House Democratic leaders insisted on Tuesday that the party doesn’t need to win any of the upcoming special elections to consider their efforts a success as they keep working toward rebuilding a House majority.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, both downplayed expectations for their candidates Tuesday and intimated that forcing Republicans to spend upwards of $16 million on these races already is a victory of sorts.
“I’m not sure that we do [have to win one],” Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday. “Frankly, the fact that they’re having to spend millions and millions and millions of dollars to hold these seats is astounding.”
Hoyer stressed that the seats in question are all deep red Republican seats that Democrats are unlikely to win given the makeup of each particular district. One seat had been held by Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., President Trump’s secretary of Interior, another was held by Tom Price, R-Ga., now Health and Human Services secretary, and the third was held by Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., now director of the Office of Management and Budget.
“I don’t think we need to win one of them. I think we’ve already shown that the psychology in the public from the election period of time to day has substantially turned around,” Hoyer said. “You really need to look at it in the prism of how Republican these three districts … are. The fact that Republicans are sweating these districts and working hard and spending millions of dollars is a testimony to how the sentiment of the American people has turned around in just a short amount of time.”
Despite Hoyer’s remarks, the DCCC continues to raise expectations amid these special elections and ahead of the 2018 midterms. The group announced Monday that they are adding 20 more seats to their list of targets, which now totals 79 seats. They also revealed Tuesday that they are investing an additional $2 million into the Georgia 6th Congressional District race to back Jon Ossoff, who is in a tight race against Republican Karen Handel ahead of their June 20th runoff.
Lujan said Tuesday that while he’d like to win a race, he’s content with putting pressure on their Republican counterparts, especially in Montana on behalf of Rob Quist.
“Just by the very nature that we’re talking about this district, it already shows what’s happening with the environment in these congressional districts that are deeply held, red Republican districts all across America,” Lujan said. “We’ll see what comes out of this race.”
Another special election will be needed later this year, after Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, vacates his seat on June 30.
