Hakeem Jeffries stepped onto the stage at a recent campaign rally in suburban Virginia, but before getting to the stakes of the upcoming election, he rattled off a travelogue.
The House Democratic leader listed a dozen states he’d visited in just one recent swing through battleground districts in the Midwest, Northeast, and, on that day, the Mid-Atlantic.
“Democracy itself is on the line,” said Jeffries (N.Y.). “It’s not hype, it’s not hyperbole, it’s not a hypothetical. It’s happened. We’ve seen it unfolding.”
Hours later, the man Jeffries aims to replace, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), took the stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden for a rally for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. He also started by talking about the dozens of districts he’s visited boosting fellow Republicans.
“We’ve been to the red states and the blue states, we’ve been to the safe districts and the swing districts,” Johnson told the packed arena. “There’s an energy out there that we have not seen before.”
House and Senate leaders have spent the fall racing across the country trying to squeeze out every last vote for the tightest election in recent memory. The presidential race essentially is tied across seven battlegrounds, and contests to control the House and Senate are also precariously balanced, with each party scrapping for what’s likely to be a slim victory.
The stakes are massive for the country, for policy, and for the next president — who will be empowered or constrained by the congressional campaign results. They also carry huge implications for the lawmakers making the pitches. Politically, they’ll be judged largely by their abilities to deliver majorities and power for their parties.
Jeffries is aiming to become the first Black speaker and to complete a long, steady rise. Flipping the House would assure Democrats of a bulwark against a possible second Trump presidency, since they face a difficult road to holding the Senate.
Johnson, after a sudden ascent last year, hopes to hold onto the speakership and win a chance to build on his rocky first year in charge. Lose the majority, and Johnson could fall as fast as he rose.
In the Senate, two senior Republicans — Sens. John Thune (S.D.) and John Cornyn (Texas) — are working to flip the chamber from Democratic control and simultaneously win support from fellow senators to become the next GOP leader. They’re running, along with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), to replace Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who’s stepping down from that post. Fundraising and campaigning are ways to flex their political muscles and create allies.
New York Emphasis
The fight for the House features fewer toss-up races than ever, concentrating energy in a handful of districts that remain competitive.
Several of the most critical races are unfolding in deep blue New York, where Republicans are defending five competitive seats. Both Jeffries and Johnson expect to spend the final days of the campaign in some of those districts.
Jeffries stressed the tight margins when he visited Virginia’s hotly contested 7th District, outside Washington. The Democratic incumbent, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, is planning to run for governor, opening an opportunity for Republicans. The GOP’s Derrick Anderson, a former Green Beret, is competing with Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman, a former Army colonel who, along with his twin brother, played a role in Trump’s first impeachment.
The Virginia crowd was full of Democratic activists ready to spend a Sunday knocking on doors, part of a get-out-the-vote operation the party hopes can make the difference.
Jeffries’ stressed Democrats’ commitment to Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act, and vowed, if they win the majority, to pass voting rights legislation. To help make it happen, he’s visited 14 states since mid-September, traveling more than 25,000 miles, according to his aides.
Johnson, in New York, vowed Republicans would provide relief from high prices, surging migration, and crime. But like Jeffries, he also laid out more dramatic stakes.
“We’re in a battle between two completely different visions for who we are as a nation and who we’re going to be,” Johnson said, accusing Democrats of pushing socialism and Marxism.
He visited roughly two-dozen states and more than 60 cities in October alone, aides said. He’s promised to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts and to “take a blowtorch” to regulations if the GOP holds power next year, while also suggesting Republicans might again take aim at the Affordable Care Act, though he later downplayed that possibility.
Senate Influence
On the Senate side, McConnell told a local chamber of commerce in Paducah, Ky., last week, “The Senate needs to be Republican if for no other reason to keep them from fundamentally changing the country.”
Among those seeking to be the next GOP leader, Thune has visited every major battleground — and some safe states — headlining more than 200 public and private events, including campaign stops and fundraising, according to a person familiar with his operation.
Cornyn has primarily helped GOP allies through fundraising, including recent trips to aid candidates in Indiana, Michigan and Nevada, and earlier events in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been less prominent in public, likely a reflection of the battlefield: Top Senate races are in conservative or moderate states where he’s unlikely to be a political asset. He and his political committees, however, have spent heavily boosting fellow Democrats.
Others have joined the fray, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who have each traveled to key states. Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), favored to become the next chair of Republicans’ national Senate campaign arm, did the same.
At one event in Grand Rapids, Mich., a Republican vying for the No. 3 position in her conference, Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa), emphasized the high stakes at a rally with GOP voters.
“The weight of the world is on your shoulders,” she said.
— With assistance from
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