House Dems' campaign chair says her party's 'on offense' in 2026 battle to win back majority from GOP
With the early moves heating up in the 2026 battle for the House majority, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC) chair argues President Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate are "doing incredible damage to working families and to our country."
And with the GOP defending a razor-thin majority in the House in next year's midterm elections, Rep. Suzan DelBene, the DCCC chair, noted, "We only need three more seats."
"We have 35 districts in play across the country where we have opportunities," DelBene said in a Fox News Digital interview last week in the nation's capital, pointing to the Republican-held seats the DCCC is targeting.
"We are on offense. We are fighting for the American people and for the important issues they care about, and Democrats are united in doing that."
While the party in power after a presidential election — currently the GOP — typically faces political headwinds and loses House seats in the following midterms, the 2026 map appears to favor Republicans."The battlefield is really laying out to our advantage. There are 14 Democrats who won seats also carried by Donald Trump. There are only three Republicans in seats that were carried by [former Vice President] Kamala Harris. So, that tells me we're going to be on offense," Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) chair, told Fox News Digital at the start of the 2026 cycle.
DelBene countered that "the reason we have opportunities is because people are outraged, because they do want to see someone come into office who is going to fight for their communities and not just be blindly loyal to a president."
And pointing to the small bite House Democrats took out of the GOP's majority in the 2024 elections, she added that "those are the types of candidates that won in our districts last cycle. It's a reason we actually gained seats in 2024 and is absolutely the reason why we're going to take back the majority in 2026."
But Hudson noted he has a powerful ally as he works to keep control of the House.
"The president understands that he's got to keep the House majority in the midterm so that he has a four-year runway instead of a two-year runway to get his agenda enacted," Hudson said. "He's been extremely helpful to us, and we appreciate it."
And the Democrats are facing a polling dilemma because the party's ratings have been sinking to historic lows in a number of national surveys so far this year.
The Democrats' ratings in a Fox News poll stood at 41% favorable and 56% unfavorable in a survey conducted April 18-21.
That's an all-time low for the Democrats in Fox News polling. And for the first time in a decade, the party's standing was lower than that of the GOP, which stood at 44% favorable and 54% unfavorable.
The figures were reversed last summer, when Fox News last asked the party favorability question in one of its surveys.
But there is a silver lining for the Democrats.
The Fox News poll indicated that if the 2026 midterm elections were held today, 49% of voters would back a generic Democrat in their congressional district, with 42% supporting the generic Republican candidate.
The Democrats also have another problem — the possibility of primary challenges against longtime and older House lawmakers in safe blue districts.
Recently elected Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair David Hogg last month pledged to spend millions of dollars through his outside political group to support primary challenges against what he termed "asleep at the wheel" House Democrats who he argued have not been effective in pushing back against Trump.
The move by the 25-year-old Hogg, a survivor of the shooting seven years ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, to spend money against fellow Democrats ignited a firestorm within the party.
In response, DelBene said, "Democrats across the country are united in taking back the House."
Asked by Fox News if the move by Hogg would force the DCCC and allied super PACs to divert money and resources from competitive districts in order to defend incumbents in safe blue districts from primary challenges, DelBene responded, "I think everyone knows how important it is that we take back the House, and folks are focused in helping make sure that we do that in districts all across the country."
But the dispute is giving the GOP ammunition.
In response to the intra-Democratic Party feud, NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella argued, "No Democrat is safe. A political earthquake is underway, and the old guard is scrambling."
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