F. Scott Fitzerald famously wrote that "there are no second acts in American lives." But members of Congress have been trying to defy that belief for years, by winning back a seat they once held but lost — or occasionally even trying again in an entirely different state. The "re-run" phenomenon in congressional politics is nothing new. After all, if you lose a close race in a bad cycle for your party, it's possible that you may fare better in a different election year, and incumbents already have built-in advantages (and baggage too though). So it's not surprising that 2020 finds nearly 20 former Republican members thinking about running for seats they lost or left. Perhaps most notably, two of those are eyeing races in completely different states than those they once represented — former Illinois Rep. Bobby Schilling is expected to run in IA-02, just across the river from his old Quad Cities district, while former Florida Rep. Allen West is mulling a run in TX-32 in the Dallas suburbs. I had Cook Political Report interns Tom Rollins and
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