'Biggest return': House GOP plans to cut spending on races it can't salvage

WASHINGTON, DC: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said Republicans will cut spending from House races they cannot salvage and redirect resources toward districts offering the “biggest return.”

Emmer said the approach reverses the GOP’s 2022 decision to spread resources across too many races while chasing a “red wave.”

He made the comments to Axios, published Monday, October 5, while traveling between campaign stops, as he plans to visit 56 districts before midterm 2026 in November.

Tom Emmer says GOP learned from 2022 spending

“It really is a business, and you're looking at a balance sheet, and you're putting your money where you're gonna get your biggest return,” Emmer told Axios aboard a plane between campaign stops.

The strategy means Republicans must decide which races remain viable and which no longer justify additional resources, as per the outlet. 

Emmer said the party needs to identify “where you're not gonna be able to salvage this, and you've got to pick up something over there.”

Emmer said Republicans made the opposite choice in 2022, when expectations of a “red wave” pushed the party to broaden its battlefield.

“We expanded the map when we should have kept it narrow,” Emmer told donors in Charlotte. “We should have been conservative about what we were going after.”

The shift comes as Republicans face a difficult national environment, with an unpopular president and voters focused on the cost of living and the war in Iran, which is driving up gas prices, according to the outlet.

Statewide races are affecting House contests

Emmer pointed to statewide races as one reason some House contests are becoming harder for Republicans. 

Asked about Rep Max Miller’s increasingly difficult Ohio race, he pointed to Senate and gubernatorial contests where Democrats are performing better than expected.

“The problem is, when you got these statewide candidates that are not creating momentum, that's tough,” Emmer said.

He cited North Carolina’s Senate race, where Democrat Roy Cooper has opened a lead in polls, saying it is having a “large impact” on the 1st and 11th district races.

Emmer said Miller still has a path to victory, “but it's narrow.”

He also defended the National Republican Congressional Committee’s decision to spend money backing Miller.

Emmer said Republicans should give House members room to run campaigns suited to their districts, within limits.

He called Rep Maria Elvira Salazar’s campaign ad breaking with President Trump on immigration a “huge mistake,” saying, “I'm not sure why now was the time for that message.”

Salazar’s ad said Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts have “gone too far” and that Hispanic voters who helped elect him in 2024 “feel betrayed.” 

Emmer later walked back his criticism, saying Salazar “knows her district.”

Emmer backs GOP restraint on committee waivers

Separately, Emmer said he is “not a fan” of waivers allowing House Republicans to remain committee chairs beyond the party’s three-term limit.

“I’ve never liked waivers,” Emmer said in an interview at the GOP midterm convention in September. 

“I think it’s one of the things that helped the Republican majority stay more connected to Main Street,” he added.

Several chairs, including Agriculture’s GT Thompson and Armed Services’ Mike Rogers, have applied for waivers to continue leading their committees next Congress, as per Politico. 

Emmer said there are only “limited circumstances where it might make sense” to grant one, the outlet cited.

“I love our members who have been around for years and have institutional knowledge,” Emmer said. “But unlike Democrats, we have turnover on the Republican side.”