Despite Being a Top Target, Democrats Can’t Even Recruit a Candidate to Run Against Congressman Devin Nunes

Devin Nunes (CA-22) is a top target for Democrats at the DCCC and locally in California. They have a big problem to sort out first though: no one has filed to run, yet.

In January of this year, the DCCC released a strategy memo detailing thirty-three seats, including Nunes’s district, that they are targeting in 2020. The memo said Democrats were “gearing up for an aggressive effort to fortify and expand” their House majority.

With the recruiting troubles in California’s 22nd district so far, that “aggressive effort” is off to a very slow start.

According to a McClatchy report, Nunes’s district brings with it expensive advertising rates and not having a candidate actively fundraising to this point is a serious disadvantage for Democrats. Nunes has $1.2 million in his campaign war chest, with more than $1.1 million raised in the first quarter of 2019.

Adding to the Democrats’ woes is that two of the candidates who ran against Devin Nunes in 2018 have already ruled out another challenge, with one candidate seeking another political office.