WASHINGTON — Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said he expects Republicans to gain 30 House seats in Tuesday’s midterm elections, easily clearing the six necessary for the GOP to capture control of the chamber.
“I can see picking up 30 seats,” Comer told McClatchy in an interview, citing races in the bluer states of Rhode Island, Maine and Connecticut that could break toward Republicans. “If we pick up two to three seats in the New England area, that’s a pretty good day for Republicans.”
The 1st District congressman said a GOP House majority would pump the brakes on most of President Joe Biden’s agenda and pinpointed the repeal of new Internal Revenue Service employees as one of the first pieces of legislation his caucus would pursue.
“That’s symbolic because it symbolizes a change from making the government bigger to making the government smaller, which is kind of a Republican staple,” Comer said.
The IRS was allotted $80 billion as part of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, with about half of it earmarked for enforcement. Republicans have claimed the funding would result in 87,000 new auditors or IRS agents, but experts say that’s not necessarily the case. The IRS has not specified how it would use the new money.
Rep. Thomas Massie, another Kentucky Republican, said such a vote to repeal the agents would be largely symbolic and that the real change would need to be made later next year ahead of the votes on annual spending bills.
“The first week we could pass a whole host of things that signals what we’re going to do, but if we’re going to accomplish anything it’s got to be in the form of a limitation on spending,” Massie said.
Massie, who is known for his consistent string of “no” votes against even bipartisan measures, told McClatchy he prefers a smaller GOP majority in order to force leadership to deal with the demands from the most conservative members of the caucus.
“My preference might surprise you. I’d like to have a majority of two, because then they have to come to Thomas Massie for a vote more frequently than if they have a larger majority,” Massie said.
But in his next thought, Massie concluded that a sizable majority would force GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy to act on a slate of priorities that might be politically risky.
“If we get 230 or more seats, it’s a clear signal that by golly, the leadership better do something. And they’re going to have to be bold in that case. They can’t say, ‘oh we need no drama,’” Massie said. “Whether we have a slim majority or a large majority I’ll be happy.”
Comer agreed with that sentiment, being careful against setting the bar too high for what constitutes a good night for Republicans.
“Anything over six is well appreciated by me. Six is the magic number. Anything over six is a good day for me and for the Republican Party,” he said. “Thirty makes Kevin McCarthy’s life a lot easier. It makes it easier for all of us who want to govern in the Republican majority.”
Most political prognosticators have Republicans retaking the House. The only disagreement surrounds the total advantage that will ultimately be won. Larry Sabato’s “Crystal Ball” sees a GOP gain “in the high teens or low 20s.” The Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman currently projects Republicans adding between 12 and 25 seats.
“I’ve been skeptical for several months but over the last two weeks, it feels like everything’s breaking our way,” said Comer, who is poised to chair the House Oversight Committee.
As Democrats’ chances of holding onto the House dwindle, the battle for the U.S. Senate remains on a razor’s edge with Mitch McConnell’s majority leadership hopes hanging on the outcome of margin-of-error contests in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada. Whichever party wins two of those three states is likely to control the upper chamber in January.
