Pennsylvania Rep. Matt Cartwright, A Trump Country Democrat, Finds A Different Right-Wing Villain | EUROtoday

STROUDSBURG, Pa. — If you’ve listened to Democrats speak about immigration coverage this election cycle, you’ve undoubtedly heard them blame former President Donald Trump for killing a border safety deal negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators.

It’s the guts of Vice President Kamala Harris’ argument on the subject — and never with out good cause: The deal collapsed in February shortly after Trump got here out publicly towards it.

But not each Democrat is singing that tune. Embattled Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) doesn’t point out Trump in any respect when describing what occurred. He pins the blame as a substitute on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

“There were a bunch of bipartisan senators that were behind this, and all of a sudden, Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, said, ’Don’t bother bringing that to the House. It’s dead on arrival in the House,’” Cartwright stated in his Oct. 23 debate with Republican challenger Rob Bresnahan. “Imagine for us to be able to stop fighting over the border, and Mike Johnson didn’t want anything to do with it.”

In a quick interview after the early Veterans Day parade Sunday in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Cartwright cited Johnson’s insistence that Trump’s stress had not performed a task in his resolution to oppose the border safety deal.

“I am not privy to the firsthand discussion, but when Mike Johnson said, ‘No, it was my own idea,’ I’m going to take him at his word,” Cartwright instructed HuffPost.

There’s greater than somewhat reality in Cartwright’s evaluation. Even with out Trump’s opposition, Johnson would doubtless have confronted huge stress from his proper flank to not put a Senate border invoice up for a vote.

But for Cartwright, a trial lawyer who has represented northeastern Pennsylvania since 2013, there are additionally political causes to keep away from bringing Trump into the dialogue.

Cartwright represents a largely white, blue-collar stretch of Pennsylvania that has been drifting proper for years regardless of together with President Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton.

That makes him one thing of a Democratic Party unicorn. One of simply 5 Democrats within the House working for reelection in districts that Trump carried twice, Cartwright is the only member of the group to have been on the poll in such a district in each 2016 and 2020.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, one other longtime Democrat in that group, was solely drawn right into a district Trump would have gained forward of the 2022 race; the remaining three Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden (Maine), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) and Mary Peltola (Alaska) — have been all elected after the 2016 race.

What’s extra, not like the newer members of the Trump nation quintet, who’re all members of the centrist Blue Dog Caucus, Cartwright has refused to again away from his assist for “Medicare for All” and his membership within the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Cartwright has as a substitute discovered extra delicate methods to interrupt with Democratic Party leaders and domesticate assist from the Trump-voting majority, whereas nonetheless portray Bresnahan — and the Republican majority he may assist cement — as a risk to voters of all ideological stripes.

One of them is tying Bresnahan, the inheritor to a union electrical contracting firm, to Johnson, who has visited Cartwright’s district — Pennsylvania’s eighth — to lift cash for and marketing campaign with the GOP challenger.

In his opening assertion on the debate, Cartwright stated he has “always stuck my thumb in the eye of the huge corporations that are raising the costs for everybody by profiteering and gouging us again and again.”

“They don’t need anybody’s help,” he continued. “They don’t need my help. They’ve got Mike Johnson and his handpicked candidate.”

Whether Cartwright succeeds in nabbing one other time period may decide how Democrats working in pro-Trump districts pitch themselves to voters sooner or later.

His destiny stays unclear. The Cook Political Report charges the race a toss-up.

But if Cartwright falls brief, it gained’t be for lack of fabric offered by the gaffe-prone House speaker.

In addition to Johnson’s position within the demise of the bipartisan immigration invoice, Cartwright has singled out Johnson’s latest promise to attempt to undo the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. According to video obtained by NBC News, Johnson was talking about well being care reforms with supporters in an adjoining Pennsylvania district on Oct. 29, when an occasion attendee requested him, “No Obamacare?” Johnson replied by rolling his eyes whereas saying, “No Obamacare,” at the same time as he acknowledged dislodging the deeply embedded legislation would require “massive reforms.”

“The Johnson/Bresnahan plan to rip coverage away from northeastern Pennsylvanians is utterly consistent with their campaign mantra: Corporations over families,” Cartwright stated in a Wednesday assertion responding to the report.

Bresnahan’s marketing campaign instructed HuffPost he doesn’t wish to repeal the ACA and wouldn’t assist any change that “removes health care coverage from any constituent.”

Bresnahan has no coverage document to talk of, however he has spoken positively in regards to the Trump tax cuts, calling them “incredible.” His marketing campaign instructed HuffPost he would “not vote for any tax increase and will be focused on delivering additional tax relief to working class families before anyone else.”