Worried: National Republicans Pull Funding from 4 Vulnerable GOP Seats
The National Republican Congressional Committee has pulled funding from Kansas Rep. Kevin Yoder, making him the fourth vulnerable GOP House member to have campaign funding cut off.
Previously, the NRCC had pulled advertisement dollars from Reps. Mike Bishop of Michigan, Mike Coffman of Colorado and Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania, among other funding decisions, according to The Hill.
The change in funding is a clear sign that the NRCC doesn’t see these seats as a good investment as they try to protect the Republican majority in the House.
In Yoder’s case, The Hill reported, it was “a hint that Republicans are pessimistic about Yoder’s chances of holding his Kansas City-area district.”
Yoder has been elected four times since beating Democrat Dennis Moore back in 2010; none of the re-election campaigns have presented serious challenges.
Even as late as July, the Kansas City Star was confident enough in his re-election that the newspaper published a piece titled, “Why Kansas Democrats may not be able to beat Rep. Kevin Yoder,” which argued he would be extremely difficult to topple given the paucity of name recognition among his potential challengers.
However, a recent poll poll by The New York Times gave Democrat nominee Sharice Davids with a 51 to 43 advantage over Yoder, with 6 percent undecided and a 4.7 percent margin of error.
And pundits are changing their tune, with FiveThirtyEight moving the race from “likely Republican” to a “toss-up” — even giving Davids a slight edge, 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent.
The Hill reports GOP House campaign cmte is pulling $1.7 ad buy intended help Ks-03 rep Kevin Yoder. A sign Nat’l Cmte fears Yoder’s campaign against Dem Sharice Davids is in trouble #Ks03 #KevinYoder #ShariceDavids #kmbc pic.twitter.com/8FYSXlXExp
— Micheal Mahoney (@KCMikeMahoney) September 30, 2018
Yoder still has money coming in, mind you. The Congressional Leadership Fund, the largest conservative super PAC, has already spent $1.8 million on advertising for Yoder and still has $750,000 planned.
However, the $1.2 million that the NRCC had planned to spend is a major loss, particularly since Davids has gotten roughly $700,000 from left-leaning donation aggregator ActBlue of late, according to KCUR-FM.
The NRCC probably has good reason to pull its ads, sadly.
The likelihood is that the Republicans are going to lose seats. This happens in almost every midterm, but with a mephitic political climate and Democrat activists terminally afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome, the challenge of maintaining the House is even more difficult one than usual for a presidential administration in its first term..
Yet, keeping the House will be imperative for the GOP and the president, if difficult. Without a majority in the lower chamber, budgetary squabbles are almost certain to go nuclear, and you can kiss any money for real border security goodbye.
Yoder can still pull this off; FiveThirtyEight still gives him an even chance of winning. For the others, the odds are somewhat longer.
Of the other three candidates mentioned who’ve had their funding pulled by the NRCC, FiveThirtyEight gives Bishop a 57.4 percent chance of losing, Rep. Coffman an 81.4 percent chance of losing, and Rep. Rothfus a staggering 89.9 percent chance of losing.
If any of these candidates are going to return to their seats in the 116th Congress, they’d better hope a red wave is forming out among the conservative voters of America.
And only conservative voters can make that happen.
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