The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released its battle plan on Wednesday to recapture the House in the 2022 midterm elections. Its strategy is simple: remind voters of the damage Democrats have been doing to the country, the economy, and the rule of law. By targeting 47 of the weakest Democrat incumbents, the NRCC is planning on beating the average in 2022, as historically the opposing party wins between 25 and 27 seats in the House in the midterms.
The Republicans only need to turn five to return the House to Republican control.
In the 2018, Democrats won 35 more House seats than Republicans, and in 2020 they were expected to expand that lead substantially. Instead, not a single incumbent Republican lost reelection, while Republicans replaced 13 incumbent Democrats. The margin favoring Democrats in the House is now just five, the slimmest majority since 1930.
NRCC chairman Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told reporters on Wednesday:
The Democrats control every lever of power in Washington, and we’re going to make sure that every voter is aware of their socialist agenda and how radical the policies are that they’re advocating, and how those radical policies will negatively impact the lives of middle-class Americans.
Even though Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot, Emmer thinks it really won’t matter: “Trump and his administration implemented some amazing policies for this country.… Republicans need to celebrate those policies … [while] our Democrat colleagues … [are] going to void all of it.… I think they’re going to run into a lot of trouble when they do.”
Added Emmer:
We will relentlessly hold House Democrats accountable for their socialist agenda and ensure that voters understand the damaging impact policies like defunding the police, government-run health care, and ending the Keystone XL pipeline will have on Americans’ everyday lives.
Included among the 47 Democrat targets are 29 in districts that either didn’t support Biden, or supported the House incumbent by five points or less. There are another 10 Democrats who might face redistricting issues next year, especially in states where Republicans control the legislature. And there are eight more who won by fewer than 10 points and also underperformed Biden in last November’s election.
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Among so-called battleground Democrats that the NRCC has promised to target are Representatives Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) and Ron Kind (D-Wis.), who won their districts by just 3.9 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. In 2018, each of them won their seats by more than 19 points.
The NRCC considers Representative Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) as especially vulnerable, as he only garnered 52 percent of the vote, which underperformed Biden by three points in that district. Also on the list of “underperforming” Democrats are California Representatives Katie Porter and Mike Levin, who underperformed Biden by 4.4 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively.
Also vulnerable, according to the NRCC, is Representative Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), who underperformed Biden in November and who is facing redistricting in 2022 in a state with a Republican-controlled legislature.
The real question is: Who will take their places? Emmer provided small comfort, stating that the GOP “will stay laser-focused on recruiting talented and diverse candidates,” whatever that means.
Will these candidates be Americanists, constitutional conservatives dedicated to honoring their oaths of office? Will they understand the enemy that now controls the federal government?
And what about voter fraud in these contested districts? Surely the Democrats, having refined their election fraud tools in 2020, will use many of the same tactics and strategies to defeat the NRCC’s battle plan in 2022.
And what if the Republican Party does happen to retake the House in 2022? What then? Voters need only be reminded that little or nothing was done to rein in the Leviathan State when it controlled the House in the past.
