Mike Johnson asks Trump for more midterm money as Republicans seek to avert disaster in House races

By CNN Newsource

Published October 23, 2026 4:13 PM

By Sarah Ferris, David Wright, CNN

(CNN) — In the final sprint to the midterms, Speaker Mike Johnson went to President Donald Trump with a crucial ask, according to a person familiar with the exchange. Johnson’s message: Could Trump spare more cash to help House Republicans in this tough political climate?

He wasn’t the only one making the case: Donors and lawmakers themselves have also been pleading with Trump’s inner orbit for more resources in key races, according to multiple people familiar with the discussion. Within days of Johnson’s ask, which was first reported by Punchbowl News, Trump’s political war chest dumped nearly $30 million into dozens of House races in a final push to help a jittery Republican Party avert disaster next month.

But as political conditions have deteriorated for House Republicans in recent weeks, GOP campaign operatives have been forced to abandon places where they usually go on offense, as they focus instead on protecting dozens of unexpectedly imperiled incumbents in traditionally red turf like Arizona, Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin.

For weeks, top Republicans have dismissed what they saw as Democrats’ long-shot attempts to oust GOP lawmakers in reliably red seats, like Reps. Brad Finstad of Minnesota, Mike Turner of Ohio or Jeff Crank in Colorado. Others, like Reps. Mike Carey of Ohio or Eli Crane of Arizona, were hardly even on Democrats’ radar.

But with just over a week to go, multiple GOP operatives told CNN there is growing uncertainty about incumbents in unexpectedly competitive seats if the party base does not turn out – a factor that Republican leaders know will determine whether the Democrats can create a real blue wave.

“This is just a ‘batten down the hatches’ situation,” one GOP operative involved in House races told CNN, noting they have not seen an incumbent in a competitive district crack the 50% threshold in any recent internal polling.

The party is also shifting resources away from several seats that were redrawn to favor Republicans in the nationwide mid-decade partisan redistricting push. In the eleventh-hour, House GOP groups and their allies are pouring in millions to defend core incumbents in an attempt to hold onto a bulwark of traditionally red seats.

Surging anxiety among incumbents

GOP insiders have long feared the fate of their open seats — which have no incumbent – in places like Kentucky, Montana, Iowa and Arizona. Those places have trended toward Democrats in the last two weeks, operatives in both parties told CNN.

But now some Republicans are seeing signs of weakness in their incumbents’ polling — notably, a large chunk of undecided voters, who they fear could decide to sit out the election.

Johnson and his GOP campaign operation insist there is still a path to keeping their majority, and say they aren’t concerned about incumbents in those places that Trump won by double digits or more last cycle. But privately, party leaders are hearing an earful from rattled Republican lawmakers across the map who want more help from the national party in the final stretch, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.

In North Carolina, numerous incumbents — including the House GOP’s campaign chief — are making last-minute moves to turn out voters in a state where national Republicans already appear to have lost hope in former RNC chairman Michael Whatley’s Senate race. In Texas, Republicans worry about the downballot effects of Senate GOP nominee Ken Paxton, as well as signs of a Latino swing toward Democrats.

There is perhaps the most panic among Florida incumbents, according to multiple Republican operatives, where GOP groups are dumping millions to help members in typically safe seats and to shore up other seats their own party specifically redrew to weaken Democrats. Privately, many are already pointing the blame at Gov. Ron DeSantis for redrawing the map, fearing the move has become a massive waste of resources — and at worst, a political disaster.

“There needs to be backlash against DeSantis over his dummy-mander,” one Florida Republican operative told CNN this week.

CNN has reached out to DeSantis’ team for comment.

Democrats, meanwhile, have gained confidence from their polling over the last two weeks. Some in the party are now seriously talking privately about winning a majority of 230 or more — a pickup of at least 16 seats, numerous operatives told CNN. Party leaders are eyeing seats that seemed out of reach just weeks earlier, like that of famously resilient moderate GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania, who survived Democrats’ last blue wave in 2018.

Fitzpatrick is now one of Republicans’ biggest funding priorities in the final days: The GOP’s leading super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, has more than $3.5 million worth of ad time reserved for the race for the final two weeks through Election Day, according to data from AdImpact.

Abandoning most traditional GOP offensive targets

Even in this tough environment, Johnson and his campaign arm privately believe they can still flip a half-dozen Democrat-held seats. Nearly all are in blue states where Republicans believe voters are more likely to take out their anger on local Democrats — including their member of Congress — than Trump and the GOP.

Trump’s stockpile of campaign cash, which totaled more than $400 million entering September, has also become a crucial lifeline for the party. A pair of super PACs funded by his operation has poured more than $150 million into House races since the start of September, per AdImpact. And CLF, the leading super PAC, is projected to spend more than $200 million on ads this cycle. The party has ample cash reserves and donor support.

