They Ran for Congress. They Lost. What Have They Learned?

Losing an election, almost overnight, you turn from someone who’s getting emails and calls every day to almost no one contacting you again. You have to just go back to being a voting citizen, and your opinion doesn’t matter as much as it did the day before. People who run for office need to accept that you can’t put yourself on a pedestal; you have to be a citizen. And I think that’s actually good. It’s humbling to lose an election.

D. Ryan Grover lost the Democratic primary in Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District.

I think some people look at political races and the mindset is to win at any cost, and I think that they forget the humanity of all of it. I know you’re supposed to be archenemies with the other candidates, but I was able to build a good rapport with some of the other guys that were running, and one of them became a friend.

Early on, several of us were exchanging phone numbers and contact information as we went to all these different events. Eventually, one of the candidates and I would call and text each other. And then in the final weeks of the campaign, there was a forum, and afterwards, we were just hanging around talking to voters and such, and he invited me to dinner with his mom. So we went out to dinner, the three of us, and just got to know one another a little bit and just kind of went from there.

At the end of the day, we’re all people, and we don’t have to be enemies just because we’re running against each other. I mean, be competitive and all of that, but it’s a person on the other side.

Micah Beebe lost the Republican primary in Missouri’s 5th Congressional District.

Twenty-six years ago, I was undocumented and did not speak a word of English. I don’t think I knew what Congress really was, and I don’t think I knew the first thing about who gets to run for Congress. When I declared my candidacy, I was 37. My children were 8, 6 and 3. Few people with my background or in my life stage with young children run for Congress at all. So I feel incredibly privileged to have pursued something that many peers don’t get to do.

My biggest fear, frankly, was that because I’m a naturalized American, I would potentially draw more attention to myself or to the Haitian community, and the outcome of that would be the opposite of what I’m trying to achieve — that they would try to denaturalize me or there would be even harsher treatment of Haitians.

Personally, for me, the worst did not materialize, but losing the election pales in comparison to what I know is happening to Haitians in America.

Ruth Fortune lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District.

I lost because President Trump endorsed my opponent, and I’m in a closed partisan primary in Louisiana, where the president has very high approval ratings. What he says matters a lot. You can boil it down to that. It didn’t feel good to lose. But on the other hand, I smile because they had to close the primary from an open primary to a closed partisan primary, and move the date to a time when people were not used to voting, and then separate out the congressional race.

Too often, I’m afraid that the political system asks the people to serve the politician. It should be we, the politicians, serving the people. There is a hunger, almost a desperation, for answers that will make the American people’s problems better. That’s why populism has a superficial appeal. If it itches, scratch it. But populism only goes so far. We actually need people who think deeply about our problems and work together to find the solution that addresses the issue for everybody, not just for a favorite political class.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his reelection bid in the Republican primary.

I really wanted to prove to the community that everyday people can run for office and win, and I wasn’t able to prove that. I was disappointed, but I wasn’t surprised. And a lot of it was not being able to get the backing of the establishment, to get the money we needed, and to get the unions behind me.

More people lose than win, so it would be silly to start a race, especially if you’re new in politics, and think, “I’ve got this in the bag.” We knew it was a David and Goliath type race for us. But still, it was crazy because it was one whole year of literal nonstop campaigning, and then one night, on June 9, it was over. It was a shocking experience in a lot of ways, seeing how much work you put into that and then all of it just ending.

Joy Hoover lost the Democratic primary in Nevada’s 1st Congressional District.

Donald Trump got reelected in 2024, and I just basically sat back and didn’t do anything about that. And it touched something off in me. You can’t just sit here and complain about a person that you feel has zero integrity and zero character and then do nothing.

I’m still a Republican. Should I affiliate differently? No, because Wyoming is Republican, and I haven’t changed. The Republican Party has been kind of infiltrated, and we’ve got to refocus the party back into more of a centrist type of approach. We’ve got to start somewhere, and so that’s why I decided to get into this race this year.

Jimmy Skovgard lost the Republican primary to represent Wyoming in the U.S. Senate.

Running for Congress is not something I’d ever do again. I had a lot of faith, but it’s all money. It’s just too much about the money and not about the issues or what you’ve done.

In any other job, you pick people based on their experience. This is the only job that’s not about you. It’s about your personality and how much money you raise. It has nothing to do with life experience and perspective and what you’ve learned. Crazy way to run a country.

Kathryn Dolter lost the Democratic primary in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.

I think the president pays attention to our district. I truly felt that I had the best chance to speak for us, and he recognized that by endorsing me. Maybe in the future, there’s another opportunity for someone like me to win or for my party to win. In a district that’s been held by the Democratic Party forever, I’d just like to see balance.

You knock on enough doors, you realize that everybody has the same frustrations, regardless of what their political ideology is. They might articulate it differently, but at the end of the day, most people aren’t saying, “Oh, I love America how it is right now. It’s perfect. I don’t want to change anything.” Everybody’s upset.

Amir Hassan lost the Republican primary in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District.

I think it’s important to talk about the things that were beyond my control. I had all of these things to contend with: age, unusual amount of money (many millions of dollars), lines redrawn, voters totally confused and, in the final analysis, a crypto industry that was determined to show others what can happen to you if you oppose them.

I continue to fight corruption. I have brought legitimate articles of impeachment against the president, and I will continue to fight him until my last day in office. I would also add that we have discovered that there are people on the Democratic side of the aisle who will vote with the president to keep the president from being impeached. We either have to hold the president accountable, or we’re going to be held accountable. And it’s disappointing that some people would not place “accountability” at the same level as “affordability,” especially when accountability means holding accountable the person who created the affordability crisis.

