This is really a perfect quote:
“Coastal Republicans were already having a tough time dealing with constituents who were pissed off about the tax bill,” former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Political Director Ian Russell told TPM. “It’s like they’re handpicking issues they’re not winning on. It’s bizarre.”
Democrats need to win 24 seats to take control of the House. Given its current gerrymandered status and recent Republican electoral success, there are few endangered Democrats to worry about. Democrats will be mostly focused on offense.
Twelve Republican House members, all from either California, New York, or New Jersey, voted against the tax bill. They know they are f’d. So are their colleagues from those states who voted for a tax bill that utterly screws their constituents. Democrats are heavily targeting seven California Republican-held House seats, and pretty much all but one of the 14 Republican-held seats in New York and New Jersey. That’s 20 of the seats Democrats need.
Those California Republicans are now under even greater pressure after that idiot Trump decided to open up coastal waters to further off-shore drilling, wildly unpopular … pretty much everywhere. So much so, that now FLORIDA Republicans (like Trump acolyte Gov. Rick Scott!) are up in arms. Democrats are already targeting two Clinton-won districts in the state. Trump has delivered ammunition to expand that map.
Then there’s the Trump regime’s perplexing decision to go after legalized marijuana, giving low-performance young voters another excuse to engage electorally. Pot is legal, in some capacity, in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, and the District of Columbia.
Oh look, there’s California again. It’s almost as if the Trump regime has a direct vendetta against the state! And the incoming Democratic administration in New Jersey has already promised to work toward legalization, further putting pressure on its Republican delegation.