This is a different kind of story than what you think
This is set to be a pivotal week across the political landscape. Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial is reaching its climax. More people will likely flip on Trump in Fulton County. The Republican House’s newly united front will show further signs of cracking. And President Joe Biden is diligently working to manage the Israel-Hamas crisis. Even as we prepare to head into this week, I’m going to take a moment to talk about another important topic: the House majority.
Some would say it’s too early to talk about the 2024 House races. Some of the races don’t even have proper candidates yet because the primary processes are still getting underway. And we still don’t have a precise list of the races that will end up being competitive toss-ups, because the courts keep striking down racially gerrymandered maps in southern states. And those are all good points. But I would argue that the events of the past few weeks are proof that the 2024 House races start right now.
House Republicans in a number of toss-up races handed us a gift last week when they voted for far right extremist Jim Jordan and then turned around and voted for far right extremist Mike Johnson. These are Republicans seeking reelection in moderate districts. Now we get to tie them to Jordan and Johnson. It won’t play well for them in their moderate districts.
This month has also been a stark reminder of just how crucial the House majority is. If more of you had been willing to focus your donations and retweets on the competitive toss-up House races in 2022 (instead of the lost cause races in far right districts), we might have won five more House seats, and we’d have the majority right now. None of the current idiocy would be going on. Instead we’d be busy passing legislation.
Remember, all we have to do is pick up five seats in 2024, and Hakeem Jeffries will be Speaker of the House. Mike Johnson will be back to being a nobody. Jim Jordan will no longer be a committee chair. And the House can get back to doing steady good work instead of being an embarrassment.
So yeah, we need to be talking about the 2024 House races now. It’s not too early. There are seven House Democrats running for reelection in races that are currently rated “toss up” by Cook Political Report. No matter where you live in the country, you should get to know these seven names by heart, because these are the people we’re going to be working to reelect in very close races: Yadira Caraveo, Don Davis, Gabe Vasquez, Emilia Sykes, Susan Wild, Matt Cartwright, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Then there are the fourteen House Republicans seeking reelection in “toss up” races in 2024. One of them is Lauren Boebert, who’s facing strong competition from Democratic candidate Adam Frisch. There are also two Republican “toss up” seats we can pick off in Arizona, four in California, and four in New York (five if you count George Santos’ seat).
These are 2024 House races that you know will end up being very close results, and that you can dive into already. You can donate to the Democrats in the above races, or you can sign up to volunteer remotely for them, or you can simply follow them on social media and retweet them regularly. You can also start actively tying the House Republicans in the toss-up races to the extremism of Jim Jordan and Mike Johnson. Now is the time to dive in on this, while it’s still early enough to get ahead of the game – so we don’t have to work to play catch up later. Again, go look at the House toss-up races for 2024. Those are the ones in the middle two columns. And get started accordingly.
