Buttigieg’s New Hampshire Director Leaves Team: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- The Pete Buttigieg campaign has parted ways with its New Hampshire state director Michael Ceraso.

The move comes days after the second round of Democratic debates -- in which Buttigieg had no breakout moments -- and two weeks after the campaign brought on Jess O’Connell as a senior adviser. O’Connell was chief executive officer of the Democratic National Committee in 2017 and has served as executive director of EMILY’s List.

Ceraso departs just as she was seeking changes to make the campaign more competitive in key states, and ahead of New Hampshire’s state convention in September, the campaign said, adding that it will soon announce several other staffing changes.

“We are grateful to Michael for setting up our New Hampshire operation and helping us scale up to nearly 40 staffers in just a few months,” campaign manager Mike Schmuhl said.

The campaign has yet to announce Ceraso’s replacement.

John Hickenlooper Buys Possible Plan B Domain (3:56 p.m.)

Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper is signaling that he has a back-up plan if his bid for the White House falters: possibly jumping into a Senate race.

The former Colorado governor has purchased several online domains, including HickForSenate.com, in a move that points to a possible Hickenlooper bid for the Senate in 2020, where he would challenge Republican U.S. Senator Cory Gardner.

Hickenlooper, who campaigns as a pro-business leader who tries to bridge partisan differences, is part of the large field of Democrats competing for the nomination to challenge President Donald Trump. But he has struggled to get more than single-digit support in polls. -- Misyrelena Egkolfopoulou.

Joe Biden Set for Rush of September Campaigning (12:15 p.m.)

Democratic front-runner Joe Biden is scheduling a rush of campaigning in September that sets up the five-month sprint to the first official contest in the nomination race early next February.

The former vice president’s itinerary includes four days in Iowa and visits to the three other states that will hold primaries or caucuses in February — New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

The schedule released Friday by Biden’s campaign is light on time in delegate-rich states such as California that vote on Super Tuesday, just three days after the South Carolina primary. There’s no plan, so far, for campaigning in Texas, another Super Tuesday state, which is the host for the next round of debates on Sept. 12-13.

And it doesn’t include much time in states that went for Barack Obama in the 2012 general election and flipped to Donald Trump four years later, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.

“Our campaign will maintain a rigorous schedule to engage with voters in every corner of the country and build upon our grassroots momentum,” campaign manager Greg Schultz said in a statement.

The schedule appears to include some fundraising trips, including stops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Park City, Utah. His campaign often tacks on a visit to a restaurant or a round table event targeting a specific constituency to those trips. During a stop in Los Angeles last month, he served up grits at a soul food restaurant and ate tamales in East Los Angeles. -- Jennifer Epstein

Amy Klobuchar Qualifies for Next Debate Round (9:02 a.m.)

Democratic presidential hopeful Amy Klobuchar has met the donor and polling thresholds to qualify for the party’s September and October debates.

The Minnesota senator’s campaign said in a statement that Klobuchar had received the requisite 130,000 individual donations and exceeded the requirement to hit 2% in polls in five qualifying surveys. The announcement came less than 48 hours after the conclusion of the second round of debates in Detroit.

“While the debates are definitely about showing differences of opinion on policy, I think our time is better spent taking it to Donald Trump instead of each other,” Klobuchar said in the statement.

Klobuchar is the eighth candidate to qualify for the third round of Democratic debates scheduled for September in Houston. Candidates must receive donations from 130,000 individuals in at least 20 states, with at least 400 donors in each. They also must receive at least 2% in four party-approved polls conducted from late June through late August.

Candidates who had previously qualified for the September round are:

• Joe Biden, former vice president
• Cory Booker, U.S. senator from New Jersey
• Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana
• Kamala Harris, U.S. senator from California
• Beto O’Rourke, former U.S. congressman from Texas
• Bernie Sanders, U.S. senator from Vermont
• Elizabeth Warren, U.S. senator from Massachusetts -- Terrence Dopp

Kamala Harris Slams ‘Trump Trade Tax’ (6:35 a.m.)

Senator Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s trade policy “highly irresponsible” after a new levy on Chinese goods was announced Thursday, saying the tariffs imperil U.S. farmers and autoworkers and amount to a tax on American families.

“The very definition of trade means that it’s not just you, you’re actually trading something with somebody else. And usually there are other people involved in that market,” Harris said while speaking to reporters in Detroit Thursday afternoon. “But yet, the fragile ego of this president, I think blinds him to that fact.”

Harris, who’s made the administration’s trade implications a central part of her campaign message, said that tariffs have resulted in Iowa farmers facing bankruptcy as their soybeans rot in bins and have driven autoworkers in Michigan out of jobs. A “Trump trade tax” has American families paying $1.4 billion more a month on products like shampoos and washing machines, she said.

The implications of the Trump administration’s trade policies have become a central line of attack from Harris and other Democratic presidential candidates, who are hoping their message will resonate with Rust Belt voters in states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -- historically blue states that voted for Trump in 2016 on his promises to boost the economy in those regions. Still, most Democratic hopefuls have not released comprehensive policy proposals on trade.

On Thursday, Trump said America will levy a 10% tariff on $300 billion in Chinese goods starting Sept. 1. -- Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou

Coming Up on Saturday:

At least 19 presidential candidates, including front-runners Biden, Sanders, Harris and Warren, will participate in the 2020 Public Service Forum in Las Vegas organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union for government workers.

--With assistance from Terrence Dopp, Jennifer Epstein and Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.net

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

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