When the National Republican Congressional Committee identified the 55 districts we are targeting to regain the majority, our mandate was to make the 2020 election a choice between socialism and freedom. Now that we are a quarter of the way through the 116th Congress, this choice is as clear as ever. But Republicans must ensure every voter understands what is at stake.

Put differently, socialism – the issue Republicans must use to win in 2020 – will become our Achilles heel if we fail to adequately answer why it is a bad deal for America. Otherwise, we risk falling into the same trap as the 2018 election cycle, where we tried and failed to make it a referendum on Nancy Pelosi.

On the surface, it made sense to make the 2018 election all about Pelosi. A large majority of our internal battleground polling found that she was (and still is) incredibly unpopular. The fatal mistake was failing to answer why Nancy Pelosi would matter to voters in a local race for Congress thousands of miles away. Why should a voter in Maine, suburban Illinois, upstate New York and other districts across the country care about a socialist from San Francisco becoming Speaker?

SANDERS EMBRACES DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM, CALLS FOR NEW DEAL REVIVAL IN CAMPAIGN ADDRESS

As Republicans found out, the answer was a collective shrug, and away went Republican control of the House. We cannot afford to make the same mistake again.

Now that Nancy Pelosi is Speaker, voters are seeing the dangerous policies set forth by the socialist Democrats on a daily basis. The new litmus test for being a Democrat is supporting whatever socialist policy their left-wing base has conjured up and Americans should be concerned.

At the core of the socialist Democrats’ ideas is a desire to expand government control. They want to replace the individual choice that has served as the foundation of America since we rejected British rule and force citizens to rely on the government as the only option.

Democrats want to expand the worst parts of ObamaCare and require everyone to suffer at the mercy of their socialized health care plan, Medicare-for-All, which will result in Medicare for none.

Poll after poll shows this to be a serious liability for the socialist Democrats -- but only if Republicans explain why it is a threat to voters’ daily lives.

Socialized health care, which will cost $32 trillion, will eliminate the free choice that Americans cherish and replace it with a one-size-fits-all government bureaucracy. It will take away private health insurance from millions of Americans, make it illegal for businesses to offer health care to their employees and leave folks waiting months for worse care at higher costs.

No one deserves to have a trip to the doctor’s office be worse than a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The same holds true for the $93 trillion Green New Deal, which is co-sponsored by more than a third of the socialist Democrats in the House.

Beyond its astronomical costs, which are estimated to saddle American households with a $600,000 tax bill, the socialist plan will impose government control over every aspect of folks’ lives and eliminate millions of jobs in a variety of different industries.

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Say goodbye to your good-paying job, having more than one car in your driveway, the home you live in and the food you eat. All of these decisions will be dictated by the socialist bureaucrats put in charge of enforcing the plan’s dangerous demands.

It truly is incredible that these two proposals, which will be an economic nightmare for middle-class Americans and are a direct threat to our individual freedoms, are the cornerstone of an increasingly socialist Democratic Party. But unless we make it clear to voters why these policies are a bad deal for them, we are at risk of losing even more Republican seats in 2020.