Thornberry Joins Exodus of Texas Republicans: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- The Texas House delegation lost yet another senior Republican Monday as 13-term Representative Mac Thornberry announced his retirement.

He is the sixth House Republican from the Lone Star State to forgo a re-election campaign this year, following Mike Conaway -- the top Republican on the Agriculture Committee -- Kenny Marchant, Bill Flores, Pete Olson and Will Hurd.

Thornberry, 61, is the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, but he would have been required to step down from that post had he stayed on into 2021, unless party leaders were to grant him a waiver.

His decision comes even though he last won re-election with 82% of the vote. His Texas panhandle district gave President Donald Trump 80% support in 2016.

”It has been a great honor to serve the people of the 13th District of Texas as their congressman for the last 25 years,” Thornberry said in a statement. “We are reminded, however, that ‘for everything there is a season,’ and I believe that the time has come for a change.”

Sanders Adds Staffers, Offices in California (12:06 p.m.)

Bernie Sanders’ campaign is stuck in the polls, tied for second with Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren in state and national surveys. But it says it’s trying to get unstuck in California, adding staffers and opening field offices.

Sanders’ campaign said Monday it has more than 20 staffers in California and is opening field offices in San Francisco, central California, San Diego, Riverside and East Los Angeles.

“We have staff stationed in every corner of the state and we are already empowering our people-powered volunteer army to hit the ground at full speed,” Sanders’ California State Director Rafael Návar said in a statement.

Sanders is currently polling at 21% in the state according to the RealClearPolitics average, closely trailing Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren who are at 24.3% and 21.7% respectively. Kamala Harris is in fourth, only polling at 9% in her home state. Nationally, Sanders remains in third place with 17.5%.

The California primary is one of 14 that will take place on Super Tuesday, March 3. The state will send 495 delegates, almost twice as many as any other state, to the Democratic National Convention. Sanders lost California to Hillary Clinton in 2016. -- Emma Kinery

Booker Says He’s Raised Enough to Stay in Race (10:13 a.m.)

Cory Booker is staying in the 2020 presidential race after all.

The New Jersey senator says he raised $1.7 million before Monday’s end of the fundraising quarter — a goal he said he must reach to remain viable in the crowded Democratic field.

“We blew past it last night. It’s been the best period of fundraising we’ve had for the campaign,” he told CNN Monday.

Booker issued an urgent fundraising plea 10 days ago. Calling the gambit a “moment of radical transparency,” the Booker campaign said his candidacy had no path forward without raising $1.7 million.

While he’s raised enough money to qualify for the November debate, Booker still faces another key hurdle: He needs to reach 3% support in at least four party-recognized national or early-state primary polls. He now has two. “These polls are all over the place. We’re not really concerned,” Booker said. -- Gregory Korte

Republicans Paint Impeachment as Election Ploy (6:00 A.M.)

Republicans on Sunday rolled out a new defense of Donald Trump against an impeachment inquiry: Democrats want to tank the economy and impeach the president because they can’t beat him in 2020.
Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House Republican whip, suggested that House Democrats are misusing impeachment as a pretext for denying Trump a second term that they wouldn’t be able to prevent at the ballot box.

“The framers did not put the power of impeachment in the Constitution so that you could stop somebody from getting elected who was duly elected in 2016,” Scalise said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said economic indicators through August were headed in the right direction until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of the impeachment inquiry into Trump.

“The market has not reacted well to this impeachment business,” Ross said on Fox News. “Democrats are desperate to try to derail the economy because they know if they don’t, they’re toast next November.”

COMING UP

Democratic candidates will attend a presidential forum hosted by the 2 million member Service Employees International Union in Los Angeles Oct. 4 and 5. So far, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris are set to attend.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union will host forums in Iowa with Democratic presidential candidates on Oct. 13. Biden, Booker, Harris, Sanders, Michael Bennet and Pete Buttigieg have confirmed they will attend.

--With assistance from Mark Niquette, Gregory Korte and Emma Kinery.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net

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

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