It's almost hard to imagine how satisfying it would be to see House Speaker Paul Ryan go down in a sea of flames in 2018, but behold: Democrats are moving to capitalize on the GOP’s Tuesday night disaster by padding their target list with a couple dozen more House seats. Washington Post's Greg Sargent writes:
One of those targets, I’m told: House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Later today, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will release a new memo on the state of the House map that details the new targets, and this blog obtained an advance look at the new list. In addition to Wisconsin’s 1st District, which is held by Ryan, they include:
- Four open seats: Ohio’s 12th District, Pennsylvania’s 11th District, Pennsylvania’s 15th District, and Texas’s 21st District, where Rep. Pat Tiberi, Lou Barletta, Charlie Dent, and Lamar Smith are retiring.
- Utah’s 4th District — the seat held by Rep. Mia Love
- New York’s 2nd District — the seat held by Pete King
- Indiana’s 9th District — the seat held by Trey Hollingsworth
- California’s 4th District — the seat held by Tom McClintock
- Washington State’s 5th District — the seat held by Cathy McMorris Rodgers
- Wisconsin’s 6th District — the seat held by Glenn Grothman
Those seats will build on the list of 80-some targets the DCCC had already identified as of May.
For now, the DCCC's interest indicates an effort to recruit in those districts and offer other support in the way of research and potential staffing, but where Democrats will actually make significant cash investments remains to be seen. It clearly depends on the strength of the Democratic candidates in those districts.
But bottom line, the map is expanding for Democrats as Republicans assume a defensive crouch to save their House majority.
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“This is a mix of suburban districts, open seats, and places where Democratic candidates are already running strong campaigns,” Meredith Kelly, a spokesperson for the DCCC, told me. “No doubt, this is tough territory. But we intend to field as many viable candidates as possible.”
As many candidates as possible is key, as we saw in Virginia. The more actual down-ticket races Democratic voters have to turn out for, the more the entire enterprise benefits—including the top of the ticket. And let’s remember this: 36 governorships will be on the ballot next year, and that's where the redistricting action is at.