, putting the onus on Democrats to move the process along.

“If we reach August and [they] still have not completed appropriations work or not confirmed our nominees, then of course we would like to see Congress stay in and do its work,” Short said.

“We think it’s not work for the administration,” Short said. “It’s work for the American people.”

Leaders of both parties are usually loath to spend more time in Washington during an election year, and with Republicans facing a potential Democratic wave, they might be eager to get their members back home on the trail. 

He was appearing at an event hosted by Sen David Perdue, a Georgia Republican who has been closely aligned with President Donald Trump, and also featuring former South Carolina GOP Sen. Jim DeMint.

DeMint, who recently left as head of the Heritage Foundation, is now chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute.

Perdue said that he anticipated another letter this week from a group of Senate Republicans to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressing support for weekend sessions and delaying recesses, including the one in August, to pressure Democrats to move ahead on more nominations.

“This year we have a number of senators who will submit a letter to the leader later this week, hopefully,” Perdue said, with a message to the majority leader that, “we are willing to do whatever is necessary to get these confirmations accomplished.”

In conjunction with the event, leaders of the Conservative Action Project distributed an April 27 memo to Congress suggesting August recess be pushed back “until sufficient progress has been made confirming the president’s nominees.”

The memo also suggests the break should be truncated up until, “government funding legislation has been openly debated in the House and Senate with a full opportunity for votes on amendments, and is approved by both houses and sent to the president.”

Short said the Trump administration hoped work would get done in a timely fashion on both the spending and confirmation front, and his primary purpose in being at Tuesday’s event was to back the efforts of the conservative groups and Perdue to highlight the issue.

Based on the normal course of consideration of spending legislation, it is unlikely that even under the best case scenario a batch of regular fiscal 2019 spending measures could be approved in time to allow for much of a break, at all.

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