The National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting a whopping 75 Democratic-held House seats as the GOP aims to win a governing majority in the midterm elections.
The NRCC updated its already massive list of targeted House seats on Thursday, adding four Democratic-controlled districts to the collection of those it believes are ripe for a Republican takeover this fall. Included in this expanded group of 75 is New York’s 17th Congressional District, where Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is running for reelection, plus seats in Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, respectively.
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“No Democrat is safe in this environment,” Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), the NRCC chairman, said in a statement. “Voters are going to hold Democrats accountable for the record high gas prices and 40-year high inflation their failed policies have caused.”
According to a press release issued by the House GOP campaign arm, the average result in the 2020 presidential election in the districts the NRCC is targeting was +3.3 percentage points for President Joe Biden. Of the 75 on the NRCC’s list with decennial redistricting virtually concluded, 59 are classified as seats Biden won or would have won in 2020, with 16 classified as seats former President Donald Trump won or would have won.
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Of the 16 Trump seats, six feature Democratic incumbents who are running for reelection. Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ) is running in the most Republican seat being targeted by the NRCC; it is considered a Trump +7.9 percentage-point district. Meanwhile, the NRCC removed one Democratic seat from its target list: Florida’s open 22nd Congressional District, held by retiring Rep. Ted Deutch.
Republicans need to win just five seats to recapture the House majority after a four-year sojourn in the minority. With Biden’s job approval ratings languishing, Republicans are hoping the developing GOP wave will rival what they experienced in the 2010 midterm elections, which resulted in a net pickup of 63 House seats for the party.
President Barack Obama was reelected two years later.
