Optimistic Democrats add 8 more House seats to 'Red to Blue' program

Daniela Altimari, CQ-Roll Call on May 4, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The House Democratic campaign arm is adding eight more candidates in competitive districts – including several locked in messy primaries – to its list of contenders eligible for additional resources.

The “Red to Blue” program provides a glimpse into how the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee views the House battleground and the candidates the party believes will resonate with voters in the run-up to the midterm elections.

The committee released its initial list of a dozen challengers in February. The additions reflect Democrats’ rising optimism of flipping the House, emboldened by a political climate that appears increasingly inhospitable to Republicans, who are defending a razor-thin majority in the chamber.

“House Democrats have the momentum to take back the majority,’’ DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene of Washington said in a statement. “These latest additions to our Red to Blue program represent the strength of our people-first message and the broad appeal of our top-tier candidates.”

The DCCC’s expanded list represents a ramping up of involvement in Democratic primaries. The party committee is focused on flipping Republican-held swing seats and protecting vulnerable Democratic incumbents and has not historically gotten involved in primaries in safe blue districts.

DelBene told Axios in November that the committee has “in a small number of cases” played a role in primaries. In 2024, the DCCC included Oregon’s Janelle Bynum in its “Red to Blue” program, over a more progressive fellow Democrat, Jamie McLeod-Skinner. Bynum won the primary and ultimately defeated Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer that November.

The additions to this year’s program include former television journalist Marlene Galán-Woods, who’s making her second bid in Arizona’s open 1st District; physician and state Assembly Member Jasmeet Bains in California’s 22nd; and state Sen. Joe Baldacci in Maine’s 2nd. Each faces at least one Democratic primary opponent.

Two Pennsylvania Democrats were also added to the program: firefighter and union leader Bob Brooks, who is part of a crowded field of Democrats competing in the 7th District, and Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie in the 1st District.

Army veteran Jessica Killin in Colorado’s 5th District and a pair of Texans, Tejano singer Bobby Pulido in the 15th District and Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia in the 35th, round out the updated list. Pulido already won his party’s nomination in the March 3 primary, but Garcia will compete in a primary runoff against housing organizer Maureen Galindo at the end of the month.