AP

Election 2022: Primaries shift focus to control of US House

Jun 5, 2022, 9:12 AM | Updated: 9:16 pm

FILE - The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Fe...

FILE - The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. Republican House primaries on Tuesday, June 7, will set the table for the most competitive U.S. House races this fall in a handful of districts that will decide whether Democrats can hold their paper-thin margin amid bracing economic headwinds. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)


              FILE - Senate Republican leader Sen. Thomas H Kean Jr., left, R- Westfield, NJ., answers a question as he stands in the Senate chamber of the New Jersey Statehouse Oct. 5, 2016, in Trenton, N.J. Kean Jr., the favorite in Tuesday, June to 7, 2022, six-way GOP primary to face Rep. Tom Malinowski, exemplifies the Republican message in these districts, fusing Democrats to Biden's unpopularity especially over decades-high cost of living prices.  (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)
            
              FILE - Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., speaks as members of Congress share recollections of the Jan. 6 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol on the one-year anniversary of the attack on Jan. 6, 2022. During his reelection campaign, Malinowski is focused on gas prices eating into the wallets of commuters in his district. But he's also highlighting the potential that the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which provided a nationwide right to an abortion. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP, File)
            
              FILE - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., administers the House oath of office to Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif., during ceremonial swearing-in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 3, 2019, during the opening session of the 116th Congress. Representing a district with workers who commute up to 90 miles to jobs near San Francisco, Harder said he plans to emphasize his push to repeal the federal gas tax during his reelection campaign. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
            
              FILE - Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, speaks during a roundtable discussion at the Elite Octane ethanol plant, Nov. 9, 2021, in Atlantic, Iowa. Republicans need to gain only five seats to win control of the House in the fall. Few Democratic seats are more at risk than that of Axne, whose district stretches from Democratic-leaning Des Moines to GOP-friendly suburbs and staunchly conservative farmland in Iowa's southwest corner. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A midterm primary season that opened with elections testing former President Donald Trump’s sway among Republicans enters a new phase this week with U.S. House contests that will shape the future of Congress.

From the New Jersey suburbs to Iowa’s capital city to California’s Central Valley, primary elections on Tuesday will determine which Republicans will take on some of the most prominent Democrats who helped flip control of the U.S. House four years ago.

For these members of the class of 2018, the matchups are unfolding in a dramatically different environment. Trump is out of the White House, replaced by a president of their own party whose approval ratings are plummeting. Moderate voters in the suburbs who swung to Democrats during the Trump era may be open to Republicans again, frustrated by a series of challenges ranging from inflation to rising gas prices and a shortage of baby formula.

Against that backdrop, some of the vulnerable Democrats who will learn who their Republican opponents will be this week said they are braced for an intense campaign season. They plan to spend the coming months in a relentless effort to stay focused on solutions to local problems.

“I’m going to work only on issues that have a deep impact in our community,” U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif., said in an interview.

Representing a district with workers who commute up to 90 miles to jobs near San Francisco, Harder said he plans to emphasize his push — so far unsuccessful — to repeal the federal gas tax. He’s also co-sponsored legislation, which passed the House last month, to crack down on alleged price gouging by oil companies and other energy producers, a bill facing steep odds in the U.S. Senate, split evenly among Democrats and Republicans.

“These are local issues with national connections,” he said, noting his votes in the House “only have an impact if they’re actually seen, understood and felt by people in a district just like this.”

Meredith Kelly, a senior adviser to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2018, said this week’s races are “previews of some real battles for the fall in swing districts.”

“These are incumbents who are battle-tested, who not only won in 2018 but held on in 2020, for many in a tougher year than some expected,” she said.

Republicans need to gain only five seats to win control of the House in the fall. Few Democratic seats are more at risk than that of Rep. Cindy Axne, whose Iowa district stretches from Democratic-leaning Des Moines to GOP-friendly suburbs and staunchly conservative farmland in Iowa’s southwest corner.

