Once on defense, Dems grow confident in Trump country
House Democrats started off the 2020 cycle looking to protect roughly four dozen vulnerable members, including 30 whose districts voted for President Donald Trump four years ago.
Now as they enter the final month, Democrats are scaling back defensive spending and funneling their remaining millions to knock out vulnerable Republicans and expand their 34-seat majority, according to a POLITICO review of recent advertising data.
The Democrats’ media-buying strategy in the last weeks of the campaign offers perhaps the clearest portrait yet of the party’s confidence in protecting their toughest House seats, and cementing the GOP’s minority status for years to come. Two years after flipping 43 seats, national Democrats are playing just as much offense as it is defense — a surprising turn of events in a cycle when their most endangered members once dreaded the thought of sharing a ballot with Trump.
“I have had conversations in the last week that I would not think was possible,” said Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), who has been heavily involved with Democratic recruiting and campaigning in recent cycles.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/29/dems-house-confidence-grows-trump-422555