By Matt Rooney
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National Republicans confirmed on Wednesday morning that they’re targeting – at least initially – 47 of the Democrats’ current 221 U.S. House seats in the 2022 midterm cycle. Four of the 47 seats are in New Jersey.
“We are just a few weeks into the Biden Administration and Americans are already seeing the job-killing initiatives House Democrats support,” said NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer. “We will relentlessly hold House Democrats accountable for their socialist agenda and ensure voters understand the damaging impact policies like defunding the police, government-run health care and ending the Keystone XL Pipeline will have on Americans’ everyday lives.
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The N.J. list hasn’t changed from the end of the 2018 cycle:
NJ-03 – Andy Kim
NJ-05 – Josh Gottheimer
NJ-07 – Tom Malinowski
NJ-11 – Mikie Sherrill
In their memo, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) notes that the four New Jersey Democrats’ seats earned inclusion on the target list for different reasons. For example, Andy Kim represents a South Jersey district carried by Donald Trump in 2020. Malinowski won by less than 5,000 votes despite the fact that Joe Biden carried his Central Jersey district by a decisive margin last fall.
Interestingly, the NRCC put Mikie Sherrill on its “redistricting watch” sub-list, implying that its strategists think there’s a chance New Jersey might lost another House seat once the census data is finally in.
Another wildcard this cycle: the NRCC’s new regional political director is Theresa Winegar, the former campaign manager for Tom Kean Jr. who is expected to seek a rematch with Malinowski in 2022 after 2020’s close result.
Democrats currently enjoy a slim 221-210 House majority (there are four vacancies at present), meaning New Jersey’s targeted districts represent less than 2/3 of the seats needed to retake the chamber in Joe Biden’s first midterm.
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