The campaign committee for House Republicans put Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop, chairman of the Appropriations panel that oversees USDA and FDA spending, on its list of Democratic targets for the 2022 midterm elections. “In a cycle like this, no Democrat is safe,” said Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, on Wednesday.
Bishop was elected to his 15th term in the House a year ago with 59 percent of the vote in his district in the southwestern quadrant of Georgia. The Georgia legislature convened on Wednesday for a session devoted to the reapportionment of districts. The congressional map proposed by the Republican majority in the state Senate would retain most of the current boundaries of Bishop’s district.
Emmer pointed to the victory of Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, by 3 percentage points for governor of Virginia as evidence of rising support for Republicans.
Bishop, a lawyer, is one of the most conservative members of the Congressional Black Caucus and among House Democrats in general. He is a member of the Blue Dog Caucus of conservative Democrats, has protected the military and farm interests in his district, and last faced a serious challenge in the 2010 election.
Overall, the GOP campaign committee has targeted one-third of House Democrats, including 14 of the 25 Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee. They are Annie Kuster of New Hampshire; Tom O’Halleran of Arizona; Josh Harder and Jim Costa of California; Jahana Hayes of Connecticut; Cindy Axne of Iowa; Cheri Bustos of Illinois; Angie Craig of Minnesota; Sean Patrick Maloney and Antonio Delgado of New York; Filemon Vela of Texas; Abigail Spanberger of Virginia; and Kim Schrier of Washington State. Bishop is a member of the Agriculture Committee as well as House Appropriations.
Vela and Bustos have announced they are not seeking re-election.