ICYMI: NRCC targets Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster in bid for House sweep in New Hampshire
The Washington Examiner reports the NRCC is “jump-starting efforts to oust” Annie Kuster.
The NRCC released polling out of NH-02 showing Kuster underwater, Republicans leading the generic congressional ballot, and Biden with a 57% disapproval rating.
The NRCC also launched a full-page newspaper ad in the New Hampshire Union Leader and Concord Monitor today hitting Kuster over gas prices:
In case you missed it…
NRCC targets Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster in bid for House sweep in New Hampshire
Washington Examiner
June 14, 2022
By David Drucker
The National Republican Congressional Committee is jump-starting efforts to oust Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) with full-page advertisements in New Hampshire’s biggest newspapers hitting the incumbent on rising gas prices.
The NRCC ads, running in Manchester’s New Hampshire Union Leader and the state capital’s Concord Monitor, highlight “record high” gas prices that have reached an average of $4.98 per gallon. “TELL ANNIE KUSTER WE CAN’T AFFORD THIS,” the ads read in all capital letters, along with the phone number to the Democrat’s Washington, D.C., office. Kuster, 65, is running for reelection in the newly configured 2nd Congressional District, a seat she first won in 2012.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter has rated both New Hampshire congressional seats as pure toss-ups. That and favorable internal NRCC polling have prompted the House GOP campaign arm to allocate $3.5 million in the Boston media market for the purposes of flipping New Hampshire’s 1st District and 2nd District.
In the NRCC’s survey of Kuster’s district, conducted June 6-7, the congresswoman’s favorable ratings were underwater, at 39% favorable and 41% unfavorable. Additionally, Republicans were beating Democrats on the generic ballot, 48% to 43%, with 10% undecided. President Joe Biden’s job approval rating was a meager 41%, with 57% disapproving. However, the margin of error was high, at plus or minus 5.49 percentage points.
New Hampshire has long hosted the first traditional primaries on the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating calendars. But the Granite State’s regularly scheduled down-ballot primaries and primaries for state office happen late. This year, the New Hampshire primary is scheduled for Sept. 13, less than two months before Election Day. In the 2nd Congressional District, a crowded field of Republicans is vying to take on Kuster.
New Hampshire recently approved new lines for its two House districts.
The Republican-controlled legislature had battled with Gov. Chris Sununu over the makeup of the seats, with GOP lawmakers in Concord approving a map that would have improved their party’s prospects in the 1st Congressional District. But Sununu vetoed it, preferring boundaries more likely to make both seats perennially competitive for Democrats and Republicans.
The debate was kicked to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which drew a map that reflects Sununu’s philosophy. The governor has since argued that the lines approved by the state Supreme Court provide Republicans with a better chance of achieving a rare sweep of the state’s two House districts in the midterm elections.