House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leads a 232 to 197 Democratic majority in the House heading into the election. There are five current vacancies and one
Libertarian, former Republican, Justin Amash, R-Mich., who left the party in 2019 in a clash over his plan to vote to impeach President Trump.

Democrats hope to keep, and possibly expand their House majority in 2020 by riding a rush of anti-Trump sentiment surging in cities and suburbs across the country. Recent polls have prompted political analysts to shift a number of close House races in favor of Democrats, who have sustained a significant cash advantage this election cycle.

Republicans hope to win back some seats in 2020 by targeting the 30 Democrats representing districts where President Trump won in 2016. Of those seats, 22 are held by freshmen Democrats who were part of the 2018 midterm wave that swept Democrats into power in the House.

Five top targets for Republicans:

Colin Peterson, D-Minn. — Peterson is one of the most conservative House
Democrats and has often faced difficult political challenges. He is the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, a job that carries a lot of weight in his farm-heavy district. But the area has grown increasingly Republican, with President Trump winning 62 percent of the vote in 2016. Peterson has walked a fine line in attempt to fit his constituents. He voted against impeaching President Trump but has voted with Democrats on most major bills.

Xochitl Torres Small D-NM — It’s a 2018 rematch in New Mexico. Torres Small is again facing former state Rep. Yvette Herrell, who she narrowly defeated by less than 4,000 votes. Polling in this district is slim but President Trump won here by 10 points in 2016. Republicans have tried to tie Torres Small to more liberal Democrats and the Green New Deal.

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Fla. — Florida is always a major battleground in a presidential election and this swing-y Miami-area district may be one of the hottest contests in the state. Mucarsel-Powell defeated Republican Carlos Curbelo 2018, winning just 51 percent of the vote. Curbelo was a frequent Trump critic when he was in Congress but he could not outrun the Democratic wave. Mucarsel-Powell now faces Carlos Gimenez, the popular Republican mayor of Miami-Dade County. Mucarsel-Powell has a significant cash advantage but the area is awash with national political ads, making this race as much about broader trends as local issues.

Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y. — Brindisi is another freshman Democrat running for re-election in Trump country. This is also another rematch. Brindisi is facing former Rep. Claudia Tenney who he defeated in 2018 in a New York District went for Trump by 15 points in 2016. Trump remains popular here and his influence could help Tenney’s chances at regaining her seat.

TJ Cox, D-Calif. — It is a big year for rematches and Cox is one of them. He’s running against former Rep. GOP David Valadao, who he narrowly defeated in a dramatic race in 2018. Cox was part of a major push by Democrats in 2018 to take over a string of GOP-held districts in Southern California. Cox initially planned to challenge a different GOP House member, Jeff Denham, but switched to run against Valadao.

Valadao initially declared victory after the Associated Press called the race in his favor but Cox took the lead and eventually won several weeks later after mail-in-ballots were counted. Polling here is slim but Valadao led Cox in at least one early poll.

Five top targets for Democrats:

Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J. — Van Drew won this seat as a Democrat in 2018 only to switch parties in December 2019 in opposition to impeaching President Trump. Democrats think they can win again with the message that Van Drew put himself ahead of his constituents. His opponent Amy Kennedy, wife of former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, has been raising lots of money and recent polls show her ahead in the race.

Don Bacon, R-Nebraska — This is another rematch as Bacon faces Kara Eastman, a Democrat who he narrowly defeated in 2018. Eastman has benefitted from significant support from national Democrats and this district has been polling in favor of Joe Biden for President.

Mike Garcia, R-Calif. — Garcia won this seat in a special election in May to replace Democrat Katie Hill who resigned amid personal controversy last fall. Garcia won that special election but California Democrats are expected to show up in droves in this presidential year, particularly with California Sen. Kamala Harris on the ticket as Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate.

Open Seat in Va.5, — Once purple Virginia has been on a steady march towards Democrats for several years and many see this seat as a chance for them to solidify their hold on the state. Incumbent GOP Rep. Denver Riggleman lost his primary bid to conservative challenger Bob Good, an associate athletic director at the conservative religious school Liberty University. Good is facing Democrat Cameron Webb, a political newcomer and physician who served as a White House Fellow under both Presidents Obama and Trump.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters this week that a win for Democrats in this race, which could come from one of the states with an earlier poll closing time, is considered a sign of a potential blue wave in the country.

Open Seat in Texas 22 — Democrats have invested big in Texas this cycle and they hope to win seats in suburban areas, like this district outside of Houston. Democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni and Republican Troy Nehls are the top-polling candidates. Kulkarni has polled narrowly ahead and has been endorsed by by the Houston Chronicle and Joe Biden. A pick up here would give hope to the long-time dream for Democrats of turning Texas blue.

A federal judge has denied the Justice Department’s attempt to intervene on President Trump’s behalf in a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who alleges he sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s.

In her memoir published last year, writer E. Jean Carroll accused the president of raping her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store more than two decades ago.

Trump denied the allegations and accused her of lying to sell books.

Carroll then sued Trump last year in state court in New York for defamation, contending he harmed her reputation with his counterclaims.

That lawsuit proceeded normally until last month when the Justice Department took the unusual step of intervening in the case. It argued that Trump was acting within the scope of his official duties as president when he denied Carroll’s allegations.

The Justice Department argued that the federal government therefore should step in as the defendant in the case.

Judge rejects government position

In his 61-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected that request.

“The president of the United States is not an ’employee of the government’ within the meaning of the relevant statutes,” Kaplan wrote. “Even if he were such an ’employee,’ President Trump’s allegedly defamatory statements concerning Ms. Carroll would not have been within the scope of his employment.”

Kaplan wrote that Trump’s comments concerned an alleged sexual assault that predates his time in office, and the allegations against him “have no relationship to the official business of the United States.”

“To conclude otherwise would require the court to adopt a view that virtually everything the president does is within the public interest by virtue of his office,” Kaplan wrote. “The government has provided no support for that theory, and the court rejects it as too expansive.”

There was no immediate reaction from the White House, Carroll or the Justice Department.

The legal context

If the judge had allowed the U.S. to replace Trump as the defendant in the lawsuit, legal experts said it likely would have spelled the end of the case because the federal government can’t be sued for defamation.

Under the law, if a U.S. Postal Service worker causes a car accident while delivering the mail and is sued, the federal government can intervene. If the government certified that the postal worker was performing his or her official duties when the accident happened, then the federal government can step in and become the defendant in the lawsuit.

Attorney General William Barr and the Justice Department argued that the same principle applied in the Carroll case.

Barr had said he considered it “standard practice” that a federal employee being sued in this way would alert the Justice Department so that it could enter the matter, which the attorney general said was again appropriate in this case.

The attorney general’s critics, including House Democrats and some former Justice Department employees, have called him too sympathetic to Trump and too eager to deploy the department in ways that help the president politically.