The super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has opened five more field offices in threatened districts as the Republicans build fortifications against a possible midterm tsunami.
Congressional Leadership Fund has put boots on the ground in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, North Carolina’s 13th District, Ohio’s 1st District, Pennsylvania’s 17th District, and Washington’s 8th District. The Pennsylvania seat is new, the other four established districts have a history of voting Republican, and three supported President Trump by comfortable margins in 2016.
But the Democrats are threatening, and Republicans and their allies are taking precautions — even in territory previously assumed safe from a liberal takeover.
“We have long known Republicans will face a challenging environment this midterm election cycle, and that’s why CLF has been focused on growing our data-driven national field program since February 2017,” CLF Executive Director Corry Bliss said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner.
In Pennsylvania, the 17th District is a product of the state Supreme Court’s newly drawn lines that generally favors the Democratic Party. This seat hypothetically leans Republican, however, but already features a formidable Democratic candidate: Rep. Conor Lamb, who earlier this month won the hard fought special election in the old 18th District.
In Maine’s 2nd District, Rep. Bruce Poliquin is running for re-election in a seat Trump won by more than 10 percentage points. In North Carolina’s 13th District, Rep. Ted Budd is running for re-election in a seat Trump won by nearly 10 points. In Ohio’s 1st District, Rep. Steve Chabot is running for re-election in a seat Trump won by just under 7 points.
Even in a tough midterm year for the GOP, with Trump’s approval ratings hovering just above 40 percent, these seats were not initially thought endangered. That thinking has changed in the aftermath of the special election Southwest Pennsylvania, where Lamb won a seat that went for the president by 20 points over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
On this new round of field office openings, only Washington’s 8th District, where Rep. Dave Reichert is retiring went sided with Clinton, albeit narrowly. This seat is perennially swing territory in presidential contests.
The volatile political atmosphere has only served to reinforce for CLF its decision to invest much of its $100 million budget for 2018 on a detailed get-out-the-vote program, now complete with 31 staffed field offices, some of which began knocking on doors early last year.
“CLF staff and volunteers have been engaging with voters on a daily basis, and the fact that we have knocked over 8 million doors is a testament to the strength of our field program.
The super PAC expects to be operating approximately 35 field offices by this summer.
