First Draft

10:20 pm ET

By Yamiche Alcindor

Hoarse but Energetic, Bernie Sanders Presses for Votes in Indiana

10:20 pm ET

Yamiche Alcindor

INDIANAPOLIS — Bernie Sanders capped off a day of campaigning around Indiana on Monday with a boisterous and energetic rally in downtown Indianapolis.

Mr. Sanders’s voice sounded particularly hoarse as he railed against income inequality, with many of his supporters reciting parts of his now familiar speech along with him. The rally was one of three he held in Indiana on Monday to court the state’s voters, who go to the polls on Tuesday, and stress the state’s importance in his push to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

Although the chances have narrowed for the Vermont senator, his supporters were as lively as ever on Monday night, shouting his name and waving signs throughout his speech.

“Our ideas are the future of America,” Mr. Sanders said to loud cheers. “Our ideas are the future of the Democratic Party.”

A victory in Indiana, where polls show that Mr. Sanders and Hillary Clinton are in a tight race, could help him regain some momentum after tough losses last week on the East Coast. On Monday, Mr. Sanders repeatedly told supporters that he was counting on them to add to his victories.

“Tomorrow let us see Indiana have the largest voter turnout in its history,” Mr. Sanders said at his Indianapolis event. “Tomorrow let us see Indiana help lead this country into the political revolution.”

In Evansville earlier on Monday, Mr. Sanders emphasized that he needed big wins to clinch the nomination. He also said the election system disadvantages “insurgent candidates” like himself, lamenting that he has been able to get only a small fraction of superdelegates to support him.

“As of today, in what I call earned delegates, the delegates that you earn after a primary or a caucus, we have won about 45 percent of them,” Mr. Sanders said of pledged delegates. “There are 10 states left and we have to earn over 50 percent of those delegates and that’s what the importance of Indiana is. And we are going to fight as hard as we can for every vote.”

The senator also made his pitch at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne as well, casting his platform as crucial to achieving health care for all Americans, combating climate change and reforming the campaign finance system.

“Together we are going to change our national priorities,” he said.

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

8:49 pm ET

By Nick Corasaniti

In Unusual Move, Donald Trump Will Be First to Air Ads in Nebraska

8:49 pm ET

Nick Corasaniti

For the first time in his campaign, Donald J. Trump is leading the rush to get advertisements on the air.

His campaign recently reserved roughly $200,000 worth of ads statewide in Nebraska and will be the first campaign to go on the air in the state, which votes on May 10, along with West Virginia, and has 36 delegates up for grabs. There have not been many public polls indicating how Nebraska is leaning in the primary.

While the ad buy will not blanket the Nebraska airwaves, it is still a shift in strategy for the Trump campaign.

For most of the primary season, Mr. Trump has been reluctant to advertise, not even spending a cent in New York, where he cruised to victory.

But as his campaign grows and continues to develop a more traditional structure, he has shown more of a willingness to engage in traditional campaign tactics, most notably television advertising.

He spent more than $1 million in the Pennsylvania primary and is nearing $800,000 in Indiana, which votes on Tuesday.

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

7:41 pm ET

By Amy Chozick

Hillary Clinton Hears Wrath of Coal Supporters in West Virginia

7:41 pm ET

Amy Chozick

WILLIAMSON, W.Va. — Hillary Clinton came to campaign in coal country — and she had her feet held to the fire.

As Mrs. Clinton stepped onto the sidewalk on Monday to tour a health and wellness center here, a crowd of protesters stood in the rain, many of them holding signs supporting the leading Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump, and chanted, “Go home!”

Later, when Mrs. Clinton sat down with residents to discuss health care and other issues affecting the community and coal miners in particular, the chants of the protesters outside could still be heard.

“No matter what they might be saying out there, they have a friend,” Senator Joe Manchin III, who accompanied Mrs. Clinton, told the panel participants.

But not everyone was buying it.

