And while other national-security-minded Democrats, like Reps. Andy Kim and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, have been lured into safer districts, an election wave for Republicans could also threaten some of those seats.
Additionally, a Republican takeover of the House would put the party in charge of important oversight committees, such as the Intelligence Panel, a platform used by Democrats under Rep. Adam Schiff of California to investigate the Trump administration. These investigations made headlines, harmed the president politically, and ultimately contributed to his first impeachment.
If Republicans take control of the House, even Democrats who survive the election will find themselves relatively powerless to steer the country’s foreign policy, forced to play defense as their opponents control the agenda in the House and within of each committee.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Minority Leader, has previously promised to open investigations into the Biden administration in retaliation for what Democrats did during the Trump years.
It is not an empty threat.
Under President Barack Obama, Republicans seized on the administration’s handling of the 2012 attack on US diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, to damage the future political prospects of two top Democratic leaders: Secretary of State state Hillary Clinton, who went on to run for president in 2016, and Susan Rice, who served as a United Nations ambassador and national security adviser. Rice’s appearances on Sunday talk shows discussing the Benghazi attack have hampered her chances of succeeding Clinton and may have helped scuttle her chance to become Biden’s running mate in 2020.
Highly politicized oversight of foreign policy is also known to boost political careers.
One of the leaders of the Benghazi watchdog campaign, Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas, released a report that went beyond his fellow Republicans’ criticisms of the Obama administration. His prominence on the matter caught the attention of Trump, who appointed him director of the CIA and later secretary of state. Pompeo, a vocal critic of Biden’s foreign policy, is now widely seen as eyeing a presidential bid in 2024.