Running for re-election in a congressional district where Barack Obama regularly dominated and Donald Trump recently bungled, Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., has a simple request for the president.
“If he’d put the Twitter feed away, what a glorious thing!” the vulnerable Illinois Republican says and repeats with emphasis during an editorial board with the Washington Examiner, “What a glorious thing!”
The wish is understandable. Democrats see a pickup opportunity in the western Chicago suburban district that Roskam represents. Since the inauguration, they have targeted his connection to Trump, even dedicating a full-time Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee staffer to the job. Already, seven Democrats are vying for an opportunity to take on Roskam in November.
But Roskam sees the president as “a mercurial figure” in his re-election no matter what, adding that any hopes of Trump changing his Twitter habits before election day are fanciful.
One of the architects of Republican tax reform, Roskam seems confident that his record, reinforced by a growing economy, will appeal to the upper and middle-class voters in his district. “What is so interesting about those big races is that they’re really invigorating,” Roskam says, “You’re talking about core principles. These are not petty ideas.”
And if Democrats have found a convenient foil in the president, Roskam sees another one in the House minority leader. “As controversial as Donald Trump is,” Roskam says with obvious enjoyment, “Nancy Pelosi — she just doesn’t disappoint. Wow.”
Pelosi has given Republicans plenty of red meat to feed their base, most notably her insistence that the corporate bonuses handed out as a result of the tax overhaul are “crumbs.”
“I don’t think I have a constituency interested in seeing Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House,” Roskam concludes.
