Democrats have an ambitious plan to take back the House in the 2018 midterm elections. But they're not just aiming to flip the 24 seats needed to take control of the lower chamber. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has their sights much higher: taking 101 House seats from Republicans come November.
The seven new targets push Democrats even deeper into Republican territory in South Carolina, Wisconsin and Texas. And they include the Ohio seat held by the man charged with defending the GOP's majority, Rep. Steve Stivers, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. (Republicans are also targeting Lujan.)
The DCCC's own polling of key districts has been more promising than national trends, showing President Donald Trump underwater not just in the 23 GOP-held districts Hillary Clinton won, but also in the more than 60 districts Trump won, and the 11 where retirements have left the seat open.
Democrats are now fielding candidates in all but 12 of the 238 districts held by Republicans, according to Lujan, including in places like Alabama, where Democrats are competing in every single district for the first time in years. The idea is to expand the map as much as possible and hope to ride the potential wave. (NBC)
“We have a long way to to go and won’t take anything for granted, but are on track to take back the House in November,” DCCC Chairman Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) said in a statement.
"I do know momentum when I see it," he later said in an interview with NBC News. "History is on our side, the data is on our side."