The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff, Wire Reports

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 07:31 PM

New England Open U.S. House Seat Has Republicans Hoping For Sweep in 2018

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – On an early December evening, Eddie Edwards and Andy Sanborn were hard at work – each separately meeting and greeting Republican Party activists at a Rockingham County GOP holiday gathering.

Edwards, a Navy veteran and former local police chief, and Sanborn, one of the most conservative members of the New Hampshire state Senate, are the two Republican candidates running for the open U.S. House seat in the state’s First Congressional District.

The district, which stretches from Manchester east to the Seacoast and north to the White Mountains, is one of the highest-profile swing congressional districts in the country. It’s ping-ponged between Democratic and GOP control the past four elections.

It’s also one of only 12 Democrat-controlled districts won by Donald Trump in 2016. And it’s one of the few places where the GOP hopes to go on offense in 2018, as they mostly play defense to try and hold their majority in the U.S. House – which could explain the busy campaign schedule, a year out from the election.

“We are going to be working very hard” to turn the district from blue to red, New Hampshire GOP Chairwoman Jeanie Forrester told Fox News.

A potential pick-up here could be a key factor in whether the party can stave off the kind of Democratic takeover House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi envisions.