House Democrats lay out their targets for 2026 battle

April 8, 2025

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House Democrats are setting their sights on some districts President Donald Trump won handily in November as they lay out their top targets as they look to take back the House next year.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Tuesday that it is targeting 35 Republican-held House seats, noting that recent gains in special elections have suggested a midterm election environment that will not be kind to Republicans. The committee is also launching a program to raise money for its eventual nominees.

Democrats need a net gain of three seats next year to take control of the House (they hold 213 seats, with two vacancies in solidly Democratic districts). The president’s party also typically loses seats in midterm elections, shedding an average of 20 House seats in presidents’ second terms, according to data from the University of California-Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project.

But just three Republican incumbents — Nebraska’s Don Bacon, New York’s Mike Lawler and Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick — represent districts former Vice President Kamala Harris carried in last year’s presidential election.

All three are on the DCCC’s target list, along with familiar battleground incumbents whom the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates as being in “tossup” contests, including Bacon, Iowa’s Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry and Ryan McKenzie, Colorado’s Gabe Evans, Michigan’s Tom Barrett and Arizona’s David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani.

“House Republicans are running scared, and they should be,” DCCC Chairwoman Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said in a statement. “They’re tanking the economy, gutting Medicaid, abandoning our veterans, and making everything more expensive. In short, they’ve lost the trust of their constituents, and it’s going to cost them the majority.”

The target list also stretches into districts that Trump won by wider margins, including at least 10 that he carried by double digits, according to analysis from NBC News’ Decision Desk.

Some of those districts have recent histories of Democratic representation despite their red tint at the presidential level, including Alaska’s at-large seat, which GOP Rep. Nick Begich flipped last year, and Iowa’s 2nd District, which GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson has represented since 2021.

Other Republican-leaning seats may not look promising on paper, at least according to recent election results, but the incumbents have faced negative headlines.

They include GOP Rep. Cory Mills in Florida’s 7th District, a seat Trump carried by nearly 13 points. Mills is being investigated over allegations of an assault (he has denied any wrongdoing). Democrats are also targeting GOP Rep. Andy Ogles in Tennessee’s 5th District, which Trump carried by nearly 18 points. Ogles, a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, did face a well-funded primary challenger last year amid allegations that he embellished his résumé, but he won with Trump’s endorsement.

And the DCCC’s list also includes some redder seats held by Republicans eyeing higher office, with the prospect of open-seat races’ potentially being more competitive. They include Michigan’s 10th District, where GOP Rep. John James announced Monday that he is running for governor, and Kentucky’s 6th District, with GOP Rep. Andy Barr looking at a run for the Senate.

While Democrats are considering the prospect of gains next year, they are also defending a slew of seats that Trump carried in November, and the DCCC recently named 26 members of the committee’s Frontline program for incumbents facing tough races.

The House GOP’s campaign arm announced last month that it was targeting 26 Democratic-held seats, most of them Frontline members, as the GOP looks to hang on to its narrow majority.

“House Republicans are in the majority and on offense,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said in a statement at the time. “Meanwhile, vulnerable House Democrats have been hard at work demonstrating they are painfully out of touch with hardworking Americans. Republicans are taking the fight straight to these House Democrats in their districts, and we will unseat them next fall.”

Below is the full list of DCCC targets: