Inside the House GOP's August road show
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Speaker Mike Johnson, flanked by members of his leadership team, heads to a news conference outside of the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 12, 2024. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
House Republicans' strategy for keeping the speaker's gavel and their leadership suites next year hinges on being anywhere but Washington this summer.
Why it matters: The Senate is in for another two weeks, but Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team are crisscrossing the country during the House's five-week August recess like German or Norwegian World Cup fans: no town too small, no state too far away.
- The plan is to tout their legislative wins in person and convince voters that they are, individually, the exception to the widely held belief that Congress doesn't work.
Driving the news: Johnson is leading the charge.
- He'll hit more than 30 districts in 17 states (18, if you count his home state of Louisiana) over the August recess, campaigning alongside Republican incumbents and challengers.
- Don't expect any X posts worthy of "Freddy," but he'll be seeing the country: Maine, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, to name a few stops.
His Southern colleague, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), is heading north for a major event in New York with the state's Republican members.
- "It'll be a good next few weeks to go around the country talking about what we did, letting people know, a lot of good things to talk about. But there's more to come," Scalise said.
- Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) will make dozens of campaign stops across the country, their offices told Axios.
Between the lines: Republicans have acknowledged they've struggled to sell their signature legislative achievement — originally known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill" before being rebranded as the Working Families' Tax Cut Act.
- "Do we communicate our ideas great all the time? That's been a fault of the Republican Party," Scalise told reporters Thursday. "I think we're getting better at it."
The big picture: Republicans are increasingly arguing the election is a choice between their economic agenda and what they characterize as a Democratic shift to the left — a contrast they'll spend August trying to reinforce.
- Or in blunter terms: "It's going to be a hate election," a Republican tied to President Trump's political operation told Axios' Marc Caputo.
The bottom line: Public polling suggests Republicans still have work to do convincing voters their agenda is benefiting them.
- Democrats have an 11-point lead over Republicans on a generic congressional ballot, according to a new poll from Emerson College.
