ELECTION/GOP/POLLS/SENATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “A top strategist on President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has withdrawn from an effort to unseat North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis in 2020 — an arrangement that sparked tensions at the highest levels of the Republican Party. Pollster John McLaughlin’s work for a Tillis primary challenger had angered leading Senate Republican campaign officials, who said the president’s team should be unified in the effort to reelect both Trump and incumbent Republican senators. Aides at the Senate GOP campaign arm reached out to multiple Trump 2020 officials and separately to the Republican National Committee in recent weeks to express their displeasure over McLaughlin’s work. The pollster had signed on to help Garland Tucker, a former investment company executive who’s pledged to spend at least $1 million of his own money against Tillis. The Senate Republican officials argued that a disruptive primary could wreak havoc on the party’s prospects in the battleground state and ultimately hurt Republicans up-and-down the ballot, including Trump.”
–Alex Isenstadt, “Trump campaign and Senate GOP clash over president’s pollster,” Politico, May 21, 2019 6:17 pm