Republicans feel most confident about a pair of Democratic-held districts in Trump country — Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s in southern Washington state and an open seat in northern Maine. A seat in New Mexico that’s traded party control four times this decade also remains in contention.

Then there are the roughly dozen seats in North Carolina, Texas, Florida and Ohio where Republicans redrew boundaries to make it easier to oust Democrats. (Several Republicans told CNN that even on a bad night, they still believe they’ll pick up at least five seats: one each in North Carolina and Ohio, and two in Texas and Florida, on top of the redrawn seats in Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana.)

“The fact is, as evidenced by crisscrossing the country on behalf of candidates and raising over a half billion dollars, the Speaker fervently believes Republicans can and will hold the House majority,” a senior member of Johnson’s team told CNN.

But Republicans widely acknowledge that most of their traditional battleground targets are out of reach in such a treacherous cycle. And hundreds of millions in super PAC support is contending with an expanding map.

“The money needed to go somewhere else,” one GOP operative who works on House races said, describing the party’s retreat from typical offensive seats. “A mix of the environment and candidate quality moved them away.”

The Congressional Leadership Fund pulled out of seats like New York’s 3rd District, held by Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, while drawing down much of its ad bookings against freshman Democratic Rep. Adam Gray in California’s 13th District. He won by just 187 votes last cycle, but his district was also redrawn as part of state Democrats’ redistricting push to counter Republicans in Texas.

Republicans also pulled money out of a South Texas seat they’ve dreamed of flipping for decades and even redrew in partisan redistricting last year: Texas’ 28th District. Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar is facing his most serious general election contest from a celebrated GOP recruit, Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina. But after canceling $2 million in remaining ad time, CLF has less than $100,000 booked there for the final two weeks.

Even earlier, the group had abandoned two incumbents in battleground districts formerly at the top of both parties’ target lists: Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa, after spending more than $6 million there, and Tom Kean in New Jersey, having already invested $2 million.

Meanwhile, money is flowing to the defense of incumbents in deep red territory. One of the Trump super PACs is set to spend more than $2 million through Election Day defending Crane in Arizona’s 2nd District, which the president carried by 15 points in 2024.

Panic in the open seats

In the final weeks, top Republicans are most anxious about the huge number of open seats, a result of this cycle’s exodus of more than 40 GOP lawmakers from the House.

Ad bookings for the final weeks reflect that anxiety. CLF is spending $9 million on ads in Michigan’s 10th District, which Trump won by 6.5 points. Multiple GOP groups are moving millions to South Carolina’s 1st District, which Trump won by 13 points. And one of the president’s super PACs is spending more than $3 million in Montana’s 1st District, which he won by 10 points.

The same Trump-aligned group steered more funds into open seats like Texas’ 23rd District and Kentucky’s 6th, both of which Trump won by roughly 15 points.

Open seats in previously more competitive territory, like Arizona’s 1st and Nebraska’s 2nd Districts, are likely already gone for Republicans, as well as North Carolina’s 11th District, where party leaders had to pressure their incumbent to resign after an ethics scandal, according to multiple GOP operatives. No Going Back PAC, one of the Trump groups, exited that North Carolina race this week, cutting more than $1 million in planned ads after spending more than $4 million on the contest.

In Florida, top Republicans believe their jittery incumbents will ultimately survive. But some are nervous about one race in particular — an open seat in the Orlando area where scandal-plagued Rep. Cory Mills was ousted in a late summer primary.

“They should be nervous about this race,” Bale Dalton, the centrist Democrat running in the seat, told CNN this week. Dalton, a former NASA chief of staff and Navy captain, is battling former TV anchor Ryan Elijah, who only officially entered the race in August after the late primary.

There is some grumbling among Democrats, too, over where the money is going.

One Democratic operative — Phil Gardner, who is involved with the moderate Blue Dog Coalition’s political arm — told CNN he is furious that national Democrats have refused to spend for their endorsed candidate, Dalton, in Florida’s 7th District.

He complained Democrats have spent money to back an incumbent in a redrawn Florida seat that’s extremely difficult to win. (Other Democrats privately believe the 7th District is too difficult to flip, now that Mills is no longer their GOP opponent.)

“They are unwilling to make the tough but strategic decision to spend for Bale and admit that Darren Soto is not going to win… They are making a decision driven by caucus politics and not by the strategy of flipping the House,” Gardner said.

And perhaps no race better encapsulates the late scramble to move money around than Florida’s 25th District.

The district was also redrawn to favor Republicans earlier this year, but Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz remains in contention after weathering millions in attack ads.

On Monday, the Trump-aligned No Going Back PAC initially cut more than $2 million from its remaining bookings, briefly leaving it with no future ad time after spending more than $7 million on the contest.

But on Thursday, No Going Back PAC dramatically re-entered the contest, adding more than $6 million to its bookings over the final days of the midterms.

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