House Republicans left town with just six weeks to save their endangered majority. And some GOP lawmakers acknowledge they haven’t achieved enough legislatively to campaign on.
In a divided government, the 118th Congress struggled to do anything major beyond keeping the lights on. The GOP-run House was particularly chaotic, with one speaker ousted, the current speaker nearly ousted and nonstop Republican dysfunction the rule.
So at-risk House Republicans are instead shifting their message to narrow in on district-level accomplishments.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) told us he’s advising candidates to push “a very personal” message and focus on “case work, community projects and meaningful legislation that they got passed.”
“What have you done for the people that you represent, not what we’ve done — because that’d be a very, very short conversation,” Gonzales said.
Here’s what at-risk incumbents told us when we asked what legislative wins they’d be pointing to in their final election messaging:
— Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), who represents a swing district in Virginia Beach, honed in on local results she’s garnered for her large military community, like raising the quality of life for service members in the NDAA.
“In my military district, I think those military and veteran wins just are really important,” Kiggans said.
— Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) singled out H.R.1, the GOP’s signature energy legislation, as his top priority. The bill didn’t go anywhere in the Senate.
“Americans got to know that a lot of our inflation [has] to do with abandonment of our natural resources,” Duarte said. “That’s going to be my messaging going forward because we’ve got to drill American oil.”
— Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) said he would tout his bipartisan record, which saw him ranked the second most bipartisan member of the House in 2023 by the Lugar Center.
— Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), who’s embroiled in his own ethics controversy, said he would point to the fact that former President Donald Trump is now singing the same tune as New Yorkers on removing the SALT cap. Legislatively, of course, a procedural vote to bring up a measure that would have offered SALT relief failed by a wide margin.
Overall, we heard widespread frustration from House Republicans that their messaging bills died in the Senate.
“We’ve passed bills to address every problem that the country is facing. The Senate hasn’t taken up a single one of them,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said.
“We can only go so far without a Senate,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) said.
We asked Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a top Freedom Caucus hardliner, if there were any major legislative accomplishments that the GOP should highlight on the trail. His response was instructive.
“No, we just have to point out the differences in what we’re voting on in November. Far as this Congress, it’s kind of been a stalemate,” Norman said.