“Supporting her hurts you,” Bo Copley, a 39-year-old father who tearfully explained that he had lost his job in the coal industry and who struggled to support his family, pointedly told Mr. Manchin.

Mr. Copley then raised a topic with Mrs. Clinton that appeared to be on many of the protesters’ minds (and signs): a remark she made to CNN in March, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” How could she say that and now say she wanted to help West Virginians? he asked.

Republicans seized on the remarks — which Mrs. Clinton made in the context of creating clean-energy jobs in areas of the country that had previously depended on coal — and blasted them out as evidence that a Hillary Clinton presidency would hurt coal country. America Rising, an anti-Clinton “super PAC,” called the comments a “brazen disregard for the men and women who help power America.”

Mrs. Clinton told Mr. Copley, whose wife, Lauren, sat next to him at the round table, that her statement in the CNN town hall-style forum “was totally taken out of context” and explained that she had presented a plan to help coal country last summer and was committed to the issue.

“The way things are going now we will continue to lose jobs,” she said. “I didn’t mean that we were going to do it,” but rather “that was going to happen if we don’t take action.”

But, Mrs. Clinton added, “I don’t mind anybody being upset or angry,” given the desperation in Appalachia, where she will spend Monday and Tuesday with campaign events in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. She said, however, that she was “a bit sad and sorry that I gave people an excuse to be angry at me because that’s not what I said at all.”

At one point, Mr. Manchin, who Mrs. Clinton called to apologize after making the remark to CNN, stepped in on the former secretary of state’s behalf. “If I thought she wanted to eliminate one job in West Virginia, I wouldn’t be sitting here,” he told his constituents.

Mrs. Clinton acknowledged she would have a difficult path to win voters over in the May 10 Democratic primary and in the general election.

“I understand the anger and I understand the fear and I understand the disappointment that is being expressed. How could it not be given what’s going on here?” she said. “Because of the misstatement that I made, which I apologized for when I saw how it was being used,” she continued, “I know that my chances are pretty difficult, to be honest.”

As for Mr. Copley, he said he won’t be voting in the Democratic primary. “I’m a registered Republican,” he said.

5:53 pm ET

By Amy Chozick

Hillary Clinton Cashes In on Donald Trump’s ‘Woman’s Card’ Comments

5:53 pm ET

Amy Chozick

ASHLAND, Ky. — When Donald J. Trump reiterated his claim during his Tuesday night victory rally that Hillary Clinton was playing the “woman’s card,” her aides heard something else: ka-ching.

Her presidential campaign had its best fund-raising haul yet in the three days after Mr. Trump, the Republican front-runner, made his remarks, bringing in $2.4 million through emails and the purchase of related products. Those included a hot pink “Woman Card” (“Congratulations! You’re in the majority,” the card reads), “Deal me in” T-shirts and a deck of cards with statistics like “Only 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.”

The effort came together quickly.

At her victory rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Mrs. Clinton had said, before Mr. Trump’s remarks: “The other day, Mr. Trump accused me of playing the, quote, ‘woman card.’ Well, if fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in.”

After the rally, as Mrs. Clinton’s private plane touched down at Teterboro Airport on Tuesday night, aides could hardly believe their good fortune that Mr. Trump had used the expression again. The campaign’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, called its digital director, Jenna Lowenstein. Over the phone, Ms. Palmieri approved a video that spliced Mr. Trump’s “woman’s card” comments with Mrs. Clinton’s “deal me in” retort.

Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, told reporters on Monday that the online video had been viewed three million times.

The campaign, which also said on Monday that it had outraised Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for the first time in months, bringing in $26.4 million in April, said the “woman’s card” merchandise and fund-raising emails and text messages brought in 127,000 donations from 118,000 donors, 40 percent of whom had never given to the campaign before.

In other words, the Clinton campaign would like Mr. Trump to keep talking.

