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House Speaker Mike Johnson is in the midst of a 30-day nonstop campaign swing that will take him to 18 states this summer, as he fights political headwinds in an effort to keep a GOP majority in this midterm election year.
One of the campaign stops took place this week in Virginia, where he said the stakes couldn’t be higher.
“Virginia’s 2nd District will determine the fate of the country because this will be a close election,” Johnson said Monday.
Johnson traveled to Virginia Beach to campaign on behalf of Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents the district.
Kiggans is considered one of the most vulnerable GOP members of Congress this year.
She is leaning on a campaign message that Johnson has been emphasizing.
“It’s a fight right now between craziness and common sense,” she said. “And really civility and communism, socialism.”
Republicans are emphasizing the divide within the Democratic Party, between progressives and Democratic socialists and more moderate members.
Even though polling indicates Republicans are being hurt by President Donald Trump’s low approval ratings and the continuation of the war with Iran, Johnson insists his party can defy history.
“I’m absolutely convinced that we’re going to grow the House majority,” Johnson said.
Generally, the party in power in the White House almost always loses seats during a midterm election.
Congressional rematch
Kiggans’ Democratic opponent is a familiar one: former congresswoman Elaine Luria, who she defeated in 2022.
Luria, a military veteran, is not from the progressive wing of the party, but earned the enmity of President Donald Trump’s supporters by serving on the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
She issued a statement this week, reacting to criticism from Johnson and Kiggans.
“As corrupt Jen Kiggans and Mike Johnson meet with wealthy donors today, working Virginians are seeing their gas and grocery bills skyrocket, their friends and family members in uniform sent to fight in another foreign war, and their healthcare taken away to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” Luria said. “Kiggans and Johnson refuse to stand up to Donald Trump, and Hampton Roads is paying the price.”
The race between Luria and Kiggans is expected to be bitterly contested.
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While the 2nd District leans Republican, Democrats believe they have a good chance of retaking it.
It is likely to be a bellwether for the midterm elections.
Luria flipped the seat when she was first elected to Congress in 2018, then won reelection in 2020, before being defeated by Kiggans.
Republicans currently control the House by a 218-212 margin, with one Independent.
Johnson is hoping to build on that slim majority, while Democrats believe the political winds are at their back and they can retake the upper chamber.
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