House Republicans Cut Two More Competitive Districts Loose, Bringing Number of Triaged Contests to Ten

House Republicans are cutting another two districts out of their main Republican super PAC’s funding efforts, bringing the total number of districts abandoned in just the last few days to ten in total. Money is instead flowing to much redder territory currently held by the GOP, a sign that the race is no longer about keeping the House, but stopping the bleeding. Speaker Mike Johnson has been on a whirlwind tour across the country in recent weeks, bringing him to dozens of districts from the Deep South to the Midwest to New England to California. With less than two weeks under the midterm elections, however, many once-promising GOP candidates — some of whom welcomed Mr. Johnson to their home turf — are now being cut off. On Tuesday, the Congressional Leadership Fund — House Republicans’ main super PAC — canceled future spending in a south Florida district that Republican legislators redrew this summer in order to make it more friendly to the GOP. The Democrat, Congressman Jared Moskowitz, decided to continue running in the district even though it went from a nearly evenly divided one to one that would have backed President Trump by nine points in 2024. In total, CLF is canceling $6 million in spending to try to defeat Mr. Moskowitz. Republican groups including CLF have already spent more than $14 million in their effort to flip the seat.Another GOP group, No Going Back PAC — a subsidiary of Mr. Trump’s political operation — is slashing its spending in western North Carolina, where the GOP is hoping to hold on to the 11th District, which covers the city of Asheville and the deep-red mountain territory along the border with Tennessee. There, the sitting lawmaker, Congressman Chuck Edwards abandoned his re-election bid after the House censured him for allegedly sexually harassing two female staffers, leading the North Carolina GOP to replace him with a new candidate. Democrats had a strong challenger to Mr. Edwards even before he dropped out. According to one of the few polls of the district from The Bench, the generic ballot in the district is plus four for the GOP, though the Democratic nominee, farmer and businessman Jamie Ager, is running seven points ahead of that ballot. According to The Bench’s poll, Mr. Ager was leading the new GOP candidate, state representative Jennifer Balkcom, by three points as of early September. Just four days before the Congressional Leadership Fund cut off Ms. Balkcom, Mr. Johnson was campaigning with her in the state, according to her campaign’s social media pages. The GOP’s spending groups have dropped more than $6 million into the 11th District so far. According to Punchbowl News, CLF will instead be investing heavily in a number of GOP-held districts, some of which were long believed to be competitive, as well as others that Mr. Trump carried by wide margins but are now apparently in play. The $9 million investment will be used exclusively to play defense in a number of districts across the Midwest, an open seat in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, and a swing district in Arizona. Slashing spending in the Florida and North Carolina districts brings the total number of districts where Republicans have either curtailed or outright canceled their spending up to ten in total, all of which occurred in just the last few days. The cuts are taking place across several regions, from the northeast to the Midwest to South Texas. In two cases, CLF has ditched two sitting House Republican members — Congressman Tom Kean of New Jersey and Congresswoman Marianette Miller-Meeks of Iowa — in an effort to stop the bleeding.

House Republicans Cut Two More Competitive Districts Loose, Bringing Number of Triaged Contests to Ten

House Republicans Cut Two More Competitive Districts Loose, Bringing Number of Triaged Contests to Ten

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