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

4:25 pm ET

By Maggie Haberman

Donald Trump Says He Has More Foreign Policy Experience Than ‘Virtually Anyone’ in Race

4:25 pm ET

Maggie Haberman

As he inched closer to sewing up the needed delegates to clinch the Republican presidential nomination, Donald J. Trump declared on Monday that he has more foreign policy experience than “virtually anyone” else in the presidential field.

“I do deal with leaders around the world,” Mr. Trump said on CNN’s “New Day,” when the host, Chris Cuomo, asked him about President Obama’s mocking his lack of foreign policy chops at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner over the weekend.

“I’ve built a great company, and I deal around — right now, we have hundreds of deals being negotiated all over the world by my company, and I deal with presidents, and I deal with prime ministers. I deal with everybody,” Mr. Trump said. “I probably have more experience than virtually anybody looking at this office, and I make money. I’ve made a lot of money doing it. I built a tremendous company and made a lot of money.”

When Mr. Cuomo noted that Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state and former first lady, might question that claim, Mr. Trump said, “Hillary Clinton dealt with other countries, too. And one thing I give her credit for, she did a lot of traveling. But look at the results. Syria. Benghazi. Look at her results. All of those results are terrible. I’ve made a fortune going out of this country. I’ve made tremendous amounts of money dealing outside of this country.”

He added, “So, you know, don’t tell me about that. There is no pushback. I have done a lot of traveling. I’ve done a lot of deals outside of this country. I deal at the highest level. And that’s good. And that’s, you know, as far as I’m concerned, I think I have great experience.”

Mr. Trump also criticized Mrs. Clinton for using the phrase “off the reservation,” to which some Native American groups took exception, to describe her experience dealing with men such as Mr. Trump.

“I won’t even bring up the fact that the Indians have gone wild on that statement,” Mr. Trump said. “The Indians have said that that statement is a disastrous statement, and they want a retraction. I’m not going to get into that, but — ”

When Mr. Cuomo noted that Mr. Trump had in fact just raised it, Mr. Trump replied, “I think it’s a very nasty statement to men, and if I made that statement, it would be a big, big story.”

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

2:54 pm ET

By Matt Flegenheimer

Ted Cruz Confronts Donald Trump Supporters in Indiana

2:54 pm ET

Matt Flegenheimer

MARION, Ind. — Senator Ted Cruz of Texas had a date with a waiting car.

It was the second of five stops on Monday, the eve of Indiana’s critical primary, and the event at a restaurant here had been billed as little more than a meet-and-greet.

When he got back outside, a half-dozen protesters who supported Donald J. Trump were waiting across North Washington Street, some holding signs.

“Vote Trump!” one shouted.

“Say something really funny!” a Cruz supporter replied.

“Ted Cruz is going to win!” a Trump fan in dark sunglasses shot back.

Then Mr. Cruz did something unusual: He crossed the street.

With a phalanx of aides and reporters trailing him, Mr. Cruz approached his critics with a question.

“What do you like about Donald Trump?” he asked.

“Everything,” said the man in the sunglasses, who later refused to give his name.

When the protester mentioned the Second Amendment, Mr. Cruz said he had defended gun rights in front of the Supreme Court. The man appeared unimpressed.

When he mentioned immigration, Mr. Cruz was ready with a bit of opposition research.

“May I ask you something?” the Texas senator said. “Out of all the candidates, name one who had a million-dollar judgment against them for hiring illegal immigrants. Name one. Donald Trump.”

“Self-funding,” the man replied.

“O.K.,” Mr. Cruz said, “so you like rich people who buy politicians?”

The man asked Mr. Cruz where his “Goldman Sachs jacket” was, alluding to the employer of Mr. Cruz’s wife, Heidi, who took a leave from her job for the campaign.

Mr. Cruz responded that he had attracted more than a million campaign contributions, with an average of $60. He was interrupted sporadically by shouts of “Lyin’ Ted” from the protester’s peers.

