House Democrats are pouring money into three new congressional districts President Donald Trump won handily in 2024, pushing their party deeper into GOP territory in the final two weeks of 2026 cycle.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is adding TV reservations in Arizona’s 2nd District, Ohio’s 10th District and South Carolina’s 1st District — two of which Trump won by double digits last election.
The additional buys are part of the committee’s $16 million coordinated TV ad campaign this week, the details of which were shared first with The Washington Sun. The DCCC is now spending, in coordination with Democratic candidates, in 49 House districts, two-thirds of which are currently held by Republicans.
The DCCC’s expansion reflects the shifting battlefield for the House this month, as Democrats go further on offense while Republicans cut defensive spending to at least two of their members. Republicans, weighed down by high gas prices and an unpopular president, are lagging behind Democrats in public and private polling. Democrats average a high single-digit lead in polling on the generic ballot.
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Last week, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with GOP leadership, canceled its spending for Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Tom Kean Jr. (R-New Jersey). CLF also cut its efforts to take out a pair of Democratic incumbents representing districts Trump won in 2024, while retrenching cash into 16 Republican-held districts across the country.
In Arizona’s 2nd, where the DCCC is now spending, Rep. Eli Crane faces Jonathan Nez, the former Navajo Nation president, in a district Trump won by 15 percentage points two years ago. And in South Carolina’s 1st, Democrats are making a play for the seat left vacant by Rep. Nancy Mace, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor. Charleston County Council member Jenny Honeycutt, the GOP nominee for the seat, is facing Nancy Lacore, a retired Navy vice admiral, in a district Trump won by 13 percentage points.
In Ohio, where two hotly contested statewide races dominate spending, Democrats are now wading into Rep. Mike Turner’s race against Democrat Kristina Knickerbocker, a nurse and veteran. Trump won the seat by nearly 8 percentage points in 2024.
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