Barbara Comstock

OPINION — While President Trump complains about the national media, Democrats, Robert S. Mueller’s Russian “witch hunt” and the political establishment, none of those things is why the November House elections are a major headache for the Republican Party. Donald Trump’s biggest problem is Donald Trump.

Trump has turned what could have been a challenging midterm election environment into a potentially disastrous one. Through his tweets and statements, the president continues to make the 2018 midterm elections a referendum on his first two years in office.

As orientation kicks off for graduate school programs, staffers who are going part time and keeping their Capitol Hill jobs begin the balancing act.

Those higher knowledge-seekers are not alone. It’s common for staffers to get degrees on top of work.

Soaring temperatures continue to grip the country this week, but that didn’t stop lawmakers and congressional hopefuls from hitting the July Fourth parade circuit Wednesday. And Roll Call’s photographers were there. 

In Virginia’s 10th District, Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock and her Democratic opponent, state Sen. Jennifer Wexton, both marched in the Independence Day parade in historic downtown Leesburg. The Toss-up race between the two is among the most competitive in the country — a must-hold for both parties in their respective quests to retain or win back the House. 

Speaker Paul D. Ryan has spent his 20-year congressional career primarily focused on two issues, taxes and poverty. The Wisconsin Republican led a major rewrite of the tax code last year, but when he retires at the end of this term he won’t have many accomplishments to tout on poverty.

The last big win for conservatives in the so-called War on Poverty was the 1996 welfare overhaul, Ryan acknowledged on PBS’ “Firing Line” earlier this month.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added 10 more challengers Friday to its Red to Blue program for strong recruits.

The eighth round of additions brings the total number of challengers on Red to Blue to 53. Many of the new additions have only recently won primaries. 

Welcome to At the Races! You can keep track of House and Senate races with this weekly newsletter by subscribing here. We want to hear what you think. Email us at attheraces@cqrollcall.com with your questions, tips or candidate sightings. —Simone Pathé and Bridget Bowman

The defeat of one of the party’s most notorious political survivors this week wasn’t enough to scare House Republicans.

South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, the disgraced former governor, had never lost an election before Tuesday. But his criticism of President Donald Trump did him in.

The fall matchup in one of this year’s most competitive House races is now set with state Sen. Jennifer Wexton clinching the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s 10th District on Tuesday night.

Wexton will face Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock, who’s running for a third term in a Toss-up race.

Voters in five states head to the polls Tuesday, with most of the action in House primaries.

Republican Rep. Mark Sanford is facing a party challenge for his South Carolina seat. Nominees will be chosen in a half-dozen other competitive House races. And a new voting process will be tested in Maine.