Democrats Tie 2025 Project to House Republicans 100 Days Ahead of Election

WASHINGTON – House Democratic campaigns are scrambling to woo Republicans in swing districts to support the 2025 Project with 100 days to go before Election Day.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a memo Sunday morning, obtained by USA TODAY, accusing vulnerable House Republicans of “embracing the principles of (former President) Donald Trump and his radical Project 2025 agenda in the 118th Congress.”

“Their enthusiastic embrace of this policy will be the anchor the DCCC will use to sink the campaigns of faux-moderates who refuse to stand up to Trump and his radical agenda in the final sprint before Election Day,” the memo reads.

The 2025 Project is a sweeping, 900-page handbook of policy proposals developed by a coalition of more than 100 conservative groups led by the Heritage Foundation.

The memo criticized Republicans on several issues related to the 2025 Project, including taxes, reproductive rights, Medicare and Social Security, and an outline plan for executive branch reform.

The plan is backed by several Trump allies and former advisers. Its proposals reflect Trump’s past and present policies, but his campaign has long sought to distance itself from the plan.

During a July 20 rally in Michigan, Trump called Project 2025 “seriously extreme” and said he “knew nothing about it.”

Democrats have consistently linked Trump and other Republicans to the controversial plan as they seek to find a winning message as the election approaches. The memo is emblematic of that effort as Democrats hope to retake the House of Representatives, which is narrowly controlled by the GOP.

The memo named several vulnerable House Republicans, including Reps. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., Tom Kean Jr., R-J., Brandon Williams, R-Y., David Schweikert, R-Ariz., and Ken Calvert, R-Calif. These GOP lawmakers represent districts that President Joe Biden won in the 2020 election.

The memo mocks Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which significantly lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, and claims that “Project 2025 takes Trump’s tax scam one step further by significantly raising taxes on millions of working families.”

The document also attacks Republicans on reproductive rights, noting that Project 2025 calls the Dobbs decision “just the beginning.” In addition to abortion rights, the memo mentions GOP efforts to restrict access to mifepristone, the abortion pill, as well as in vitro fertilization.

The DCCC says that “under Project 2025, House Republicans would reshape the government to serve one man: Donald Trump,” pointing to the Heritage Foundation’s plan for a significant overhaul of the executive branch. The plan recommends restoring Appendix F, a Trump-era executive order (which Biden quickly repealed after taking office) that made it easier for the president to fire government officials and replace them with loyalists.

“While MAGA extremists wrote Project 2025 to portray their far-right fantasies, it is actually a roadmap for the DCCC to defeat House Republicans nationwide and regain the majority so that Hakeem Jeffries can become the next House Speaker,” the memo concludes.