President Donald Trump is setting the stage for a possible Democratic takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives — and Republican operatives are ready to blame him for that looming loss.
GOP groups aren’t spending money on candidates like Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock, whose campaign one Republican strategist said was “dead on arrival,” and both the president and party activists are already pointing fingers, reported Axios.
Trump told a rally last week that he wouldn’t accept blame for GOP losses in the House, but a GOP operative working on congressional campaigns disagreed.
“The president, him being undisciplined, and his low approval” could hurt Republicans, that GOP operative said.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is still spending on Comstock, but the group pulled an $1.2 million ad campaign in Nevada’s 4th district in the face of heavy Democratic spending on that race and another in the state’s 3rd district.
Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman gives Democrats a 70 percent to 75 percent chance of retaking the House, which they can do by picking up 23 seats.
A GOP source close to the White House conceded two months ago that Republicans looked like they wold lose up to 60 seats, although the source is less pessimistic closer to the election.
“Today, I think it’s going to be somewhere between 20 and 35 seats that Republicans will lose,” the source told Axios.
Shares