Republicans who lost narrow races in 2018 are coming back for rematches in 2020, hoping to ride the President Donald Trump voter wave, Politico reported.
"I think it's going to be a good year," former Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., told Politico. "In a presidential year, I think we'll be able to get some of those gains back."
The thinking is Trump's voter base is going to come out in 2020 en masse to vote Republicans back into office, like Tenney, who lost by less than 2 points to Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y., in 2018.
"It was a tough year, just not a great environment for Republicans," Tenney told Politico. "I think the environment now is different."
The district had went for Trump by more than 15 points, according to the report.
While the impeachment inquiry might be polarizing Democrats and potentially turning independent voters, the Trump-backing Republican base is gaining inspiration by it, too.
"I am totally opposed to any kind of impeachment," Mount Vernon, N.Y. resident Gilda Ward told Politico after a Brindisi town hall. "It really bothers me, and it bothers many of us who voted for Trump."
Impeachment "would be a death knell," for Brindisi, who is one of just seven Democrats in the House who has not come out in favor of the impeachment inquiry.
"In November 2018, the Democrats had high voter turnout, almost presidential levels," former Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, another one hoping to come back to the House after a narrow 2018 loss, told Politico. "I think to some extent they may have peaked or are getting close to peaking, but Republicans have so much more room to grow."
There are 31 Democrats at risk in 2020 in Trump-held districts from 2016, giving the GOP a path to retaking control of the House.
"The dynamics in '20 are going to be much different," Rob Simms, an Atlanta-based GOP strategist, told Politico. "We have an incumbent president. We have an incumbent senator who's going to be on top of the ticket. Their campaigns are already organized and functioning and working in the state today."
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