National Republican group names Newman among top targets for 2022 midterm elections

Republicans aiming to recapture the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections are setting their sights on Rep. Marie Newman.

The National Republican Congressional Committee listed Newman, D-La Grange, as one of its top Democratic targets to challenge, along with nine other Democrats nationwide.

The NRCC made the announcement following the release of U.S. Census data needed for reapportioning Congressional districts. The group is targeting members in states which are losing a Congressional seat after reapportionment. Illinois is set to lose one seat due to population loss.

“Republicans are on offense all across the country,” NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer said in the announcement. “Every House Democrat is facing an uphill battle having to defend their toxic socialist agenda that prioritizes trillion-dollar tax hikes on the middle class, opens our borders, closes our schools and defunds the police.”

Republicans expect to overcome Democrats’ narrow majority and recapture the House, which they lost in 2018.

Recent electoral history shows that after a new president in elected, the party out of power typically has much more electoral success in the following midterm contests. Democrats took over the House the midterm after President Donald Trump was elected and Republicans were voted into power in the House in 2010, just two years after President Barack Obama was elected.

For her part, Newman used the NRCC’s announcement as an opportunity to fire up her supporters.

“But here’s the thing — we aren’t scared,” she said in a tweet. “I’m from the South Side of Chicago, and I’m not afraid of a fight.”

Her campaign sent an email to supporters asking for donations.

“I know we have what it takes to overcome whatever they throw our way, but it will take every single one of us to stay strong in 2022,” Newman said in the email.

While the borders of the actual district Newman would be running in have yet to be drawn, that process is the responsibility of the Illinois General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats.

Last year she campaigned on unapologetically progressive positions and unseated incumbent U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, in the primary election. She went on to defeat Republican Mike Fricilone, a Will County Board member, in November.

Newman represents the 3rd Congressional District, which includes all or parts of Crest Hill, Homer Glen, Lockport and Romeoville and stretches to the southwest side of Chicago.