MI-01

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Monday added 20 seats to its target list for 2018. The House Democrats’ campaign arm is now going after 79 Republican-held seats in the midterms.

President Donald Trump won these newly targeted seats by anywhere from 6 to 49 points. The first round of 59 targets, announced in January, included the 23 GOP-held seats that Hillary Clinton carried last fall. But it also included plenty of red districts, including at least eight districts that Trump carried by 15 points or more.

Republican Jack Bergman has defeated Democrat Lon Johnson in Michigan’s 1st District, The Associated Press projects.

Bergman led Johnson 54 percent to 41 percent with 83 percent of precincts reporting. 

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. 

Even before Donald Trump became the GOP presidential nominee, House Democrats heralded Hillary Clinton’s candidacy as the key to winning battleground races in all manner of swing districts.

With five weeks to go before Election Day, Democrats are still waiting for Donald Trump to create the nationwide swell that would be necessary to put the Republicans’ House majority into play. House races are often late to engage but, thus far, the developments have been a mixed bag for Democrats, keeping sizable gains out of reach.

The lack of vulnerable Democrats — and the resiliency of many Republican incumbents in the face of an unpopular presidential nominee — could amount to a historic election in the House, but not in the way one might think. The cycle could produce the fewest number of House seats to flip party control in 60 years.

Updated Aug. 5 |  Voters in Washington and Michigan have selected their nominees in three open congressional seats, one of which is a battleground district.  

In Michigan's 1st District, a competitive seat in November, retired Marine Lt. Gen. Jack Bergman won the Republican nomination in Tuesday's primary. Current GOP Rep. Dan Benishek is retiring at the end of this term.   

House Majority PAC, a super PAC that helps elect Democrats to the House, placed additional TV reservations Monday that bring its total early ad buys to more than $19.6 million across 23 media markets for the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.   

The new reservations include $214,000 in Marquette, Michigan, and $378,000 in Traverse City, Michigan.  

Washington was apparently the place to be this week for Michigan state legislators running for Congress in 2016. But should they have been back in Michigan doing their jobs?  

The National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee agree on that, it seems. Both groups blasted out emails within 30 minutes of each other attacking the opposing party's recruit for shirking their legislative duties to raise money in D.C.