Kamala Harris Shuts Three of Four N.H. Offices: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Kamala Harris is closing three of her four campaign offices in New Hampshire, with only Manchester and a slimmed-down staff remaining, said an aide familiar with the decision.

All of the California senator’s field organizers in the Granite State will be laid off, a major blow to her campaign. New Hampshire holds the second Democratic nominating contest for 2020, after Iowa.

The aide said it was part of Harris’s reallocation of resources to Iowa. The shift was forced by financial constraints as her campaign struggles for traction.

Harris is campaigning in Iowa on Saturday, including an appearance at an NAACP forum in Des Moines focused on economic progress within African American communities.

Biden Slugs Back at Warren Over ‘Wrong Primary’ (1:20 p.m.)

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden slugged back at Elizabeth Warren’s comment that he’s running in the wrong party’s primary after his criticism of her Medicare for All plan, arguing that his opponent’s suggestion that he’s thinking too small is unfair.

“The press wants very much and some of the opponents want to very much characterize views -- whether you’re thinking big, and if you’re criticizing something that you think is outlandish, you must be a Republican,” Biden said at an event marking the opening of a field office in Des Moines, Iowa. “The vision I have for this country, there’s nothing small about it. It is like going to the moon,” he said.

Biden was insistent Saturday that he’s been bold enough in advocating for adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act to ensure universal health care coverage. “The plans we have, and you’re going to help me implement, are bolder than any plans that have come across, come along,” he told supporters.

Biden was interrupted In the middle of his riff by a small group of climate activists demanding that his campaign not take oil and gas money. Before he got a chance to answer, they marched out of the office. Once they were gone, he said, “This is what is going on that’s wrong with our party right now. That everything is taken in contexts that are not accurate.” -- Jennifer Epstein

Democrats Sue Three States Over Ballot Position (6:30 a.m.)

The Democratic National Committee accused three Republican-run states of favoring GOP candidates by listing their names first on the ballot, and filed lawsuits against those states on Friday.
Laws in Arizona, Georgia and Texas require the Republican candidate for president to be listed first in most or all precincts. Many other states require election officials to rotate the order from place to eliminate what’s called “position bias.”

The lawsuits, filed in federal courts in Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta on behalf of Democratic voters in those states, says that the ballot position laws give Republicans an “unfair, arbitrary, and artificial electoral advantage to Republican Party candidates.”

Representatives for the three secretaries of state named in the lawsuits did not return telephone calls or did not immediately comment. -- Gregory Korte

COMING UP

On Saturday, seven Democratic presidential candidates -- including Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg -- will attend a fish fry in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, hosted by freshman Democratic Representative Abby Finkenauer.

--With assistance from Gregory Korte and Jennifer Epstein.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sahil Kapur in Washington at skapur39@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Steve Geimann

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