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NEW BERN, North Carolina — Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) denied that the withdrawal of cash by top GOP super PACs in key races is a sign the map is shrinking for Republicans to hold on to their House majority this November.
“It’s about resource allocation, and we have a huge war chest, but we’re having to spread it out across the country,” Johnson told the Washington Examiner after a campaign stop at the Copper Ridge barn in New Bern for GOP candidate Laurie Buckhout.
Top Republican super PACs aligned with GOP leadership and President Donald Trump withdrew spending from the races of two vulnerable House incumbents, Reps. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), earlier this week.
The main House GOP super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, pulled spending in Texas’s 28th Congressional District, where Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina is looking to unseat Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX).
“I don’t get to make those decisions. As you know, the super PAC operates independently of me, so we don’t coordinate,” Johnson said. “I think there’s three races where they move money around, but I called each one of those candidates and told them, ‘Stay the course. You’re going to win,’ because I am the person who’s actually on the ground in these districts.”
Johnson, who recently campaigned for Miller-Meeks and Tijerina, said he was “literally just in both of those districts with huge enthusiastic crowds, like we saw here today, and the energy on the ground, the excitement, the sort of the frame of mind of the candidates, we’re going to win those districts, and so they are totally undeterred.”
The Congressional Leadership Fund also pulled over $4 million in broadcast reservations from California’s 13th District, where former Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln is facing incumbent Rep. Adam Gray (D-CA).
Meanwhile, the Safety and Affordability PAC, an arm of Trump’s MAGA Inc. PAC, pulled almost $1 million from Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, where musician Marty O’Donnell is hoping to unseat incumbent Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV).
The cash withdrawals were widely viewed as a negative sign for Republicans as the party seeks to stem its losses amid polling that shows it struggling with voters concerned about the rising cost of living amid the Iran war.
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An AARP poll released on Thursday shows Democrats leading Republicans by 3 points on the generic ballot, with 49% of respondents backing Democrats compared to 46% supporting Republicans. Johnson dismissed polling showing Republicans lagging behind Democrats, saying, “We don’t pay attention to polls.”
“We haven’t for the last few cycles, and I think that the Democrats are trying to use the polls to make this self-fulfilling prophecy that our turnout will be dampened,” Johnson said.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
