How the White House plans to target 18 House Republicans from districts Biden won
In parts of the West Wing and Capitol Hill, they’re known as “The 18” – the 18 House Republicans elected in districts where voters supported President Joe Biden over Donald Trump. His aides are putting together plans to squeeze and shame them in the hopes of peeling off a few key votes over the next two years.
To the president and House Democratic leaders, they are the path back to the majority in 2024, and maybe even to some actual governing in between. Democrats are already making plans to pressure these Republicans to break with their party – and let their Biden-supporting voters back home know about it if and when they don’t...
White House aides are particularly eying the six Biden districts in New York and five in California currently represented by Republicans. There are enough seats in each of two of the very blue states to give Democrats the majority. Base turnout is always higher with a presidential race on the ballot, but they’re also counting on Biden – if he runs, as most around him currently expect him to – to do well with swing voters, with coattails that can carry them along.
“The targets are pretty clear,” said Rusty Hicks, the chair of the California Democratic Party. “If what happened in 15 rounds to ultimately secure a speaker is any clue as to what we’re going to see over the next two years, 2024 is going to be a lot of fun.”
New House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has stayed involved in his home state politics and would love to get to be speaker by flipping Republican seats there, while the already emerging competitive Senate race in California is likely to draw even more Democrats to the polls. State law means general elections are between whichever two candidates get the most votes in a first round of voting, meaning that it could end up with two Democrats facing each other.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/22/politics/house-republicans-biden-districts/index.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
