Candidates in House and Senate races are making their final pitches to voters
The winning presidential candidate will need to win something else to make a large part of their agenda a reality - they need to win control of Congress for their party. So how are the candidates for Congress making their final pitches? NPR congressional reporter Barbara Sprunt is here. Good morning.
ood morning.
INSKEEP: OK, let's start with the House of Representatives. Republicans are in control just barely. Can they keep control?
SPRUNT: Well, strategists say, ultimately, the answer to that very big question could come down to just a few districts. And with one day away, it's still pretty unpredictable how this is all going to go. Numbers-wise, Republicans are heavily contesting about 35 districts. They have big defensive races in California, New York, Iowa, Don Bacon's district in Nebraska, a couple of seats in Arizona. On offense, Republicans have been investing in districts that are Trump leaning or that Trump has won before, like Alaska, some seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio and a few seats in Michigan. Dan Conston is the president of the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is the top House GOP super PAC.
DAN CONSTON: I think the race for Congress is effectively tied. This will come down to a couple of districts in the end. I think the continued improvement of Republicans in Hispanic and working-class union-heavy districts clearly indexes to where many of our best pick-up opportunities are.
SPRUNT: He says GOP messaging has been largely focused on crime, the economy and immigration. And he says an open question remains - how the suburbs will perform and whether Vice President Kamala Harris can make gains there.
INSKEEP: OK, so I'm just thinking through the numbers - 435 House seats. Most of them, we could say now who's going to win. A lot of them aren't even contested. But there's a few dozen where Republicans are trying to defend seats or gain a seat or two. How does it look to the Democrats?
SPRUNT: Well, Democrats have about 31 candidates running for reelection in competitive seats. A good number of those are, again, New York, California, Michigan and Pennsylvania. And they're targeting roughly the same number of other districts where they hope to pick up seats. And some of those aren't necessarily in areas that you'd expect when you're thinking about traditional presidential battleground states.
INSKEEP: Oh, interesting, trying to expand the maps. So where are they going?
SPRUNT: Well, there's two districts in Iowa that Democrats feel confident about flipping. Another is in Oregon. A Republican flipped one district there last cycle, and Democrats think that they're in a good position this cycle to take it back. Courtney Rice, the communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told me abortion access continues to be a major motivating issue for voters.
COURTNEY RICE: I think it's going to be a key reason we win back the House. Women are pissed off, and we have seen women outpacing men in early vote in a lot of our competitive districts.
INSKEEP: OK. So we hear absolutely on the knife's edge for the House of Representatives. Not quite the same for the Senate, though.
SPRUNT: Not quite. Republicans are favored to take control of the chamber. The makeup of the races just leans in their favor. They feel confident that they'll win in West Virginia, Montana and Ohio. Democrats Jon Tester in Montana and Sherrod Brown in Ohio haven't been on the ballot with Trump before, and they're both hoping that their own personal brand will be enough to convince Trump voters to split their ticket and send the pair back to Washington. Republicans are skeptical of this, this whole argument that voters are going to split their ticket to the degree that they would need to. In Montana, for example, Trump won there by 16 points last cycle, and that kind of margin is just a tough thing to overcome.
INSKEEP: And I just want to note Democrats still hope in places like Texas and Florida. Republicans hope to pick up some Senate seats elsewhere, too.
SPRUNT: That's right. Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Republican strategists say it's hard to see the Senate GOP victories there unless Trump carries those blue wall states.
INSKEEP: NPR congressional reporter Barbara Sprunt. Thanks so much.
SPRUNT: Thank you.
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