Republicans target Ohio, Michigan Dem-held House seats Trump won in 2024

EXCLUSIVE: From Toledo to Flint, Republicans are targeting two Democratic-held congressional seats in the industrial Midwest that President Donald Trump won last year.

With a razor-thin 219-212 majority in the U.S. House, Republicans are eyeing crossover districts – the 13 congressional districts where Trump won at the top of the ticket, but Democrats held on down-ballot.

Top of mind for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections is Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, held by the longest-serving woman in Congress, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, and Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, represented by freshman Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet.

Freshman GOP Rep. Brian Jack of Georgia, Trump’s former political director who is now leading candidate recruitment for House Republicans as deputy chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), visited those crossover districts this week.

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In a phone interview with Fox News Digital from Toledo, Ohio, while “looking out on the Maumee River,” Jack said Kaptur and McDonald Rivet are out of step with the constituents they represent. 

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“Kaptur has represented Toledo for 42 years, which is longer than some of our candidates have been alive,” Jack said. 

Jack described how Kaptur has seen a “significant decline in her vote percentages.” In 2016, Kaptur won with 68% of the vote. Last year, in 2024, the Democratic congresswoman received just 48% of the vote. 

“I believe that’s because, over the past seven, eight years, voters have become familiar with her posture toward President Trump,” Jack said. “President Trump carried this district with 53%, a clear majority, and yet she still voted twice to subvert the will of her voters, by voting to twice impeach President Trump and remove him from office against the will her own constituents.”

While Kaptur remains in line with the Democratic Party on key issues, like rejecting Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” his marquee legislation – which includes tax cuts, green energy reform and border security – Ohio has shifted red in recent election cycles. 

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio,…