The National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday released a list of the top seven Democratic-held House seats the committee plans to target in 2014, as it moves to go on offense despite having to defend the second-largest GOP House majority since World War II.

All of the targeted districts are Republican-leaning at the presidential level but have candidates who survived 2012 in spite of President Barack Obama being at the top of the ticket.

The districts are:

• Arizona’s 1st District, represented by Ann Kirkpatrick
• Arizona’s 2nd District, represented by Ron Barber
• Georgia’s 12th District, represented by John Barrow
• Minnesota’s 7th District, represented by Collin C. Peterson
• North Carolina’s 7th District, represented by Mike McIntyre
• Utah’s 4th District, represented by Jim Matheson
• West Virginia’s 3rd District, represented by Nick J. Rahall II

In the memo, the NRCC Executive Director Liesl Hickey wrote, “These Democrats all share something in common: They do not fit their districts.”

Maybe. But Members such as Barrow, Matheson, McIntyre and Rahall have made long careers of surviving — in spite their party affiliation that is out of sync with their district’s presidential results.

And, of course, there are Republican Members in the same position. Just ask GOP Rep. Gary G. Miller of California, for example. He begins the 113th Congress as perhaps its most vulnerable member, in a strongly Obama-voting district.

With the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the NRCC on offense and a handful of competitive House races already on the horizon, Republicans and Democrats are getting ready to rumble — and it’s only January of the off year.