“Sir, with all respect,” Mr. Cruz said, “Donald Trump is deceiving you. He is playing you for a chump.”

Mr. Cruz conjectured that Mr. Trump would not have walked over to meet the protesters.

“If I were Donald Trump, I wouldn’t have come over and talked to you,” he said. “You know what I would have done? I would have told the folks over there, ‘Go over and punch those guys in the face.’ That’s what Donald does to protesters.”

The catcalls of “Lyin’ Ted!” returned.

“O.K., stop,” Mr. Cruz said. “What word did I say was a lie?”

“About Donald telling people to punch people,” the man said.

“O.K., let me ask you, sir,” Mr. Cruz responded. “Just go home and Google ‘Donald-punched-in-the-face-protester.’ This is on national television.”

The man ignored him to make a conjecture of his own: “You’ll find out tomorrow. Indiana don’t want you.”

Mr. Cruz turned toward the cameras, as if making a closing argument in court.

“A question that everyone here should ask,” he began.

“Are you Canadian?” the man interjected.

“Do you want your kids,” Mr. Cruz continued, “repeating the words of Donald Trump?”

Mr. Cruz said he respected the man and believed in the people of Indiana to show good judgment. He started walking to his car.

A television reporter asked why he had bothered to engage.

“Because I believe in the democratic process,” he said.

Did he hear anything that concerned him?

“Well, there’re five of them and hundreds of us,” he said, reaching the door. “So, no.”

Moments later, when the cameras cleared out, the man strolled east, crossing railroad tracks with his peers in tow. He reached for a cigarette.

Mr. Cruz’s nerve had surprised him, he allowed, but failed to impress him.

“Anything that Donald Trump talks about,” he said, “that’s what I’m about.”

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

1:21 pm ET

By Maggie Haberman

Hillary Clinton Brings Longtime Clinton Insider Into Her Campaign

1:21 pm ET

Maggie Haberman

Hillary Clinton has brought on one of her closest advisers, Minyon Moore, for a top role in her campaign as the 2016 race moves closer to the general election, an aide confirmed.

Ms. Moore will become a senior adviser, focusing on political outreach and strategy, according to the aide. Ms. Moore will have an office on the campaign’s new 10th floor space at its headquarters in Brooklyn, along a wall featuring other top aides such as the chairman, John D. Podesta; the campaign manager, Robby Mook; the communications director, Jennifer Palmieri; and the policy adviser, Jake Sullivan.

Ms. Moore, who worked on Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign as well, is a rarity in the Clinton orbit, in that she bridges the divide between the staffs of Bill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton. She is close with both the former president and the former secretary of state, adding heft to her counsel.

She worked in the White House when Mr. Clinton was president, but she has long been part of a core group of women advising Mrs. Clinton.

Ms. Moore has in recent years been a top official with the Clinton-aligned Dewey Square Group, a consulting firm. Along with her colleagues at the firm, she helped present Mrs. Clinton early on with details about what a second presidential run would entail in 2013.

9:50 am ET

By Amy Chozick

Hillary Clinton Raised More Than Bernie Sanders in April

9:50 am ET

Amy Chozick

With the Democratic nominating contest entering its final stretch and her sights set on the general election, Hillary Clinton raised roughly $26.4 million in April for her primary fight, her campaign said Monday, taking in more than her rival, Bernie Sanders, during the month.

Mrs. Clinton, who now has $30 million on hand in her campaign, also raised an additional $9.5 million for Democratic candidates and state parties nationwide through a joint fund-raising program with the Democratic National Committee. That program allows for some of that money to also be used for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.

“Thanks to 1.2 million people across the country, we have the resources we need to continue to run a winning primary campaign while preparing for the general election,” said Robby Mook, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager.

The fund-raising brings the total Mrs. Clinton has raised in primary funds to $213.5 million, compared to $210 million for Mr. Sanders. But Mrs. Clinton’s impressive total has been met with scrutiny for her reliance on high-dollar events with Wall Street executives while Mr. Sanders has largely raised his money online through small-dollar donations.

