House Democrats lay out their targets for 2026 battle [View all]

Source: NBC News

April 8, 2025, 5:00 AM EDT / Updated April 8, 2025, 7:59 AM EDT


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.

“We only need three seats to take back the majority and they have a microscopic majority right now,” DCCC Chairwoman Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., told MSNBC’s “Way Too Early.” 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. “We’re on offense and Republicans are running scared — for good reason,” DelBene said, arguing that the “Trump-Musk” agenda is harming Americans.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/house-democrats-lay-targets-2026-battle-rcna200051