1. Webinar on 2020 congressional primary battlegrounds coming today!
2. Congressional filing deadlines pass for MD, WV this week
3. Hunter assumes FEC chairmanship, but commission still lacks a quorum

Looking ahead to the 2020 primary season

Election Day 2019 was about 11 weeks ago and believe it or not, the 2020 election season is just about upon us. There are four presidential nominating contests in February, beginning with the Iowa caucuses in less than two weeks—Feb. 3! Several states will have congressional primaries March 3 - which kicks off the 7-month-long primary season.

We're taking our first look at the 2020 congressional primary season in a briefing today. Join staff writer Amee LaTour and me to discuss the early intraparty conflicts involving both Democrats and Republicans in some key races.

We’ll discuss the competition among Republican candidates to show who is the strongest Trump ally and how certain incumbents’ votes on impeachment may affect this year’s elections. We’ll also discuss how moderate and progressive candidates are once again vying for Democratic primary voters. Personally, one of the races I’m most excited to talk about is the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, which one political analyst called "the most unusual Senate primary in decades."

We’ll cover all this and much more in our briefing today at 11 am C.T. Don’t miss out - click here to reserve your spot. If you can’t attend live, that’s ok! We’ll send you a link to the recording after the briefing is over.

Want even more? Then sign up for our Heart of the Primaries newsletters. Each edition includes news about the issues, money, polling, and strategy involved in the race to the general election ballot. We publish both a Democratic and Republican version each week. Click here to subscribe.

Register for today's free webinar

       

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Congressional filing deadlines near in MD and WV

Speaking of Congressional primaries, the filing period for congressional candidates ends in two more states this week—Jan. 24 for Maryland and Jan. 25 for West Virginia. The next deadlines to watch after that are Indiana’s (Feb. 7) and Pennsylvania’s (Feb. 18). Here’s a quick breakdown of what to look for in this week’s filings.

Maryland

• Voters will elect seven U.S. House members in regularly scheduled elections. Thirty major-party candidates have filed for these races so far. The incumbents in Districts 1, 2, and 5 have not yet filed for re-election.

• To run for congressional partisan primaries in Maryland, prospective candidates must submit a certificate of candidacy to the state board of elections and pay a filing fee of $100. Signatures are not required.

West Virginia

• Two Democrats and two Republicans have filed to run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Shelley Moore Capito (R). Moore Capito is running for re-election. 

• Five Democrats and three Republicans have filed so far to run for the state’s three U.S. House districts. Two of the three incumbents are running for re-election.

• To run for congressional partisan primaries in West Virginia, prospective candidates must declare candidacy with the state board of elections and pay a $1,740 filing fee, which is 1% of that office’s salary. Signatures are not required.

All 435 House members and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats are up for election this year. As of Jan. 20, 2,578 major party candidates have filed to run. There are 36 open seat congressional races so far this year.

Not including those members of Congress who left office early, four senators (three Republicans and one Democrat) and 35 representatives (26 Republicans and nine Democrats) are not running for re-election. In 2018, 55 members of Congress—18 Democrats and 37 Republicans—did not seek re-election.

Hunter assumes FEC chairmanship, but commission still lacks a quorum

Caroline Hunter (R) assumed the role of Federal Election Commission (FEC) chairwoman on Jan. 1. The committee leadership rotates annually and Hunter is serving her second, non-consecutive term as chairwoman in her 12th year on the commission. 

The six-member commission currently has three vacancies. The minimum number of members required to make the agency’s decisions valid—known as a quorum—is four. The FEC will continue to make campaign finance documents available to the public and issue recommendations regarding campaign finance complaints, but it will be unable to vote on recommendations until a quorum is established.

The FEC's six members are all presidential appointees and require Senate confirmation. They each serve six-year terms, with two seats up for appointment every two years. No more than three members can be of the same political party. The chairs of the commission serve one-year terms.

All of the FEC’s current members are holdover members, meaning they have served longer than their original six-year term. President Donald Trump nominated James E. Trainor III to the commission in 2017 but his nomination has not been acted upon by the Senate. There have been no new appointments to the FEC since Trainor’s appointment and no Senate confirmations of new members since Lee E. Goodman and Ann Ravel were confirmed in October 2013.

Former FEC Chairman Michael Toner said in an August 2019 Roll Call article that he wouldn't be surprised if the agency lacked a quorum through the 2020 elections. He stated that neither Republicans nor Democrats appeared to prioritize the nomination of new commissioners.

The FEC is an independent regulatory agency created by Congress in 1975 to administer and enforce the Federal Elections Campaign Act. It is responsible for disclosing campaign finance information, enforcing limits and prohibitions on contributions, and overseeing the public funding of presidential elections.

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