NRCC Picks New Young Guns
| The NRCC is spotlighting 16 new top recruits it hopes will make up an increasingly large freshman class in the 112th Congress.
Those candidates are the latest entrants to the roster of Young Guns, recruits who have met specific fundraising, volunteer recruiting and media relations benchmarks. Some, like VA State Sen. Robert Hurt, running against Rep. Tom Perriello (D), and Corning Mayor Tom Reed (R), running for ex-Rep. Eric Massa’s (D-NY) seat, are among the party’s most highly-touted contenders. Others, like attorney Andy Barr (R), running against Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY), and businessman Keith Fimian (R), running against Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), are longer shots. And some Young Guns have overcome other promising candidates already. State Sen. Randy Hultgren (R) beat out attorney Ethan Hastert (R) for the right to take on Rep. Bill Foster (D). Hultgren; Hurt; State Rep. Kristi Noem (R), running against Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D); attorney David Harmer, challenging Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA); and attorney Todd Young (R), bidding for Rep. Baron Hill’s (R) seat all came through tough primaries. The new additions bring the number of top tier Young Gun candidates to 39. Several GOP sources says that number is a coincidence, but a happy one — 39 is the number of seats the GOP needs to win to take control of the House. (It’s not a perfect coincidence: Candidates running for open seats held by GOP Reps. Mark Kirk and Mario Diaz-Balart are members of the Young Guns program, meaning just 37 of the 39 candidates are running against Dems.) That’s only a temporary coincidence, though, as more candidates are likely to achieve the goals the program requires for advancement. A complete list of the new Young Gun candidates: |