The world has changed since the shut down, and Democrats now have pickup opportunities in 49 of 61 districts surveyed by PPP. “But,” people will say, “The election is a year out. People will forget?” To which I reply, “Awesome!” and “No they won’t forget.” A year out is perfect. This news cannot but help with Democratic recruitment and fundraising. And does anybody really think that the Republicans are about to suddenly go all sane and reasonable in the next 12 months? I don’t.
The new (polling) results show substantial Republican vulnerability in many districts that were not even supposed to be close.
Incumbent Republicans trail generic Democrats in15 of the 25 districts we most recently surveyed. This means
generic Democrats lead in 37 of 61 districts polled since the beginning of the government shutdown. Democrats only need to net 17 seats in order to retake the House. And the bad news for Republicans doesn’t stop there, because in the minority of the 61 districts where Republicans lead in the initial head-to-head question, 11 more Republicans fall behind once voters are informed that the Republican supported the government shutdown and 1 race becomes tied. This means that our results indicate Democrats have pickup opportunities in an astounding 49 of the 61 districts surveyed