Axne squeaked to reelection by 1.4 percentage points in 2020, as Trump edged Biden in the district by only one-tenth of a percentage point. Redistricting last year swapped some conservative western Iowa counties in her current district to even more conservative, though very lightly populated, poor, rural counties along the Missouri border.

Facing such a daunting environment, she exemplifies the go-local approach of many vulnerable Democrats.

At a recent stop in Davis County, new to the district where Axne is running and where Trump won nearly 74 percent of the vote, she ticked through expanded broadband internet and availability of corn-based ethanol as parts of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill Biden signed in November. More local still, she noted the new telehealth unit at the hospital in nearby Albia, a town of about 3,700 in a low-income, rural county in south-central Iowa.

“That’s my bill,” she told the lunchtime audience at a diner in Bloomfield. “I am absolutely addressing issues related to rural America.”

But other Democrats say they will go beyond so-called local pocketbook economic issues.

In New Jersey, Rep. Tom Malinowski is focused on gas prices eating into the wallets of commuters in his district. But he’s also highlighting the potential that the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which provided a nationwide right to an abortion.

“This gets very real very, very soon for a lot of people,” Malinowski said, especially in his district, heavy with younger, educated adults whom surveys show tend to support keeping abortion legal in all or most cases. “I think this does become much more of a voting issue.”

New Jersey state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., the favorite in Tuesday’s six-way GOP primary to face Malinowski, exemplifies the Republican message in these districts, fusing Democrats to Biden’s unpopularity especially over decades-high cost of living.

“Voters know Tom Malinowski and Joe Biden are directly responsible for the record high prices they’re paying on everything from gas to groceries,” Kean, who lost to Malinowski by 1.2 percentage points in 2020, said in a written statement Friday.

Though some Democrats say a threat to legal abortion could help Democrats not just hold but gain competitive seats, veteran Republican pollster David Winston says the strength of the economic headwinds outweigh even hot-button issues for voters on the left.

“There’s a distinction between issues that are important to people and that they consider very important, and then there are the issues they ultimately are going to consider when they walk into the voting booth,” said Winston, who has been a senior adviser to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

“When you have economic issues leading the way at a scale where people are dealing with such significant problems, it’s going to be about the economic issues.” Winston said.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP

Image: A cargo ship is stuck under the part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after ...

Associated Press

Authorities identify 2 bodies recovered at site of Baltimore bridge collapse

A major bridge in Baltimore snapped and collapsed after a container ship rammed into it early Tuesday, and several vehicles fell into the river below.

22 hours ago

Photo: Mountaineer Jim Whittaker has died at 95....

Gene Johnson, The Associated Press

Lou Whittaker, among the most famous American mountaineers, has died at age 95

Lou Whittaker, a legendary American mountaineer who helped lead ascents of Mount Everest, K2 and Denali, has died at age 95.

23 hours ago

File photo: Former Sen. Joe Lieberman speaks in Washington on Jan. 18, 2024....

Associated Press

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Democrats’ VP pick in 2000, dead at 82

Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who nearly won the vice presidency on the Democratic ticket with Al Gore in 2000, has died.

23 hours ago

islamic state attack...

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

What we know after the Islamic State group claims responsibility for Moscow massacre

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed at least 133 people.

4 days ago

Moscow shooting...

The Associated Press

Russia: 60 dead, 145 injured in concert hall raid; Islamic State group claims responsibility

Assailants burst into a concert hall in Moscow on Friday and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing over 60 people, injuring more than 100.

6 days ago

Photo: Britain's Kate, Duchess of Cambridge visits 282 (East Ham) Squadron, RAF Air Cadets, Cornwel...

Associated Press

Kate Middleton announces she has cancer, is undergoing chemotherapy

Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, says she is undergoing chemotherapy to treat cancer. She has been out of view since Christmas.

6 days ago

Election 2022: Primaries shift focus to control of US House