RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Data: The Downballot, Dave's Redistricting Atlas, The Texas Tribune; Table: Andrew Solender/Axios
House Democrats' campaign arm announced Wednesday it is adding a dozen districts that President Trump won handily in 2024 to their midterm target list .
Why it matters: The additions are meant to project Democratic confidence that they can compete in solidly Republican territory come November.
"House Democrats are expanding the battlefield deep into Trump terrain," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said in a statement.
Republicans aren't buying it. National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella said the DCCC has "officially entered the hallucination phase of the election cycle."
Driving the news: In a news release shared with Axios, the DCCC announced the new additions to its "Districts in Play" list — which now includes 59 districts where the party thinks it has at least a narrow shot.
Trump easily carried all the new districts on the list in 2024, by margins ranging from roughly 10 percentage points in Colorado's 3rd district to a 21-point win in Tennessee's 9th.
The most provocative of the additions: North Carolina's 9th district, where NRCC chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) is facing a challenge from populist Democrat Richard Ojeda.
Reality check: The DCCC is not going to spend big money to try to compete in 59 Republican-held and open seats — the battlefield will be much smaller than that, likely no more than a few dozen districts.
The announcement is more a way to flex muscle about the national environment, with the press release citing CNN polling from last week that put congressional Democrats ahead by 8 points nationally.
"MAGA Republicans who historically have considered themselves 'safe' have let down the people they were elected to represent," DelBene said in her statement.
The other side: "Instead of explaining why radical socialists hijacked the districts they actually need to win, they're pretending deep-red Republican seats are suddenly competitive," Marinella said.
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