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Republicans Have Big Lead In The House For 2018 But Scarborough Makes Claim Donors Have Been Concerned

Julia Nista General Assignment Reporter
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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said Thursday morning that Republican donors have told him all year “we know we’re going to lose the House in 2018.”

Considering the passage of tax reform in both the House and the Senate, House prospects for winning seats in 2018 look even better than they did a few months ago.

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“It’s almost like there’s a political contract between the donors and these Republican members of Congress, donors telling me all year we know we’re going to lose the House in 2018. They were saying that six, seven, eight months ago. We know we’re going to lose the House, we know that Donald Trump is irrational,” the Morning Joe host stated. “We know that he’s unpredictable, but we just have to get this corporate tax cut now because we’ll never get it under Nancy Pelosi. Well it seems like that, more than anything else, has driven this Republican Congress over the past year.”

“That’s exactly right. I had a top Republican strategist say to me this week that if the election were held today, Joe, the Republicans would lose 50-55 seats. So yeah, there is a real sense of alarm and panic right now on Capitol Hill,” said Jeremy Peters from The New York Times.

Republicans from both houses passed the first form of the bill two weeks ago, and passed the final form of the bill after a reconciliation process on Wednesday. The legislation is viewed as a large win for Republicans in both the House and Senate and also for the Trump administration.

The failure of John Ossoff to win a Congressional seat in June despite the money given to his campaign, the most expensive race in House history, was a stark warning to Democrats running for House seats in 2018.

Democrats would have to flip 24 seats if they want to gain control of the house. There are 20-26 contested seats that, if won, could allow Democrats to make up considerable ground in the House and could lead to a possible switch in the majority. However, an all-out Democrat sweep from the House — given tax reform’s passage and the historical voting record of the districts in which these seats are up for election — seems unlikely.

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