Posted on Tuesday, March 18, 2025

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by Outside Contributor

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DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Twenty-six House Democrats have been deemed “vulnerable” in the 2026 midterm elections by the National Republican Congressional Committee, posing a prime opportunity for Republicans to expand their razor thin margin over Democrats in the House.

Five months after Republicans won a government trifecta in 2024, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee both released lists of at-risk Democrat seats. The lists are extremely similar, showing a growing consensus between parties that many Democrats might be in hot water in 2026.

The lists identify nine freshman lawmakers and 13 representing districts that President Donald Trump carried in the November election.

California hosts the most vulnerable Democrats, with Reps. Josh Harder, Adam Gray, George Whitesides, Derek Tran and Dave Min all viewed to be in danger of losing their seats, according to both the Republican and Democrat campaign committees. Gray, Whitesides and Tran all unseated GOP incumbents in November.

New York also has freshman Democrat lawmakers who flipped Republican seats in 2024, including Reps. Tom Suozzi—who won his seat in a Trump district—Laura Gillen and Josh Riley, who are all predicted to be at risk of losing their positions, the lists say.

In Nevada, where Democrats spent more than 100 times as much as Republicans in ad space, Democrat Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee, who won in a Trump district, were also included on the Republican and Democrat campaign committees list. Trump notably won the swing state 50.6% to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 47.5%.

States with large hispanic populations are also epicenters for shaky Democrat-held seats due to Republican gains with Latino voters, according to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Democrat Reps. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas as well as Nellie Pou of New Jersey are all a part of the GOP’s expanding offensive map for 2026. Each of the representatives won their seats in red Trump districts.

“House Republicans are in the majority and on offense,” said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson in the committee’s press release. “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.”

A recent poll by the Democrat group Navigator Research shows an alarming stance Independent voters have taken against Democrats, with just 27% believing Democrat leaders are focused on helping Americans, and only 37% believing party leaders have the right priorities. A majority of 56% think that Democrats are not looking out for working people, according to the poll.

The poll also found that 69% of Independent voters view the Democratic Party as “too focused on being politically correct,” while 51% of voters generally considered the party to be “elitist.”

Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, addressed these sentiments in a memo dated Feb. 18, in which he shared that Americans are increasingly perceiving the Democratic Party as “the party of elites.”

“For the first time in modern history, Americans now see the Republicans as the party of the working class and Democrats as the party of the elites,” Martin said in his memo. “I fundamentally believe that our party is grounded in the values, principles, and aspirations of the working class. As Chair of the DNC, that belief will guide my decisions and approach in the years ahead.”

Despite polling that suggests voters view the Democratic Party as of out-of-touch, Democrat Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, the leader of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, projected optimism for Democrats in 2026, arguing in a statement that her party should shift its focus to issues such as the cost of living, and straying from the “hyper partisan rhetoric.”

“House Democrats overperformed across the country in 2024, powered by our battle-tested candidates who won despite the NRCC’s false bravado and these Frontliners will win again in the midterms,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Viet Shelton told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The truth is House Republicans are running scared and refusing to hold town halls because they don’t want to get yelled at for their failure to lower prices, bungling the economy, and cutting Medicaid in order to pay for tax breaks for billionaires like Elon Musk.”

Democrats have recently struggled to establish a clear party leader as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both representing New York, were at odds over how to respond to the GOP-backed government funding bill. As multiple Democrat politicians ponder whether to run for president in 2028, Democrats appear to be staring down multiple vulnerable seats in the House, with no leader to push the party forward into midterms.

The National Republican Congressional Committee did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Andi Shae Napier.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.