Democrats are aiming high in this year's midterm elections, with the party planning to increase its number of battleground races in the House to 101.
NBC News reported that Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, plans to tell his colleagues at the party's annual retreat Thursday about the new goal.
Democrats were previously looking at 94 House seats for the November elections. The new figure, according to NBC, is the highest in 10 years.
Republicans currently hold a 238-193 advantage in the House. There are four vacancies stemming from the retirement of three Republicans and one Democrat in recent months.
Former Vice President Joe Biden addressed Democrats at their conference on Wednesday, which was moved from Salisbury, Maryland to Capitol Hill because of the budget crisis that could result in a government shutdown Thursday night.
"We have a real opportunity to take back the House," Biden said, according to the Washington Examiner.
"Sometimes you just feel it and taste it. There's something out there if we don't miss this opportunity. … It's our job to remind the American people we're looking out for them. That requires us ... to remain united."
The party of the president typically loses seats in the midterm after the commander in chief's first inauguration. Coupled with the fact that Democrats are trying to closely align as many Republicans as possible with President Donald Trump, the GOP faces a tough challenge to maintain its majorities in the House and Senate.
Some have pointed to Democrat Doug Jones' victory in December's Alabama Senate special election as an indicator that the left will make a serious run at earning at least one of the majorities on Capitol Hill.
On the other hand, Scott Rasmussen argued this week that the GOP's tax reform legislation — which was signed into law in December — will give Republicans enough of a boost that their 2018 losses will be kept to a minimum.
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