WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — House Republicans fled the hustle and bustle of Washington for the hills of West Virginia to fine-tune their plans to expand their narrow majority and to hit Democratic weak points in more than three dozen races.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said the GOP is “well-positioned” to snatch up seats across the country, thanks in large part to favorable redistricting in states such North Carolina, where Republicans are primed to win four new seats that were once strongholds for Democrats.
Mr. Johnson acknowledged that the House GOP has a near-historically small majority, which is slated to shrink again when Rep. Ken Buck, Colorado Republican, leaves Congress next week. Despite that, he said he feels confident that Republicans will win big in November.
“I believe that we are more confident than ever that we’re going to grow this majority,” Mr. Johnson said.
Republicans are targeting 37 seats in five battleground states, including five seats held by Democrats in districts that former President Donald Trump won, and six open seats.
National Republican Central Committee Chair Rich Hudson, North Carolina Republican, said the election will be a slam dunk for Republicans, largely because of policy stumbles by President Biden.
“We’ve got one of the best political environments we’ve seen in decades,” Mr. Hudson said, “because President Joe Biden and the Democrats have failed.”
The speaker laid out what he believed to be winning strategy for the GOP in November: recruit diverse candidates, raise eye-popping sums of money, and hit Democrats on key issues such as securing the border.
Mr. Johnson said that voters are most concerned with border security. He criticized Mr. Biden’s handling of the U.S./Mexico border, contending that Democrats will regret their position on the border in November.
“A large number of the American people, according to polling, also recognize that the president has the executive authority to make changes there immediately, but he is unwilling or unable to do it,” Mr. Johnson said. “Politically unable, that is — legally, he is.”
The speaker has aggressively hit the road to boost and recruit candidates since earning the gavel in October, noting that he has traveled to 20 states in his four months on the job. He hopes to replicate the House GOP’s 2020 campaign strategy, where Republicans flipped 15 seats, with diverse candidates that include veterans, minorities and women.
Republicans have also dumped millions of dollars into the NRCC in the last few months — about $10 million during Mr. Johnson’s tenure as speaker.
Despite a highly chaotic year in control of the lower chamber that has seen four brushes with a government shutdown, near-constant infighting among lawmakers, and the historic ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans say they will grow their paper-thin majority. With Mr. Buck’s departure, Republicans will hold 218 seats, with Democrats holding 213, and three vacancies.
“I think what you’ve seen is that even though we live in a time of divided government, and even though the Republicans have quite literally almost the smallest majority in U.S. history, and in an effort that some deem to be impossible, we are actually moving the ball forward and getting the job done,” Mr. Johnson said. “We are governing.”