Fed up with liberal extremists, a record number of Republicans are waging an all-out fight to reclaim the House of Representatives after the 2018 Democratic wave took it away from the GOP.
Federal Election Commission paperwork shows that in 2019 alone, a record 781 Republicans filed required forms to run for the House, up from 593 GOP candidates in 2017, according to Fox News
Many echo the message of Gavin Rollins, a captain in the Florida National Guard who will be seeking the House seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Ted Yoho.
“I say ‘fight alongside our president.’ I chose that phrase very carefully because a lot of candidates who are Republican will say, ‘I support our president.’ But it’s not enough to support him. We need people in Congress fighting alongside him. He had my back in a combat zone. Do you think I’ll have his back to Congress? Absolutely,” he told Fox.
Rollins, 33, said new, young voices need to counteract what he called the “socialism” of liberals such as Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
“I get frustrated by AOC. She’s a millennial who just jumped in and is spouting off all these things. But what has she done to give back to the community?” Rollins said.
“What has she done to serve and make the world a better place at the local level or within her community before she’s now lecturing the rest of us on our country should be? And as a millennial who has served in the classroom, who has served overseas, I want to push back against that narrative.”
George Republican Marjorie Greene said Trump needs reinforcements.
“I’m tired of seeing my president attacked every day,” she said, according to Fox. “I’m tired of seeing our future threatened. I’m tired of seeing my children’s future extremely threatened, and it’s time to get off the bench and really step up to the plate.”
Greene said her campaign shows women are not all what she termed “tyrannical socialist Democrats.”
“These are radical women that will not bend. They do not want to work across the aisle. They only want their policies of the Green New Deal, ‘Medicare-for-all’ and socialism for America,” Greene told Fox. “Oftentimes, it takes a woman to put another woman in her place.”
Collectively, 1,761 people are planning to run for Congress, with 874 Republicans and 842 Democrats, according to Fox.
“It’s all about enthusiasm driven by the president, both negative and positive,” Sarah Bryner, research director at the Center for Responsive Politics told Fox, adding the Republicans “saw the Democrats do it last cycle. So they know that it is possible. They saw some seats picked off that I think shocked the party and the public. They want to get those back.”
