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Cook Political Report moves 20 districts toward Dems after ObamaCare repeal vote

by Nikita Vladimirov - 05/05/17 9:47 AM ET

A top nonpartisan election analyst says Thursday’s House GOP vote to repeal and replace ObamaCare hurts the reelection chances of a number of House Republicans next year.

The Cook Political Report on Friday shifted its forecast for 20 GOP-incumbent or open districts to categories less favorable for Republicans.

{mosads}”Republicans’ 217-213 passage of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) on Thursday guarantees Democrats will have at least one major on-the-record vote to exploit in the next elections,” the Report wrote.

“Not only did dozens of Republicans in marginal districts just hitch their names to an unpopular piece of legislation, Democrats just received another valuable candidate recruitment tool.”

The newsletter’s new forecast reveals a considerably weaker GOP grip on a number of upcoming races, including three districts that went from leaning Republican to toss-up.

RATINGS CHANGE ALERT: Following the ACHA vote, we shifted our ratings in 20 districts: https://t.co/kLfzGzGuyd pic.twitter.com/UmghzE7IA7

— CookPoliticalReport (@CookPolitical) May 5, 2017

The analyst moved three seats from lean Republican to toss-up, 11 from likely Republican to lean, and six from solid Republican to likely.

The Cook Report said one of the main factors behind the change is the unpopularity of the AHCA.

“House Republicans’ willingness to spend political capital on a proposal that garnered the support of just 17 percent of the public in a March Quinnipiac poll is consistent with past scenarios that have generated a midterm wave,” the newsletter said.

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