Under normal circumstances, the New York Daily News Editorial Board assesses congressional races on a case-by-case basis.
While the board is loath to endorse immigration restrictionists, opponents of sane gun laws, foreign policy naifs or anyone whose economic policies run roughshod over the little guy, it applies no rigid partisan litmus tests.
Which is why, under normal circumstances, the board would stand by individuals previously supported whose performance merits re-election.
These are not normal circumstances. The executive branch in Washington is controlled by President Donald Trump, the legislative branch by an army of Republican enablers.
A Democratic House is necessary to check Trump’s excesses and provide oversight where it has been egregiously missing.
Trump, on a daily basis, bulldozes basic norms of governance and decency. He commingles his personal business and his public responsibilities. He smears foreign allies while promiscuously embracing authoritarian leaders.
GOP congressional leaders stay quiet, offer the mildest of critiques or encourage his worst instincts, happy to see him push their legislative agenda and nominate conservative judges.
Institutional oversight of this president and his administration has been next to nil. House Republicans, so exercised over the deaths of four officials in the Libyan embassy in 2012 that they oversaw eight separate committee investigations into the Obama administration and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, aren’t just silent in the face of a special counsel investigation into potential collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia; committee chairs actively work to smear the FBI.
Believing steadfastly in the need for a Democratic House leads the editorial board to withhold endorsements.
The urgent need now is to rein in Trump.
— New York Daily News