DCCC Game-Plan For 2024 Is Starting Out Ambitious

The DCCC is taking aim at 31 red seats (+ two purple ones being vacated by Katie Porter and Elissa Slotkin, each of whom is running for the Senate) in their quest to win back the House next year, a very doable proposition— and very crucial one, since the party is almost certain to lose the Senate.

These are the Republican incumbents being targeted— along with the percentage with which they were elected this past cycle and in the cases that were painfully close, the number of votes that separated the winner and loser. All but 13 are freshmen.

• Dave Schweikert (Arizona)- 50.44% (1,195 vote)- state Rep Amish Shah has announced he’s running

• Juan Ciscomani (Arizona)- 50.7% (5,232 votes)-

• Kevin Kiley (California)- 53.6%

• John Duarte (California)- 50.21% (564 votes)- Loser Adam Gray will run again, as will Phil Arballo and several other weak candidates

• David Valadao (California)- 51.5% (3,132 votes)- Rudy Salas is running again

• Mike Garcia (California)- 53.2%- George Whitesides, some rich guy is running

• Young Kim (California)- 56.8%

• Ken Calvert (California)- 52.3%- Tim Sheridan, a frequent candidate is running again

• Michelle Steel (California)- 52.4%- vote primary between progressive activist Cheyenne Hunt and a moderate Dem, Kim Nguyen

• Lauren Boebert (Colorado)- 50.08 (546 votes)- Adam Frisch, who almost beat her, is running again but so are a bunch of opportunists

• Anna Paulina Luna (Florida- 53.1%

• Maria Salazar (Florida)- 57.3%

• Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa)- 53.4%

• Zachary Nunn (Iowa)- 50.35 (2,145 votes)

• John James (Michigan)- 48.8% (1,600 votes)- Bryan Jaye and Diane Young are running but others will likely jump in as well

• Ryan Zinke (Montana)- 49.6%

• Don Bacon (Nebraska)- 51.3% (5,856 votes)

• Thomas Kean (New Jersey)- 51.4%

• Nick LaLota (New York)- 55.5%

• George Santos (New York)- 53.8%- Santos will not be the GOP nominee; fake-Dem Josh Lafazan is running but several others will as well

• Anthony D'Esposito (New York)- 51.8%

• Michael Lawler (New York)- 50.32 (1,820 votes)- Democrats are trying to recruit former Congressman Mondaire Jones who was pushed out of the seat by Sean Patrick Maloney

• Marcus Molinaro (New York)- 50.8% (4,495)

• Brandon Williams (New York)- 50.49% (2,631)- Democrats are trying to recruit Sarah Klee Hood

• Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Oregon)- 51.0%- Kevin Easton is running

• Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania)- 54.9%

• Scott Perry (Pennsylvania)- 53.8%- Rick Coplen is running

• Monica De La Cruz (Texas)- 53.3%

• Jennifer Kiggans (Virginia)- 51.7%

• Bryan Steil (Wisconsin)- 54.1%

• Derrick Van Orden (Wisconsin)- 51.9%

There were various reasons Democrats lost each seat— from extraordinarily shitty candidates, like Adam Gray, Rudy Salas (who the DCCC is running again and who will lose again), Christy Smith, Francis Conole, Robert Zimmerman, Laura Gillen, Monica Tranel and Brad Pfaff (as well as wretched conservative incumbents like Sean Patrick Maloney and Elaine Luria) to dismal turnout, no DCCC assistance and untenably gerrymandered districts.

The new DCCC chair, Suzan DelBene, multimillionaire New Dem, said in a statement that “The vulnerable Republicans represented on this list have worked hand in hand with Speaker McCarthy to enable the most dangerous wings of their party to threaten our jobs, roll back women’s freedoms, endanger Americans’ economic security, and prioritize politics over people. The DCCC is prepared to recruit exciting and battle-ready candidates in these key districts and ensure voters see the clear contrast between Democrats’ track record of delivering for the middle class, and Republicans’ radical agenda that puts Americans’ pocketbooks, communities, and livelihoods at risk.” Sounds like it was written by ChatGPT.

The Democrats are also defending— by their own count— 29 vulnerable incumbents, including progressives worth fighting for like Matt Cartwright and Chris Deluzio in Pennsylvania and… well, Mike Levin (CA), Steven Horsford (NV) and Jahana Hayes (CT) are ok too. Most of the others are absolutely dreadful— like Jared Golden (ME), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA), Don Davis (NC), Abigail Spanberger (VA)— and it’s easy to see why they are vulnerable.

Crappy Democrats work with Republicans to thwart progressive solutions to America’s problems. Does this reporting from Politico sound familiar: “A group of House Democrats is secretly crafting a fallback plan to avoid an economy-rattling debt default.” A trio of reporters wrote that a supposedly “rogue band” of right-wing Dems “has spent weeks constructing a break-glass deal with centrist Republicans in case the country goes all the way to the brink on the debt ceiling. As the summertime deadline for action approaches, they’re worried a prolonged standoff could lead to fiscal disaster.”

If you’re a regular DWT reader you can make a pretty educated guess which Blue Dogs and New Dems are trying to make a deal with the Republicans on the backs of working class families that will likely include raising the retirement age. Jared Golden is one of the leaders, but others hiding in the shadows include Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Scott Peters (CA), Donald Norcross (NJ), Dean Phillips (MN), Susie Lee (NV), David Trone (MD), Abigail Spanberger (VA) and Brad Schneider (IL).