The Hill News

The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee pushed back Wednesday against Democrats’ response to the GOP win by Bob Turner in New York’s special election.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said on ABC’s “Topline” that he agreed with the major Democratic talking point that ordinarily, a special election would not be considered a referendum on an en! tire party “unless the president of the United States is involved, and you put your entire playbook behind” the campaign. “They came after us on Medicare. They came after us on the president’s agenda. ... That is a national implication.”

Sessions pointed to Obama’s low approval rate and said that voters in New York’s district 9 registered disapproval in the election on issues that are also included in Obama’s platform.

“It was [Obama’s] policies that came into focus and scrutiny and play. That’s why we won both these races, and we won them big,” ! he said, referring to the Nevada race to fill Sen. Dean Heller’s (R) former House seat, in which Republican candidate Mark Amodei also won Tuesday.

Sessions also claimed a victory on the GOP message on Medicare in the New York campaign, which he said voters now understand better than ever.

“When you can take a district that has not elected Republicans since the 1920s, it means that we can get great candidates ... and be competitive,” he said. “We will be on offense to go pick up seats all across this country.”