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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), House Democrats’ campaign arm, on Wednesday announced it is adding 12 more Republican-held and leaning seats to its offensive target list — including seats held by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the chair of the DCCC’s GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The 12 new “Districts in Play” for the 2026 cycle bring the DCCC’s total number of offensive target seats to 58, nearly all of which have been rated as Solid Republican by the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper. President Trump won all of the new additions by double digits in 2024, though some of them saw Democrats performing well in previous cycles.
Democrats, though, are arguing that voter outrage at costs and the Iran war are giving them hope of flipping those seats.
“House Democrats are expanding the battlefield deep into Trump terrain because we have a winning message focused on fighting for an Affordable America,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement. “At the same time, MAGA Republicans who historically have considered themselves ‘safe’ have let down the people they were elected to represent, passing disastrous policies that are crushing working families and our communities. Democrats are going to win in November and make Hakeem Jeffries the next Speaker of the House.”
Those new additions include three Republican-held open seats, with no incumbent running: Rep. Mark Amoedi (R-Nev.) is retiring from Nevada’s rural northern 2nd Congressional District; Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) opted against reelection in New York’s upstate 21st District; former Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) resigned and ended his reelection bid for Texas’s 23rd District border seat, which is rated Likely R by Cook. The DCCC also put Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, a seat that is newly Republican as a result of partisan redistricting that is being vacated by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), on its pickup list.
In Colorado, the DCCC is targeting not only Boebert — who last cycle moved across the state to run in a safer GOP seat after only narrowly winning reelection in 2022 — but also Rep. Jeff Hurd, who represents the rural southwestern corner of the state.
Trump won North Carolina’s central 9th District held by Hudson, the NRCC chair, by 16 points in 2024 — but Democrats are encouraged by their nominee in the district, veteran Richard Ojeda, who when he ran for Congress in 2018 in West Virginia performed 20 points better than Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
Rounding out the list, Democrats are targeting Arkansas’s 2nd District, currently held by Rep. French Hill; Florida’s 12th District, held by Rep. Gus Bilirakis; Indiana’s 5th District, held by Rep. Victoria Spartz; Nebraska’s 1st District held by Rep. Mike Flood; and New York’s 1st District held by Rep. Nick LaLota.
The additions made for a wide offensive target list. The NRCC, by contrast, has 36 Democratic-held seats on its offensive target list — noting that there are 23 Democrats running in seats that Trump won in 2024, while just 8 Republicans hold seats that former Vice President Kamala Harris won.
The DCCC’s “Districts in Play” list is distinct from its “Red to Blue” list of what it sees as quality candidates running in offensive pickup opportunities. It added five more candidates to the “Red to Blue” list last week.
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