How Democratic presidential politics on guns has shifted

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— Don’t expect to hear much debate about guns in the 2020 Democratic primary. Just about everyone is lined up on the gun control side of an issue that used to split the party and prompt top candidates to tread lightly.

— President Donald Trump and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke headlined rallies across the street from each other in El Paso, Texas, that told two very different stories about America.

— The Iowa Democratic Party is proposing allowing absentee voting in the 2020 Democratic caucuses.

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Days until the 2019 election: 266

Days until the 2020 election: 630

TO THE LEFT — Gun control is a good indicator of the Democratic Party’s leftward drift in recent years, and a leading advocacy group expects all the 2020 candidates to be on the same page.

In 2007 and 2008, then-candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama largely avoided talking about guns on the campaign trail, and they proceeded carefully when they did (in an April 2008 debate, ABC News’ Charlie Gibson pushed the candidates on why they didn’t emphasize their beliefs on gun control).

Obama stumbled over the issue several times in 2008: One incident arose from a 1996 questionnaire in which Obama wrote he would support state legislation to ban handguns, and the second when he said at a fundraiser that rural voters “cling to guns or religion.” In both cases, Clinton criticized Obama, sending out a mailer asking “Where does Barack Obama really stand on guns?” and calling him an “elitist” while emphasizing her own early, fond memories of hunting.

Clinton, then, epitomized the party shift when she pushed gun control in the 2016 election. In 2020, no one will talk about guns the way Clinton did in 2008. “Certainly any Democratic candidate who goes into early primary delegate-rich states like Nevada, California and Virginia, they will be talking about gun safety,” Everytown for Gun Safety President John Feinblatt told POLITICO. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who is a founder and major funder of the group, is considering a run himself.

“I absolutely think it will be a priority part of the candidates’ platforms,” Shannon Watts, a founder of Everytown subsidiary Moms Demand Action, said. Watts said the group will “probably not” endorse in the Democratic primary, and Feinblatt said it is just too soon to know (he wouldn’t say if Bloomberg or his team asked for his support). Both said to expect another scorecard for “gun sense” candidates.

PRESIDENTIAL BIG BOARD — The president and a potential 2020 Democratic hopeful shadowboxed with each other at dueling rallies Monday night. “Trump kicked off his speech by mocking O’Rourke without uttering his name,” POLITICO’s David Siders and Anita Kumar reported from El Paso. “O’Rourke spoke at a rally that looked like a parallel universe. A mariachi band played beforehand, then O’Rourke, speaking in Spanish at times, took the stage for a lengthy takedown of the president’s proposed wall.”

— California Sen. Kamala Harris, appearing on New York radio show “The Breakfast Club”, defended her record as district attorney and California attorney general and challenged people who question her blackness: “I think they don’t understand who black people are,” she said. She also said marijuana should be legalized, per POLITICO’s Katie Galioto.

Meanwhile, Harris supported a policy that turned over undocumented juvenile immigrants to ICE while she was San Francisco’s district attorney, CNN’s Nathan McDermott and Andrew Kaczynski reported.

— Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton is considering a run for president. “I’m not definitely running, but I’m going to take a very hard look at it,” he told BuzzFeed News’ Lissandra Villa.

— Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar gets her own CNN town hall Monday in New Hampshire, via CNN’s Kate Sullivan.

— New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning a trip to New Hampshire as he considers a run, POLITICO New York’s Sally Goldenberg reported.

THE LATEST IN VIRGINIA — Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax is citing due process in his refusal to step aside amid sexual assault allegations, and he presided over the the Virginia Senate on Monday. “Due process is at the heart of our constitutional democracy in order to get to the truth and be true to what we are as Americans,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post’s Laura Vozzella. Four of his staffers have resigned. State lawmakers also pumped the brakes on impeachment, at least temporarily.

— Fairfax was also placed on leave by his law firm, the Washington Examiner’s David Mark reported (outside employment for Virginia lieutenant governors is common).

THE FUTURE IS NOW — The Iowa Democratic Party is proposing a major change in its famed caucuses: allowing telecaucusing. The proposal “would allow Democrats to phone in absentee votes, rating their presidential preferences in a ranked choice style,” POLITICO’s Natasha Korecki reported. The changes still need to be approved by the state central committee and the DNC.

FIRST IN SCORE — ON THE AIRWAVES — The pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policies is going up with an ad in PA-08 pushing Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright to support funding for Trump’s proposed southern border wall. The ad features former Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan, who served under Obama, and is backed by a $80,000 TV buy and $50,000 digital buy from Feb. 12-15.

— FIRST IN SCORE — Tax March, a Democratic group, is releasing an ad saying Howard Schultz has dodged taxes and is un-American. It is backed by a “five-figure” buy.

NC-09, CONTINUED — Mark Harris, the Republican in the still uncalled election in NC-09, said he didn’t know about previous allegations against Leslie McCrae Dowless, the independent contractor at the center of the election fraud allegations. Harris said he hired McCrae Dowless because he was effective. “I had seen [Dowless’] success and that he beat us in 2016,” Harris told the AP’s Emery Dalesio. “I had, basically, the statements from elected officials and respected leaders in the community that the landscape was changing down there and that McCrae Dowless had been a very important part of that.”

THE NEW BIG BAD — Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been replaced by freshmen Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the new villains in GOP messaging. “The NRCC has sent out thousands of emails trying to tie vulnerable Democrats to Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Omar,” POLITICO’s John Bresnahan, Laura Barrón-López and Heather Caygle reported. “While the NRCC still regularly bashes Pelosi, GOP lawmakers and aides privately acknowledge that Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Omar are their main focus now.”

DEMS CONDEMN OMAR — Omar drew rebukes from top Democrats for her tweet suggesting the GOP’s support for Israel stems from campaign donations from pro-Israel groups. House Democratic leadership, including Pelosi, put out a statement condemning her: “Congresswoman Omar’s use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters is deeply offensive,” the statement read.

She later apologized: “We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity,” Omar said in her follow-up statement. “This is why I unequivocally apologize.” More from POLITICO’s Melanie Zanona and Heather Caygle.

— Tlaib once wrote an op-ed advocating for not deporting legal immigrants for minor crimes for the Nation of Islam’s publication, which is run by anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, via The Washington Free Beacon’s Nic Rowan.

WEB WARS — Another week, another roundup of the top spenders on Facebook ( for Pros). The president is lapping Democratic presidential hopefuls; his campaign and joint fundraising committee spent more than 3 times the amount the entire (declared) Democratic field spent last week.

— FIRST IN SCORE — ACRONYM, the progressive political organization, is out with a database reviewing digital tools based off conversations with campaigns and staffers that are available to Democratic organizations and candidates.

LEADING THE CHARGE — Michigan Rep. Dan Kildee will lead the DCCC’s Heartland Engagement program, Laura reported.

CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: “He likes crowd size, and I had a big crowd,” Harris on Trump complimenting her campaign rollout on “The Breakfast Club.”