Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump is at odds with House Republicans over the midterm strategy. He cares about things they don't care about and vice versa. His main thrust is disenfranchising Democrats by passing the SAVE America Act (see above). That is not likely to happen because the votes in the Senate are not there. The more he focuses on that, he less time he has for actually doing something to help Republicans.
Another thing he cares about a lot is banning absentee voting and restricting transgender rights. The former is opposed by many House members who depend on seniors to win because many seniors vote absentee. The latter is a distraction that has nothing to do with voting.
In contrast, Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), the House GOP conference chair, talked up tax cuts for families, energy independence, and Trump accounts for babies as real achievements Republicans should focus on. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said that talking about affordability is the way to go. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) wants the midterms to be about how "working families are keeping more of the hard-earned money in their pockets" as a result of the tax cuts in the BBB. None of them even mention the SAVE America Act as a priority.
Another thing that Trump really cares about, but which no other Republican House member (except maybe Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA) cares about, is defeating Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in a primary. Trump cares about this so much that he went to northern Kentucky yesterday to campaign for Massie's primary opponent, former Navy SEAL and local farmer Ed Gallrein. For Trump, getting rid of Massie is probably his #1 priority for the House. The seat is not in any danger since KY-04 is R+18, but it is not an especially Trumpy district. It contains well-off outer suburbs of Cincinnati across the Ohio River from Kentucky. The voters there are conservative, but not all that MAGA. It will be a real test of Trump's abilities to convince conservatives to dump a well-liked and long-term incumbent just because he (Trump) says so.
Massie is not hopeless and helpless. In a new ad, Massie points out that just after Trump locked up the Republican nomination in May 2016, Gallrein changed his party registration from Republican to independent in disgust. The ad shows images of Gallrein's voter registration records. To make it worse, as soon as Trump was no longer president in 2021, Gallrein changed his registration back to Republican again. That says something about what Gallrein thinks of Trump. Gallrein ran for the state Senate in 2024 as a Republican and lost the primary.
Massie claims that an internal poll shows him ahead by 17 points. That is possible because he is well known and Gallrein is not. Of course, Trump's appearance with Gallrein and a massive amount of money tossed into Gallrein's campaign could change that.
If Gallrein wins the primary, no Republican will ever dare challenge Trump again, except one planning to retire, so strong is his grip on the base. On the other hand, if Massie wins, especially if he wins big, many other Republicans will see that one can survive Trump's wrath and live to talk about it. The primary is May 19. (V)