The Cook Political Report ranks 187 House seats as ‘solid Republican.’ In other words, there are 248 seats they think Democrats would win before they won any of the seats on that list.

And that’s why what we found in a recent poll of NY-1, one of those 187 seats, should be so scary to Republicans.

We found the GOP incumbent Nick LaLota leading his Democratic opponent Chris Gallant only 41-38. And only 32% of his constituents approve of the job LaLota is doing to 35% who disapprove.

A 32% approval rating. 41% for re-election. Only a 3 point lead against his Democratic opponent who doesn’t have much name recognition yet. And this is in a ‘solid’ Republican district? That really shows how much trouble the GOP is in in the other 248 districts.

And it shows how important it is for Democrats to compete in as many districts as possible this year.

They might not win all the reach districts but they will siphon off Republican resources having to defend them- and certainly in 2018 Democrats did outright win in some places that were seen as solidly Republican at the beginning of the year. It will happen again this year.

There are a lot more NY-1’s out there at the statewide, Congressional, and legislative levels- places where conventional wisdom might say Democrats don’t have a chance but the current political climate says they do. We need to make sure we don’t leave any of those stones unturned.