GOP Targets 75 Democratic Seats in Bid to Retake House in 2022

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) listens during a House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 13, 2019. Alex Brandon/AP Photo

House Republicans have widened the playing field for the midterms after releasing an expanded battleground list on June 9 that added the chair of the Democrats’ House campaign arm and three other targets.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is now targeting a total of 75 Democrat-held or newly-created seats ahead of the midterms.

The Republican Party needs to flip just five seats in the November elections to claim a majority in the House.

However, the House GOP’s campaign arm stated in a memo that it’s an opportunity for Republicans to deliver a “historically significant majority” given President Joe Biden’s diminishing approval rating.

“Right now, the political environment is downright toxic for Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and House Democrats,” NRCC said in a June 9 release.

“History shows the president’s party loses an average of 27 seats in the midterms, and that number jumps to 37 when the president’s approval rating is below 50. Joe Biden’s approval rating currently sits in the low forties because Democrat policies have led to 40-year high inflation, rising crime, and a crisis at the southern border.”

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is among the new additions that NRCC says it considers vulnerable. Maloney, who currently represents New York’s 18th district, was criticized by his fellow Democrats in May after he announced his intention  to run for the 17th District currently held by first-term Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones.

The once-in-a-decade redrawing of congressional districts in New York has made it harder for Democrats to compete in November’s midterm elections.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) during a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on November 20, 2019. Samuel Corum-Pool/Getty Images

Other names listed in the NRCC release include Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois’ 8th District and Rep. Al Lawson of Jacksonville of Florida’s 4th district.

The group is also targeting an open seat in Pennsylvania’s 12th district, where longtime Rep. Mike Doyle is retiring.

“No Democrat is safe in this environment,” NRCC chairman Tom Emmer said in a statement.

The new list was first reported by Fox News.

“We’ve been warning Democrats for months they have a choice: retire or lose,” the chairman told Fox News. “The ones who chose not to retire will be held accountable for their reckless spending, soft on crime, pro-illegal immigration, socialist agenda.”

Meanwhile, another open seat was removed from the list: Florida’s 22nd District, currently held by retiring Rep. Ted Deutch.

The NRCC said that if the party could win 18 seats, it would see a red wave that would rival what the GOP experienced in 1994. If the party could win 35 seats, it would see its largest majority in nearly a century.

Katabella Roberts contributed to the report.