Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
With just weeks to go before the next series of primaries, and ahead of the April 15 filing deadline, candidates are announcing their first-quarter fundraising hauls, organizations and caucuses are dropping endorsements and campaigns are releasing internal polling.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus endorsed Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH) over Nina Turner in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, a reversal of its previous endorsement of Turner during last year’s special election.
Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate David McCormickraised $4.3 million in the first quarter of 2022, his campaign told Axios. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who earlier this week was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and trails McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, in most polling, has not yet announced his Q1 fundraising total.
An internal poll from California state legislator Kevin Mullin has the Democrat leading David Canepa 31%-17% in the primary race to fill the seat left open by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), who is retiring at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Israeli-American mogul Haim Saban made a $1 million donation to AIPAC’s super PAC, the largest individual donation it has received since its creation late last year.
seder school
Doug Emhoff’s pre-Passover prep

It was an hour before school let out for spring break, and the students at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School in Washington, D.C., had that contagious last-day-of-school energy. Students erupted in cheers when Deborah Skolnick-Einhorn, Milton’s head of school, introduced Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff at the Passover assembly, held Wednesday afternoon, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. “Passover is actually my favorite holiday,” Emhoff said, earning more cheers and applause from the students, who ranged from pre-K to eighth grade.
Jewish gentleman: As the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president, Emhoff has leaned into his Jewish identity since he and Vice President Kamala Harris moved into the Naval Observatory last year. He hung a mezuzah on the vice president’s residence in the fall, and he and Harris participated in several Hanukkah events in December. But yesterday’s festivities marked his first in-person public celebration of Passover since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Veep version: “During COVID, we had our own, like, little COVID Seder, just me and her,” Emhoff said of the vice president in an interview with JI following the event. Passover is a holiday they enjoy together: “She loves tradition, and she loves history, and she just loves the celebration and the joy that it brings.” (Harris does not have a favorite Passover dish, but she is “very much a good cook,” Emhoff told JI, adding, “she just makes up what she believes is traditional Jewish food, and she does a great job at it.”)
Virtual Seder 2.0: Emhoff presided over last year’s White House virtual Seder, which brought together thousands of attendees. He plans to make it a tradition; another virtual Seder will take place this evening. (Emhoff said he could not yet share the details of his in-person Passover plans.) “Still to this day, a year later, [it’s] one of the most impactful things I’ve done, especially as it relates to the Jewish community,” Emhoff said of last year’s virtual ceremony. “People still just come up to me: ‘Are you going to do it again this year? It was so amazing.’”
Matzah man: Fourth-grade students were making matzah over a small grill outside. “What stage are we at?” Emhoff asked, taking off his jacket on a sunny April day that reached above 80 degrees. “Nonexistent,” one boy said, earning a laugh. Then the students began explaining what went into matzah — how to mix the water and flour so it did not become chametz, or the leavened bread forbidden on Passover — and showing Emhoff how to knead it. After saying the Motzi blessing, he listed his favorite ways to eat matzah: “Horseradish guy. Gefilte fish on the side. Matzah brei,” said Emhoff.
Study hall: The next stop on the Milton Passover tour was the school’s beit midrash, where Emhoff participated in a discussion with eighth-grade Talmud students. He sat in front of the class with a seating chart, calling on each of the 15 students to speak about the divrei Torah they had written connecting the themes of Passover to democracy.
Don’t fall asleep: One exchange really stuck with Emhoff — so much so, he told JI after the discussion, that he plans to bring it up at the White House virtual Seder. A student named Isaac explained that he and his partner researched falling asleep at the Seder table. “That doesn’t seem like it has much to do with democracy,” Isaac said. But he learned from Jewish teachings that if you fall asleep, you could miss your opportunity to eat from the paschal lamb, “and I think that actually has a lot to do with democracy,” he explained. “Everyone’s voice is heard, I think you have experience with that, but if you fall asleep, you might miss your opportunity so you have to stand up for what you think is right.”