House Speaker Paul Ryan’s congressional seat is a “new battleground,” according to a memo released Thursday by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Democrats are confident after a wave of victories in elections Tuesday. “Following our early success, the DCCC is today adding 11 additional Republican-held districts to our offensive battlefield, which now totals 91 districts,” DCCC chairman Ben Ray Lujan wrote in the memo.
The memo highlighted Trump’s low approval rating in several congressional districts. According to the DCCC, Trump’s favorability in Ryan’s Wisconsin district is 52 percent negative and 42 percent positive.
“Being an establishment Republican isn’t any better in the eyes of voters,” the memo reads. “In fact, Speaker Paul Ryan is even more viscerally disliked than Trump in many districts.”
Ryan’s favorability in his own district is 47 percent positive and 46 percent negative. However, in Virginia’s Tenth Congressional District, Ryan is only viewed favorably by 20 percent of voters. Likewise, in Pennsylvania’s Sixth Congressional District, just 21 percent of voters view the House Speaker positively.
Ryan is being challenged in the Republican primary by Paul Nehlen. Nehlen is an ally of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. “I’ve got three certainties in life: Death, taxes, and attacks from Breitbart,” Ryan has previously stated about Bannon’s website.
Democrat Ryan Bryce is also seeking to unseat Ryan. Bryce, nicknamed “Iron Stache,” is a union iron worker who has accused Ryan of turning his “back on our community.”
“Across Southeastern Wisconsin, in places like Kenosha and Janesville; Racine and Elkhorn, factories are closing down and our jobs are being shipped away,” Bryce wrote on his website.