“After suffering public recruitment failures in MN-02 and being forced to defend a seriously vulnerable incumbent dragged down by Donald Trump in MN-03, Minnesota Republicans will be fighting a defensive battle on two fronts and it will be a recipe for disaster,” said Sacha Haworth of the DCCC.
ICYMI
In 2016 U.S. House races, Minnesota’s Rs will be playing D
MinnPost
5/24/2016
In the 2014 election cycle, the Republican Party worked hard to flip the partisan balance of the Minnesota congressional delegation from five Democrats and three Republicans to the other way around…
Two years later, the GOP finds itself in a very different position: instead of gunning to claim a majority of Minnesota congressional seats, it will have to fight hard simply to hold on to more than one seat.
…District 2: Last year, Rep. John Kline was poised to face his toughest re-election bid ever. Then, he suddenly announced his retirement, immediately turning CD2 from a (probably) safe bet for the GOP to a toss-up — or even a place where Democrats hold an advantage.
Though a Democratic House candidate hasn’t won here since 1998, CD2 has grown less conservative since then, and it now qualifies as a true swing district. It voted for Barack Obama and Amy Klobuchar in 2012 and Al Franken in 2014.
One political prediction outlet, Rothenberg and Gonzalez, moved CD2 from the toss-up category to the “tilt Democratic” category, giving DFL nominee Angie Craig the slight edge over any Republican candidate. (The endorsed candidate, Jason Lewis, faces a primary challenge from businesswoman Darlene Miller and former state Sen. John Howe.)
State Sen. Dave Thompson, who represents Lakeville in CD2, told MinnPost at the Minnesota GOP convention last weekend that “the reason it feels, quote-unquote, that we’re on the defensive, is that now CD2 is an open seat, so what has been locked down for a few cycles is not locked down.”
District 3: A Democrat hasn’t held this seat since 1961 — but thanks to Donald Trump’s likely place at the top of the Republican ticket, Democrats are seeing a rare opening.
In April, Democrats successfully got state Sen. Terri Bonoff to enter the race to unseat Rep. Erik Paulsen. The Eden Prairie Republican has never faced a more credible challenger, and Democrats will spend heavily on ads connecting him with Trump.
The conventional wisdom is that Trump’s candidacy will be a burden for down-ballot Republicans in the affluent, moderate suburbs of the Twin Cities, where he performed poorly on caucus night in March. Still, Paulsen has the advantage— and a whole lot of cash to spend on defense. But Republicans aren’t taking the challenge lightly.
Sixth District GOP activist Walter Hudson — who has been a leading Republican voice opposing Trump, even after Trump’s nomination became all but certain — told MinnPost that Bonoff is a “credible candidate… That’s indicative of the opportunities that Democrats sense in the wake of Donald Trump becoming the presumptive nominee.”
Read the whole piece here.