National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Cole has had a rough few months, his party having lost three straight special elections and lagging seriously behind in fundraising. But the Oklahoman is back on his proverbial horse, using the Fourth of July recess to hit the campaign trail on behalf of endangered Republican incumbents and promising challengers in the upper Midwest.

Cole was in Ohio yesterday, stumping in two suburban Columbus-based districts being left open by retiring Republicans. The NRCC chair stumped in the state's Seventh District, where State Senate Majority Whip Steve Austria is vying to replace Rep. David Hobson, and in the neighboring Fifteenth, where State Senator Steve Stivers wants to succeed Rep. Deborah Pryce.

Austria is considered the favorite in the race, while Stivers has a much steeper hill to climb. His Democratic foe, Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, came just more than 1,000 votes from beating Pryce in 2006, and Kilroy is raising good money again this year after hauling in $2.7 million last time around. Still, there are few candidates national Republicans are more excited about than Stivers, giving them reason to hope they can keep a seat that gave President Bush just a 2,200-vote majority in 2004.

Today, Cole is in Michigan to stump with endangered Rep. Tim Walberg in a district that encompasses Battle Creek and the Ann Arbor suburbs. Walberg's Seventh District is a top target for national Democrats, who have high hopes for State Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer (For more on the race, see Greg Bobrinskoy's write-up from last week).

Cole is headed to Minnesota on Wednesday and Thursday, where he will help Rep. Michele Bachmann keep her St. Cloud-based Sixth District seat. Bachmann beat an underwhelming Democratic challenger by eight points in 2006, but this year she will likely face former state Transportation Commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg, about whom Democrats feel much better.

Too, Cole is headed to the state's First District, along the southern border with Iowa and anchored in Rochester, to campaign on behalf of Mayo Clinic physician Brian Davis. Davis is not the party's nominee just yet, but he beat State Senator Dick Day at the party convention last month, and Cole will stump for him in his bid to replace Rep. Tim Walz, a Democrat. Walz won a surprising six-point victory in 2006 over Rep. Gil Gutknecht, and this year he's got a bank account that might scare off all but the richest contributors.

Republicans aren't the only ones hitting the trail this week. House Democratic Conference Chairman Rahm Emanuel, who engineered the party's takeover of Congress last cycle, is also stumping in Ohio, making stops in the First, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Districts there, all pickup opportunities for his party.

The Cincinnati-based First District will pit Republican incumbent Steve Chabot against State House Minority Whip Steve Driehaus in a district that re-elected Chabot by just four points in 2006. More than a quarter of the district's residents are black, meaning a big turnout in November for Barack Obama could help Driehaus come closer than 2006 candidate John Cranley did.

In the Fifteenth, Emanuel will stump for Kilroy just a day after Cole hit the district, bolstering Kilroy's case. Later, Emanuel will travel to the Canton-based Sixteenth, in the northern part of the state, to help out State Senator John Boccieri, who is running to replace retiring Republican Rep. Ralph Regula. Democrats have spent a lot of time bragging about Boccieri, who will face fellow State Senator Kirk Schuring in a district that gave President Bush 54% in 2006. In his final run for re-election, Regula won just 58% of the vote, his lowest total since 1972, against an opponent who did not spend enough money to qualify to file with the Federal Election Commission.

As Emanuel and Cole hit the trail, other House and Senate leaders will bounce around the country stumping for their candidates. Politics Nation will keep updates of who's on the trail and who's slacking off for the Fourth of July as the week goes on.