When the slim House Republican majority came into power this year, White House officials said they saw opportunities to work with Biden district Republicans – GOP lawmakers whose districts President Joe Biden carried in 2020.
But nearly four months into the new Congress – and with the debt ceiling showdown now barreling into full crisis mode – many of those Republicans say they’ve received minimal to no engagement from the White House. Other House Republicans with a track record of bipartisanship in the last Congress paint a similar picture.
While the White House’s Office of Legislative Affairs conducted initial outreach to many of those Biden district Republicans earlier this year, the White House has largely been content to tout the bipartisan wins of the previous Congress and use the current class of House Republicans as a foil for the president.
Ahead of the new session in January, administration officials told CNN that the unique political incentives and pressures those Biden district Republicans would face could translate into policy alignment and bipartisan legislation.
At the time, White House aides discussed a series of carrots and sticks they could use with those 18 Biden district Republicans to forge compromise or, perhaps more importantly, peel off moderate Republicans to sink the prospects of GOP leadership initiatives.
The carrots – social invitations to the White House, Air Force One rides and Oval Office sit-downs – have been sparse to non-existent. Meanwhile, the sticks have abounded in recent days as the White House, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and outside progressive groups begin to hammer those swing-district Republicans for supporting the House Republican bill to slash spending while raising the debt ceiling into next year. Several outside groups have already launched ad campaigns targeting…
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