House Democrats are widening the list of congressional seats they hope to flip in the upcoming midterms after a run of election wins and strong showings, with the head of their campaign arm declaring that Republicans are “running scared.”
“We are full speed ahead while Republicans are running scared,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) as its chair, speaking with The New York Times in its report Wednesday.
“All year long, Democrats have overperformed by double digits, and just last month we carried every single competitive House district in New Jersey and Virginia.”
Democrats performed strongly in last month’s off-year elections, securing two governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, expanding its majority in the Virginia legislature, and claiming victory in the hotly contested New York City mayoral race. Democrats also chipped away Republicans’ edge in a GOP stronghold in Tennessee, narrowly losing a congressional race in a district President Donald Trump carried last year by 22 points.
Coming out of those contests, the DCCC is now expanding the number of Republican-held congressional seats they consider vulnerable by five, four of which were carried by Trump last year by a margin of less than 13 percentage points, bringing the total number of seats the DCCC considers vulnerable to 39. Identified seats include some in Texas, California, Florida and North Carolina.
Several of the new congressional seats that the DCCC now considers to be “in play” are the result of Trump’s redistricting effort, notably in Texas, where Democrats believe they could flip the state’s 35th Congressional District in San Antonio, which Trump carried last year by 10 points.
The district was redrawn this year by Republican state lawmakers, and under the presumption that Trump’s standing with Hispanic voters will hold through 2026. However, Trump’s “aggressive” deportation policy now has even pro-Trump figures like Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade worried that the redistricting effort could backfire for the GOP.
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