The leader of the campaign arm for House Republicans brushed aside concerns Thursday that Donald Trump could cost the GOP its majority, arguing candidates have their “own following” separate from the Republican nominee.
“This election cycle, being presidential, is a little more volatile, but we feel very confident that we will maintain the majority,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said at the National Press Club in Washington.
{mosads}Walden said the NRCC’s August polling from the 24 most competitive districts found that Republicans led by 3 points on a generic ballot, which is a general question asking if a voter plans to back the Republican or the Democrat. And he said that lead swells to 10 points in the group’s polling in a composite of head-to-head surveys across those districts.
Since that same polling found Trump trailing by 2 points, Walden said that “there’s distinctly something different below the presidential when you get to the congressional districts.”
“If the members have been doing what they needed to do, or our candidates, they have their own image, their own following, and they have their own support base,” he added.
Walden’s comments come just one day after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Politico that the Democrats might be able to win back the House, despite a current 60-seat deficit, because of Trump’s effect down-ballot.
There’s already been some messaging from the GOP keeping a distance from Trump in congressional races. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) sent out an August fundraising email warning that holding the majority was the best way to prevent “handing President Hillary Clinton a blank check.” And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) released a video after his primary promoting himself as a “check” on Clinton if she’s elected.
Walden wouldn’t say whether the NRCC would advise members to use that strategy, though he said it’s a “potent message.”
“The notion that we can go back to the day which brought about this huge uprising in America in 2010 where there was no check and balance is clearly an anathema to center-right Americans. They want some sort of check and balance,” he said.
“It’s a potent message for our districts and our members to talk about — do you want complete one-party Democrat rule in Washington again? Because we just got through that and I think the answer is no.”