WASHINGTON — The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is launching its 2020 GOP Hall of Shame, a tool that will spotlight harmful stances and controversial statements that Republican candidates would prefer to sweep under the rug. The GOP Hall of Shame debuted to great success during last year’s campaign to flip the Virginia General Assembly, and now it’s going national.
“Democrats are on offense across the country this year,” said DLCC President Jessica Post. “We’re holding Republicans accountable for their disastrous records and long history of irresponsible statements. The GOP is counting on letting some of these members skate by without any scrutiny, but we’re doing everything in our power to make sure voters know the whole story when they head to the polls in November.”
The project exposes the records of Republicans like North Carolina Representative Larry Pittman, who infamously said that “Both Lincoln and Hitler were obviously bad guys;” Iowa Representative Bobby Kauffman who repeatedly pushed to make it harder to vote; and Texas Representative Jeff Leach, who opposed an amendment to allow doctors to give foster children vaccinations that are proven to prevent cancer.
The first slate of inductees in the GOP Hall of Shame includes Republican candidates in Texas, Iowa, and North Carolina, three of the top targets in the DLCC’s $50 million Flip Everything campaign this cycle. Republicans who find themselves in the first class of honorees include:
- Iowa: Representative Bobby Kaufmann (HD-73), Representative Jeff Shipley (HD-82), and Sen. Brad Zaun (SD-20).
- North Carolina: Representative John Szoka (HD-45), Representative Larry Pittman (HD-83), Senator Bob Steinburg (SD-1), Larry Norman (SD-18), and Senator Joyce Krawiec (SD-31).
- Texas: Representative Jeff Leach (HD-67) and Representative Morgan Meyer (HD-108).
The GOP Hall of Shame will be supported by digital spending on search ads, which will direct curious voters to Republicans’ unvarnished records.
Since Trump’s election, the DLCC has flipped over 450 seats and 10 chambers from red to blue, including a Trump-won district in Kentucky just last month. With less than four months until Election Day, Democrats have all the momentum and are poised to make gains across the country and at all levels of the ballot this November.
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