PETE OLSON

Voter arrive to cast their ballots at the Moody Park Community Center polling station in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Sharon Steinmann | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesTo find the forces fueling Democrats' dream of a blue Texas in 2020, the Houston suburbs offer a good start. Texas' 22nd District is one of the most racially diverse congressional seats in the country. Nehls, 52, is a well known and generally liked local official who has twice won election in Fort Bend County, where most of the district's voters live. Efforts to limit H1-B visas for high-skilled employees, which workers from India disproportionately claim, "have not gone over well" among the district's Asian American voters, Jones said.

Democrats boast an ever-expanding target list that includes a half-dozen Republican seats in Texas plus others outside Atlanta, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Phoenix. The tale of two districts 1,600 miles apart spotlights that many pivotal House races hinge on suburban voters. We're still on offense, said Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., who leads House Democrats' campaign organization. Since January 2019, all 29 Democrats in House districts Trump carried in 2016 have banked more money than their GOP challengers, usually by multiples. The same is true for all but two of the 24 other Democrats in seats Republicans said they'd pursue aggressively this year.

Ohio Representative Mike Turner called Trumps words racist. Another four Ohio Republicans joined Turner in condemning the tweets. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, while refraining from directly criticizing Trump, said on Tuesday that public debate should be about ideas, not personal attacks. Of the nearly one dozen Republican senators who criticized Trumps remarks, only three face serious re-election challenges. Slideshow (3 Images)But Senate Republicans in swing states may find that a little bit of independence from Trump helps, Conant noted. Every member has their own calculus and certainly some of them are taking a principled position, regardless of the politics, Conant said.