GOP sees 5 once-competitive House races as ‘all but lost’– www.dailykos.com

With 34 days until the midterms, Republican strategists see at least five U.S. House seats are a lost cause for their party as President Donald Trump’s abysmal approval rating threatens to drag the GOP into the political abyss.

Punchbowl News reported that Republicans are broadly resigned to losses in California’s 48th District, Iowa’s 1st District, Nebraska’s 2nd District, New Jersey’s 7th District, and Pennsylvania’s 7th District—all GOP-held seats that in a neutral environment would be highly competitive.

“Nearly every senior Republican and Democrat involved in 2026 believes these five R seats are all but lost,” Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman wrote in a post on X.

Three of those contests (CA-48, NE-02, and NJ-07) are currently rated as “Lean Democratic” races by the Cook Political Report, while Iowa’s 1st and Pennsylvania’s 7th are still in the “toss-up” category. Given that even Republicans say they are the underdogs in these seats, it suggests that the political handicapping organizations are slower to react to the electoral landscape and thus their current ratings may not reflect the true peril the GOP is in.

What’s more, Punchbowl reported that a handful of other districts are also close to being cooked. They include:

Punchbowl said these seats “are growing more difficult for Republicans but still within reach.” It’s why even the typically gun-shy race-rating groups have declared that it’s “almost impossible” for Republicans to keep control of the House.