Yet, Mr. Sanders’s juggernaut has slowed down amid his narrowing path to the nomination. In April, he raised $25.8 million, about $20 million less than in March, when Mr. Sanders defeated Mrs. Clinton in a string of contests.

Mrs. Clinton has also decreased spending on television ads in the primaries as her campaign gears up for the general election, while Mr. Sanders has been forced to lay off staff to invest heavily in hopes of winning Indiana on Tuesday and delegate-rich California in June.

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

7:00 am ET

By Yamiche Alcindor

Bernie Sanders Pins Hopes for Momentum on Indiana

7:00 am ET

Yamiche Alcindor

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont plans to spend Monday campaigning across Indiana, holding three rallies on the final day before the state primary and hoping to pull off a win after a tough week of election losses and campaign layoffs.

A win in Indiana, where Mr. Sanders and Hillary Clinton are in a tight race, could help Mr. Sanders regain some momentum, and an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released on Sunday showed them in a virtual tie in the state.

At a rally on Sunday night in South Bend, Ind., Mr. Sanders told thousands of supporters that he saw the state as important to helping him win the nomination. Still, last week, amid staff reductions, he began focusing less on attacking Mrs. Clinton and more on his views for shaping the Democratic Party.

Mr. Sanders, who trails Mrs. Clinton by more than 700 pledged delegates and superdelegates, spent Sunday afternoon urging the superdelegates supporting Mrs. Clinton to his side. He argued that many had given her their support before he entered the race and that he thought those from states he won should follow the voters’ lead.

The senator also said on Sunday that he and Mrs. Clinton were heading for a “contested” convention because she needs those superdelegates to reach the delegate threshold, rather than relying solely on the pledged delegates won through the state contests. Superdelegates, however, are widely considered to be part of the necessary delegate count, and Barack Obama needed them to secure the nomination against Mrs. Clinton in 2008.

Figures released on Sunday also showed that Mr. Sanders raised just $25.8 million for his campaign in April, down by more than 40 percent from March. Seeking to minimize the drop in fund-raising, the campaign’s spokesman, Michael Briggs, emphasized that Mr. Sanders’s average monthly fund-raising total was only $17 million. But that factors in Mr. Sanders’s fund-raising going back a full year to the start of his campaign.

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

6:00 am ET

By Carl Hulse

Battles Over Garland Nomination Resume as Senate Enters Recess

6:00 am ET

Carl Hulse

If it is a congressional recess, it must be time for another Democratic push in the states of vulnerable Republican senators refusing to take up the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland.

With senators back home, the group Americans United for Change is conducting what it calls its 9-9-9 Tour, taking mobile billboards to nine states over nine days to push for confirmation of a ninth justice to what is now an eight-member court after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February.

“The longer the Supreme Court is left a justice short, the more dysfunction and uncertainty it invites for businesses and citizens across the country,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of the group.

The advocacy group is moving beyond the six swing-state Republican senators who have received most of the attention from Democrats: Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rob Portman of Ohio, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa. This recess, critics of the Republicans are adding Senators John McCain of Arizona, Roy Blunt of Missouri and Richard M. Burr of North Carolina to the target list, and they will also get the billboard treatment.

The expanded list not only makes it possible for the Democrats to use their catchy numerical title; it also shows they believe the Supreme Court fight is putting more Republican senators in potential jeopardy in November, and they are trying to take advantage of it.

But what the weekslong campaign has not done so far is shown much progress in persuading Senate Republicans to hold hearings and a vote on the nomination. Despite many meetings between Republicans and Judge Garland, Republicans have refused to budge on scheduling a hearing, and the nomination seems firmly stalled.

As a result, the fight seems to be developing into more of a campaign issue, and the regular Democratic assaults against Republicans over congressional breaks will no doubt continue.

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

Ted Cruz Argues With Trump Supporters