Thread: House GOP hits the campaign trail, bringing the economy and Trump with them

House GOP hits the campaign trail, bringing the economy and Trump with them

by Susan Ferrechio
September 18, 2018 12:00 AM

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore, said he’s not focused on Trump and doesn’t think fellow lawmakers running for election need to make the president central to their campaigns.

At the latest, and likely final House GOP campaign meeting before the pivotal November midterm election, Republican leaders urged the rank and file to tout tax cuts, deregulation and the booming economy to voters while on the campaign trail.

President Trump wasn’t mentioned at the closed-door meeting, which took place last Thursday at the Republican campaign headquarters near the Capitol.

But Republican lawmakers say he’ll play a prominent role in their campaigns alongside the major Republican successes such as tax reform, even if they don’t mention the president themselves.

“People bring it up,” Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, told the Washington Examiner.

Simpson, who is running for an 11th term, said Trump is popular in his district and enjoys an 81 percent approval rating among Republicans in Idaho.

But Simpson said he doesn’t always agree with Trump’s tweets or his actions and has to navigate his differences with the president carefully.

“I say listen, I like the policies that are being enacted that have led to economic growth that we’re having and the lowest unemployment in a long time,” Simpson said. “Are there things I would do different if I were president, behavior-wise? Probably so.”

Despite a booming economy, the House GOP is facing strong political headwinds and an ominous election map.

Three dozen Republican seats are ranked winnable by Democrats, who many analysts predict are poised to retake the majority they lost in 2010.

At the Thursday meeting, Republicans acknowledged they face “a tough fight” to keep the gavel and leaders urged them to raise more money to battle for their seats.

“This will be a cycle where you can’t work too hard in your district and you can’t have too much money,” Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., a former chairman of the House fundraising arm, said after the meeting.

Republicans have known for nearly two years that they faced a battle to keep the House. The party controlling the White House typically loses congressional seats in the midterms and the GOP is also grappling with dozens of retirements.

“You can predict to a certain extent what’s coming,” Walden said. “People knew this was coming and we’ve got to be on game.”

Walden said he’s not focused on Trump and doesn’t think fellow lawmakers running for election need to make the president central to their campaigns.

They should talk about the GOP’s role facilitating the economic gains voters are experiencing back home, Walden said.

“We have to do this in our districts,” Walden said at he left the campaign meeting and headed back toward the Capitol. “This is race by race.”

Current polling indicates voters are reacting positively when told of the GOP’s accomplishments in Congress, Walden said.

He added that he believes Nov. 6 will not bring a repeat of the 2006 midterm election, when House Republicans lost dozens of seats and the majority to the Democrats.

Positive economic data failed to influence voters in 2006, Walden said, and they chose Democratic candidates to put a check on then-President George W. Bush.

“This is not that cycle,” Walden said.

He added, “Doesn’t mean it’s an easy cycle.”

Trump polls favorably with Republican voters, usually in the 70 or 80 percent range, and overall his approval rating hovers near 40 percent, which is slightly higher than Bush’s approval rating before the 2006 election.

And while voters may respond positively when told about Republican successes, the party is having trouble making voters aware of them.

In an Economist/YouGOV poll published last week, only 39 percent of registered voters said the unemployment rate is under 5 percent. In fact, joblessness has dipped to an all-time low of 3.9 percent.

Walden said voters simply need to be told the economic news and that the GOP helped create it through tax cuts and legislation reducing regulations that helped businesses flourish.

“The biggest message was that we have a positive message to go run on, and it moves voters when you tell them what we’ve done,” Walden said.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is running for speaker and is a founding member of the most conservative House faction, the Freedom Caucus, said Republicans should “run with the president” and promote the 4.2 percent growth in the economy and other accomplishments.

“There’s a whole list of great things that have happened, let’s go out and talk about those things,” Jordan said.

Some believe Trump is muddling the GOP’s message with his Twitter account and unscripted remarks, such as the ones threatening a government shutdown over funding for a southern border wall.

While House lawmakers headed to their final campaign meeting, Trump was tweeting about Puerto Rico, telling his millions of followers he believes estimates of deaths from Hurricane Maria’s impact on the island last year were falsely inflated to 3,000 people by Democrats seeking to damage him politically.

Some polls show voters want Trump to curb his Twitter habit, but social media has given the president a venue to speak out against an onslaught of negative press coverage. News coverage of Hurricane Maria, for instance, was critical of his administration’s response to the storm’s aftermath while largely giving a pass to the island’s own government.

Trump’s Puerto Rico tweet got 43,000 likes by noon.

“I’ve to say, why does he keep tweeting?” Simpson wondered as he left the GOP meeting. “Because he reaches 130 million people without having to go through the media.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...rump-with-them

Current polling indicates voters are reacting positively when told of the GOP’s accomplishments in Congress, Walden said.

He added that he believes Nov. 6 will not bring a repeat of the 2006 midterm election, when House Republicans lost dozens of seats and the majority to the Democrats.

Positive economic data failed to influence voters in 2006, Walden said, and they chose Democratic candidates to put a check on then-President George W. Bush.

Yep, and 2 years later, our economy collapsed.

Learn from mistakes. Vote Republican in 2018!!!