It’s rare Congressmen Budd and Pittenger find themselves at the top of any list, but after being badly outraised by strong Democratic challengers, it’s no surprise they’ve been labeled among Washington’s ‘Worst House Republican Slackers’,” said DCCC spokesperson Cole Leiter. “While Budd and Pittenger spent their last months in office shilling for Wall Street and protecting big corporations, at the expense of working families, Kathy Manning and Dan McCready are preparing to bring their badly needed, solutions-oriented leadership to Congress.”
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The Worst House Republican Slackers | National Journal
By Josh Kraushaar
April 4, 2018
http://njour.nl/s/666081?unlock=BYP1XIWAU58SA5ZT
The Congressional Leadership Fund, the cash-flush GOP House super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, is setting aside several million dollars of its resources to bail out Republican stragglers who end up badly underperforming before Election Day. The news, confirmed by an operative familiar with the group’s thinking, is yet another sign that Republicans are struggling to manage the growing roster of vulnerable members in a treacherous political environment for the party.
Even without these unprepared members in otherwise safe districts, the map is looking increasingly precarious for House Republicans. Democrats need to win back 23 House seats to take the majority, and Republicans are already defending 25 districts that Hillary Clinton carried last year. Add another handful of GOP seats that Trump narrowly carried, and Republicans simply have no room for error.
[…] After talking with leading GOP operatives involved in House races, I compiled a list of the most unprepared Republican members. These members made the cut for poor fundraising, underwhelming polling (public or internal), and/or a voting record out of line with their constituents.
- Rep. Robert Pittenger of North Carolina
One of the clearest signs of an incumbent in trouble is when he has trouble winning his own primary. Pittenger faces a trifecta of trouble this year: a contested primary against a prominent pastor next month, a well-funded Democratic opponent with a compelling biography, and the demographic churn in a suburban Charlotte district that could flip under ideal circumstances for Democrats.
His expected Democratic opponent, Iraq war veteran Dan McCready, is one of the party’s most compelling recruits. At the end of last year, the Marine banked nearly $1 million for his campaign—about three times as much as Pittenger. McCready’s business and military background offers him valuable personal credibility that’s necessary to flip a seat that Trump carried with 54 percent of the vote.
[…]4. Rep. Ted Budd of North Carolina
When North Carolina Republicans redistricted the state to their advantage, they didn’t anticipate a wave taking out any of their members. But Budd, a freshman elected with little scrutiny in 2016, faces the fight of his career against Democratic attorney Kathy Manning.
There are plenty of reasons that Budd is vulnerable. He barely won 20 percent in a crowded 17-candidate GOP primary in winning the open seat, and still has low name recognition in the expansive district. He grew up in a small town and owns a gun store—in a district that includes a lot of suburban and urban Democrats around fast-growing Greensboro. And his fundraising has been abysmal: He has brought in less than one-third of the money that Manning did in the last quarter of 2017.