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. “They’re seeing prices go up, programs that they depend on being attacked, like Social Security and Medicaid. Folks who serve our communities losing their jobs.”
It’s a preview of the message she hopes will be salient in these districts. “It’s kitchen table issues: economy, cost of housing, of food, of childcare, of health care,” she said.
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.
DelBene noted that the committee is targeting several seats that swung from former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024, saying, “Those are all opportunities for us.”
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.
The DCCC chair, who also ran the Democratic campaign effort in 2024, also said she hopes to take advantage of GOP incumbents running for higher office, like Andy Barr in Kentucky’s 6th District, who is eyeing a run for Senate, or John James in Michigan’s 10th District, who announced Monday that he is running for governor.
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:
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Alaska’s At-large District: Nick Begich
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Arizona’s 1st: David Schweikert
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Arizona’s 6th: Juan Ciscomani
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California’s 22nd: David Valadao
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California’s 40th: Young Kim
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California’s 41st: Ken Calvert
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Colorado’s 8th: Gabe Evans
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Florida’s 7th: Cory Mills
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Florida’s 13th: Anna Paulina Luna
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Florida’s 27th: Maria Elvira Salazar
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Iowa’s 1st: Mariannette Miller-Meeks
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Iowa’s 2nd: Ashley Hinson
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Kentucky’s 6th: Andy Barr
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Michigan’s 4th: Bill Huizenga
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Michigan’s 7th: Tom Barrett
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Michigan’s 10th: John James
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Missouri’s 2nd: Ann Wagner
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Nebraska’s 2nd: Don Bacon
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New Jersey’s 7th: Tom Kean Jr.
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New York’s 17th: Mike Lawler
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Pennsylvania’s 1st: Brian Fitzpatrick
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Pennsylvania’s 7th: Ryan Mackenzie
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Pennsylvania’s 8th: Rob Bresnahan
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Pennsylvania’s 10th: Scott Perry
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Tennessee’s 5th: Andy Ogles
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Texas’ 15th: Monica De La Cruz
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Virginia’s 1st: Rob Wittman
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Virginia’s 2nd: Jen Kiggans
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Wisconsin’s 1st: Bryan Steil
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Wisconsin’s 3rd: Derrick Van Orden
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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