NRCC pulling the plug on some races?

The blue wave may not wind up being a tsunami, but there are enough indicators of troubled waters ahead to have the GOP rethinking their strategy in some places. The Daily Caller reported yesterday that the NRCC is pulling back a significant amount of funding from some close races, apparently seeing them as potentially lost causes. One of the first to hit the chopping block was the Kansas 3rd Congressional District, where four-term incumbent Kevin Yoder is in the fight of his political life. That battle just got a bit tougher as one million dollars in NRCC funding is reportedly going elsewhere.

Advertisement

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has reportedly decided to cut at least $1 million in advertising that was going toward helping Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas as the GOP re-evaluates certain candidates’ chances of winning heading into November.

Yoder, who has served in Kansas’ 3rd congressional district since 2011, was endorsed by President Donald Trump and faces Sharice Davids in November’s election.

That race is listed as a tossup, but Yoder’s lesbian, Native American opponent, Sharice Davids, has been building momentum and now leads him by an average of seven points over the last two polls taken.

In addition to Yoder, the NRCC is pulling back advertising for incumbent representatives Keith Rothfus (PA), Mike Coffman (CO) and Mike Bishop (MI). So is this some sign of surrendering to the inevitability of an actual blue wave?

Not really. I’m fairly sure that every GOP analyst can read the writing on the wall at this point and see that the Democrats are playing a strong hand in a number of areas. (As the party out of power almost always does during a new president’s first midterm.) The Democrats are going to pick up some seats in the House. Heck… they might even take back the majority, as disastrous as that might be for the conservative agenda. But it’s too soon to say if that will happen.

Advertisement

In the meantime, the NRCC is sitting on plenty of money, having outraised the Democrats in almost every quarter for the past two years. But they need to spend it wisely. They’ll no doubt continue to evaluate the situation, pull out of races that look like a lost cause and focus their resources on the close elections they can win. They do this every cycle, whether they’re down eight points on the generic ballot or up by a dozen.

Nobody should be hitting the panic button yet. There’s still more than a month to go and a lot of race to run. And no matter how the midterms turn out, the sun will come up the next day and we’ll get ready to start grinding toward 2020.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement