Andy Barr

The Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with House Republican leadership, is making $38 million worth of television reservations for ads in the fall, and an additional $10 million investment for digital ads.

CLF is the first outside GOP group to make early advertising reservations ahead of the November elections, and it is investing four months earlier than it did in the 2016 cycle. Locking in airtime early allows the group to make the reservations at lower rates.

Representatives of the technology industry are warning lawmakers that a plan to give an interagency panel authority over offshore sales or transfers of sensitive technology would impede routine business deals.

The House Financial Services Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee held its fourth and final hearing Thursday on a bill by Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., that would broaden the authority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to include a range of business deals involving U.S. and foreign companies, including offshore joint ventures involving technology transfer.

If there’s been one consistent sign of Democratic optimism this cycle, it’s the unprecedented number of Democrats interested in running for Congress.

Candidates keep announcing, and in many more districts than Democrats have targeted before. But in some of these races, there’s already been a Democratic candidate, or ten, for months.

If elections and national surveys over the past year have shown us anything, it is that suburban voters could well be the key to the 2018 midterm House elections.

Turnout among minority voters and younger voters could affect the result in a district here or there, but an increase in suburban turnout or a substantial shift by suburban voters (especially suburban women) from the Republicans to the Democrats could have a much broader impact on the fight for control of the House.

With Republicans focusing on the economy as their strongest message for the midterms, an issue advocacy group with close ties to House GOP leadership is launching a million-dollar digital ad campaign to tout the Republican tax law. 

American Action Network’s latest digital push, shared first with Roll Call, will run in the districts of 20 Republican lawmakers who voted for the GOP tax plan in December, including members of leadership and others who are more vulnerable this year. 

Updated 1:16 p.m.| The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC backed by House Republican leadership, announced Thursday it had expanded to 27 offices nationwide.

In August, the super PAC announced it had 17 field offices in districts like Illinois’ 12th, Kansas’ 3rd, New Jersey’s 3rd and 7th, and Pennsylvania’s 6th and 7th districts.

Responses to the “generic ballot” poll question suggest a partisan electoral wave is building. But the fight for control of the House isn’t a single national election. It will be fought district by district, and national Democrats face challenges on the ground even with the generic ballot favoring them.

In Michigan, according to America Votes 2007-2008, the statewide congressional vote shifted noticeably from 2004 to 2006 — from 49 percent Republican and 48 percent Democratic to 53 percent Democratic and 44 percent Republican — but that popular vote surge for the Democrats didn’t translate to a shift of even a single House seat.

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray is announcing Tuesday he’s running for Congress in Kentucky’s 6th District against three-term GOP Rep. Andy Barr. 

Gray lost a 2016 Senate bid against GOP Sen. Rand Paul, winning 43 percent of the vote to Paul’s 57 percent. The Democrat would have been the first openly gay man to serve in the Senate — a fact that drew little interest from voters on the trail last year. Gray defeated Paul in the 6th District. 

Nearly one year out from the 2018 midterms, challengers outraised nearly 30 percent of the incumbents in competitive races during the third quarter.

Sixteen Republican incumbents in competitive races raised less than their Democratic challengers during the third quarter. One Democratic incumbent was outraised by a GOP challenger.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched its first national TV buy on cable Thursday morning. 

The TV ad, which will run on MSNBC and CNN for one week, is part of a six-figure buy that also includes radio ads running in 11 districts for three weeks.