Democrats are riding momentum from this month’s off-cycle elections into an eight-figure spend to expand their base in the midterm elections next year.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced the planned investment into engaging voters of color and rural voters Tuesday, a sign that national Democrats see an opening to combat Republicans’ 2024 gains with both groups.
“As House Republicans are raising costs, ripping away people’s health care, and standing idly by while their party strips voting power from communities of color in order to rig the midterms, and in the face of reckless tariffs and attacks on Medicaid that are hurting rural communities, this program will help ensure our message of lowering costs and protecting affordable health care breaks through with these key voting blocs,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), chair of the DCCC, said in a statement.
She was referring to Republicans’ efforts to redraw congressional maps ahead of 2026 in their favor, which Democrats see as a ploy to rig the election.
The new program, called “Our Power, Our Country,” will focus on battleground House districts by hiring staffers to organize for Democratic candidates, buying ads and mobilizing voters.
Earlier this month, Democrats saw marked improvements in off-cycle elections among rural voters and Latinos, two groups that swung to the right in 2024. In Virginia, Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger made a targeted effort to court voters in the state’s deep-red rural counties, focusing on affordability and slamming President Donald Trump’s tariff policy. And in New Jersey, Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill honed in on a cost-of-living message in the state’s predominantly Latino precincts.
Both strategies worked: Spanberger outperformed previous Democratic candidates among rural voters by a wide margin, and Sherrill erased Trump’s 2024 gains in Latino-plurality areas.
National Democrats see both races as proof of potential expansion opportunity, heading into a cycle that will determine control over Congress for Trump’s final two years in office. In a statement, DCCC national political director Brooke Butler said the new rural engagement program “sends a strong message that we’re leaving no voter behind and no stone unturned in our efforts to flip the House majority.”
