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House GOP looks to expand, targets 37 Democratic seats

NRCC eyes open seats and districts that flipped last year

The National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting the seats that Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, left, and Katie Porter of California are giving up to run for Senate next year.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting the seats that Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, left, and Katie Porter of California are giving up to run for Senate next year. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Corrected March 14 | The National Republican Congressional Committee on Monday outlined the 37 districts it views as potential pick-up opportunities for next year’s elections.

The list includes Democrats who flipped seats last year in districts Joe Biden lost in 2020, like Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in Washington’s 3rd District and Mary Peltola in Alaska’s at-large seat. It also includes swing districts where Democratic incumbents held off Republican challengers in November. And it includes open seats in California and Michigan, where Reps. Katie Porter and Elissa Slotkin, respectively, are running for Senate. 

“Republicans are in the majority and on offense,” NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson said in a statement. “We will grow our House majority by building strong campaigns around talented recruits in these districts who can communicate the dangers of Democrats’ extreme agenda.”

Republicans won a four-seat majority in last year’s midterms, enough to win back the speaker’s gavel but a thinner victory than some operatives and members had hoped for. Now, Republicans will be trying to flip seats to add to their majority in a presidential year and in many states with competitive Senate races, including Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The GOP list comes days after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named 29 members to its Frontline program, which provides extra fundraising and messaging help to candidates defending difficult seats. 

There are several members who appear on both lists, but Republicans are putting some Democrats who were not designated for the Frontline program on notice, like North Carolina’s Jeff Jackson, a freshman who won by 15 points in the 14th District last year. North Carolina’s map is still in flux, with a court ruling that led to the configuration that helped Democrats pick up two seats in 2022 being reargued after the GOP won a majority on the state Supreme Court in the same election.

Also on the NRCC target list is Rhode Island Rep. Seth Magaziner, who defeated a top Republican recruit by 4 points last year to hold on to a blue seat.  

In addition to Gluesenkamp Perez, Peltola, Jackson and Magaziner, and the open seats in California and Michigan, the NRCC target list includes:

The state represented by Titus, Lee and Horsford was corrected in this report.

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