Rep. Al Green represents Texas’ 9th Congressional District. He lost this year’s Democratic primary runoff for Texas’ 18th Congressional District.

It was a calling for me to put my hat in the ring. A big part of my platform was faith, family and freedom. I am a Christian, and I was inspired by Charlie Kirk and his call to action. I really took that personally and decided to go forward with it.

I think our country is lost in a lot of ways. I think having God at the forefront is very stabilizing and positive. And so, for all of Charlie Kirk’s values and what he was doing, I wanted to carry the torch forward.

I don’t think I was shocked when I lost. Going into it, I definitely knew that was a possibility. I was really hoping that my party would see that I am what we need more of. The same old guard is not what the Republican Party needs. But until the public as a whole really gets behind that, and the people who are already in leadership get behind it, then it won’t change.

Ashley-Nicole Russell lost the Republican primary in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District.

I am disappointed with the Democratic Party’s lack of support for minority candidates. It was something that I experienced as a minority, female candidate myself. But once I lost my race, I was able to look at other races, and I saw how many other minority Democratic candidates out there were also not being supported by the party. That’s very disappointing to me. It doesn’t discourage me from running again, but it does make me more aware that I can’t depend on the party to support me, and I have to build up a support system outside of the party before I run.

Tamika Lyles lost the Democratic primary in Florida’s 16th Congressional District.

Republicans — and I would say to some degree Democrats as well — largely do not care about D.C. and the federal apparatus that exists there. Instead, they just want to experience a hyper-localized politics. They don’t care that your issue isn’t the land transfer between two counties, but they want to know that you understand that’s what’s going on. And if you’re going to pick one thing to talk about, they want you to talk about the local issue that they’re facing, even though you, as a federal candidate, don’t have jurisdiction over it.

David Giralt lost the Republican primary in Wyoming’s at-large congressional district.

There’s a mistrust of the Democratic establishment and its positions within this district that is actually causing Democrats in NY-17 to abandon the party to become independent, or to just not vote because they feel like it doesn’t matter. I feel like we won because we were able to engage these people and talk about things in a way that enabled constituents to feel heard. We’re just getting started in terms of being the obnoxious people in the room who are going to say the things that others in the Democratic Party would rather ignore.

Effie Phillips-Staley lost the Democratic primary in New York’s 17th Congressional District.

We definitely were outraised, but we sure as hell outorganized our opposition and reminded people that organizing and talking to voters is more of what this party requires. I’ve long been a progressive champion here at the state capitol. What I didn’t expect was for those policies I was running on — like advancing immigrant rights and wanting to expand economic opportunity and even tax billionaires — to resonate in small towns, in rural communities, parts of the state that oftentimes had been dismissed as Trump country.

I ran because I wanted to challenge the idea that centrism is the way to win elections and the way to build governing power. I am so damn proud of what we accomplished — coming within 6 points of defeating an incumbent while raising less than a million dollars.

Julie Gonzales lost the Democratic primary to represent Colorado in the U.S. Senate.

I have no regrets. I’m very glad that I did it. It was super interesting. It was very much an eye-opener. I have no intention of ever doing it again, but I can now cross it off my list.

My state, Idaho, is a very red state, one of the reddest in the nation, and I ran to the right of this guy — not to the right in a Trump populist way, but rather as a classical liberal, a libertarian essentially. And I thought that my state was really clamoring for a person coming from where I was, and they absolutely were not. And maybe it was that I didn’t get my name out there enough, but I think a lot of it was just that people, voters, Republican voters, were very happy with the status quo.

Perry Shumway lost the Republican primary in Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District.

This race has given me more motivation to run again, and it’s given me some training that I needed.

I hate saying this because I’m a Republican, but the current administration is hurting our economy in horrific ways, and it’s especially damaging to farmers and small businesses. And I live in Idaho, which is extremely red, so I was very surprised at how many people were not offended by the fact that I pointed to President Trump as an extremist and a problem, not just for the country, but for the party. I was expecting to get a lot more pushback from people calling me a “RINO” or accusing me of being a closet Democrat or some other slam. Instead, I was amazed at how many Republicans are tired of the far-right extreme of the Republican Party. I’m planning to run again in 2028.

Brian Keene lost the Republican primary in Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District.

Running for office makes me follow the money even more — looking into candidates’ FEC reports, looking at whether they’re taking corporate money or whether they’re taking AIPAC money. I certainly feel like a more informed voter now having seen how the sausage is made, so to speak.

I also saw, in the course of my 13 months running for Congress, how people, normal everyday people, are stepping up to serve their communities in a way that’s not about money. It’s not about notoriety. It is simply a calling to serve the community, and I think a lot of candidates could use that perspective of just wanting to be a public servant, as opposed to wanting to be a career politician. It definitely makes me have more compassion for lesser-known grassroots candidates.

Ericka Kopp lost the Democratic primary in Virginia’s 1st Congressional District.

There’s a lot I learned. I met a lot of people, and I chalked it up as a really good experience. Right now, I’m running for local city council, and because I ran for Congress earlier this year, I have a much better understanding of what to expect, have a much better platform, am better at raising money, and have a team of people helping me. Even though I did not advance in the congressional race, I still fostered a lot of friendships at the federal level and the state level, and even at the county level, that have benefited me in my city council race.

Paul Saulsbury lost the Republican primary in California’s 2nd Congressional District.

— All entries are as told to Anusha Mathur, assistant editor for Washington Sun Perspectives.