Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, from left, speaks as Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, and Kirstjen Nielsen, U.S. secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), listen during a White House press briefing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018.

Thursday's surprise White House briefing on election security efforts featured an all-star cast of top administration officials. One by one, each official laid out what his or her agency was doing to defend the 2018 midterm elections against foreign interference of the kind that marred the 2016 presidential election

The timing was significant. It occurred during the last White House press briefing before President Donald Trump departed for vacation Thursday afternoon, making it the last big, unified messaging opportunity the administration would have until after Labor Day. Trump himself had instructed his national security team to "tell the American people all we are doing to protect our elections," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told NBC News.

The efforts that were outlined Thursday, such as stepped-up cooperation between the FBI and private social media companies, are the kinds of policies that should benefit voters.

But there is another group that stands to gain from Thursday's briefing: Republican members of Congress, especially the members seeking reelection in tough races, as they also leave Washington for their own August recesses this week.

After eight years of a Republican-controlled House, Democrats need to gain at least 23 seats in November to retake the lower chamber, and historical trends are in their favor..

To win back the House, Democrats are focused on flipping seats in Republican-leaning congressional districts, where independent and moderate GOP voters have soured on Trump. For Republicans defending seats in these crucial districts, the president is a topic they would likely rather avoid talking about.

On Capitol Hill, that can mean deftly hopping into an elevator when they see reporters approaching. But back home, where they will spend the next month campaigning, it won't be as easy.

During an election year, members of Congress often fill up their August recess calendars with town hall events and constituent meetings, and this year is no exception. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., plans to hold 12 town halls during the August recess.

And already, Republicans at some town halls are fielding tough questions about Trump and Russia from their constituents. At a town hall hosted by Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., on Wednesday, questions about special counsel Robert Mueller and about Russia dominated the evening.

Until Thursday, these lawmakers had few good answers to give their constituents about what was being done to protect U.S. elections.

Meanwhile, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll in July showed that two-thirds of Americans don't think Trump has been tough enough on Russia. And 70 percent of respondents said they believed Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. In another recent poll from Quinnipiac University, 51 percent of Americans said they believed the Russian government has compromising information on Trump.