House Republicans have now passed their abomination of a bill that strips health coverage from millions of Americans, with 217 of them voting in favor of it. Here’s how we can punish them.
Of these 217 Republicans, more than two dozen sit in districts where Donald Trump won less than 50 percent of the vote. In other words, they’re already representing at-risk seats, and they just made themselves a whole lot more vulnerable. So how do we target these Republicans specifically?
It’s so early in the election cycle that we don’t yet know who every GOP incumbent’s Democratic opponent will be. In some cases, no challengers have emerged yet. In others, we can expect primaries. But at some point next year, we’ll have our candidates—and we already have a way to make sure they hit the ground well-funded, even if we don’t even know their names just yet.
The fantastic folks at ActBlue have created something called “nominee funds” that you can donate to immediately. These funds are organized on a district-by-district basis: You contribute now, and all money is held in escrow until after each state’s primary. At that point, the cash is transferred in one fell swoop to the Democratic nominee, who can then start using the money for his or her general election campaign pronto.
We’ve identified the following 24 “yes” votes as among the most endangered Republicans up for re-election next year, so we’re adding all of these districts to our new slate of nominee funds:
District |
Republican |
|
District |
Republican |
AZ-02 |
McSally, Martha |
|
IL-06 |
Roskam, Peter |
CA-10 |
Denham, Jeff |
|
IL-13 |
Davis, Rodney |
CA-21 |
Valadao, David |
|
IL-14 |
Hultgren, Randy |
CA-25 |
Knight, Steve |
|
KS-03 |
Yoder, Kevin |
CA-39 |
Royce, Ed |
|
MI-11 |
Trott, Dave |
CA-45 |
Walters, Mimi |
|
MN-02 |
Lewis, Jason |
CA-48 |
Rohrabacher, Dana |
|
MN-03 |
Paulsen, Erik |
CA-49 |
Issa, Darrell |
|
NE-02 |
Bacon, Don |
FL-25 |
Diaz-Balart, Mario |
|
NJ-11 |
Frelinghuysen, Rodney |
FL-26 |
Curbelo, Carlos |
|
TX-07 |
Culberson, John |
IA-01 |
Blum, Rod |
|
TX-32 |
Sessions, Pete |
IA-03 |
Young, David |
|
VA-02 |
Taylor, Scott |
A big surge in donations now would have huge salutary effects right away: It would both terrify Republicans and boost Democratic efforts to recruit good candidates. Of course, it would also help us defeat these Republicans next year. And as it happens, 24 is exactly the number of seats we need to take back the House.
So make them pay: Donate $1 right now to each of the Democratic nominee funds targeting vulnerable House Republicans who voted to destroy access to health care.