The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House races to watch on election night
WASHINGTON — The path to power in the House runs through a few dozen districts in Tuesday’s election, with Republicans defending their majority and Democrats looking to gain 23 seats they would need to win control.
Some races to watch for those keeping score:
Kentucky
The ruby-red state known for the Derby and sweet bour- bon is hosting one of the most competitive and expensive races in the country. The Lexington-area battle pits thirdterm Republican Rep. Andy Barr against Democrat Amy McGrath, a retired Marine fighter pilot. Trump won the 6th District by more than 15 percentage points in 2016. But with the help of carefully shaped campaign ads that went viral, McGrath holds the edge on campaign fund- raising.
Virginia
Rep. Dave Brat won his seat after upsetting House Major- ity Leader Eric Cantor in the 2014 Republican primary. Now it’s Brat’s turn to fight for re-election to the Richmond-area district against Democrat Abigail Span- berger, a former CIA officer who is one of a record number of women running for Congress this year.
North Carolina
North Carolina’s 9th District became a key election bellwether when the Rev. Mark Harris narrowly ousted three-term Rep. Robert Pittenger in the GOP primary, giving Democrats a wider opening in solidly red territory. Democrats answered with Dan McCready, an Iraq War veteran, solar energy company founder and Harvard Business School graduate. Trump won the district by 12 points and a Democrat hasn’t been elected to represent it since John F. Kennedy was president.
Florida
National Republicans and Democrats are pouring major resources into the Miami-area 27th District seat, held since 1989 by retiring Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. The Democratic nominee, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, has ramped up her Spanish-lan- guage ads and Hillary Clinton campaigned for her. But she’s facing a stiff challenge from Republican opponent Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban-Amer- ican and former broadcast journalist who, unlike Shalala, speaks Spanish.
Kansas
Trump and House Demo- cratic Leader Nancy Pelosi loom large over a race in Northeastern Kansas. That’s where Democrat Paul Davis, the former state House minority leader, and Repub- lican Steve Watkins, an Army veteran and engineer, are battling for the seat vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. Lynn Jenkins. Davis has said he would not support Pelosi for speaker if Democrats win the House.
Iowa
One Iowa race offers a test of whether a Trump-style advocate for immigration limits can win.
Republican Rep. Steve King is keeping a low profile in his bid for a ninth House term, his success suddenly in question after he was engulfed in controversy for his support of white nationalists. But Democrats, already hoping to flip twoother seats among Iowa’s four-person delegation, have a tough road to success in the 4th District that voted for Trump by 27 percentage points.
Washington state
Southwest Washington’s 3rd District offers a test of whether the tea party-driven GOP House takeover in 2010 survives. Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, first elected that year and twice re-elected with more than 60 percent of the vote, has been out-raised in campaign funding by Democrat Carolyn Long.