Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here.
“Law and order” themes have been a staple of Republican politics since Richard Nixon introduced the term during the tumultuous presidential campaign of 1968.
The 2026 midterms are no different, with Republicans already campaigning on the issue. “Radical House Democrats will always side with their soft-on-crime, far-left base over safer communities,” Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement after House votes on GOP-led measures to address crime in Washington, D.C.
As our colleague Justin Papp reports, the House on Tuesday advanced legislation making it easier to impose stricter penalties on youth offenders, one of several bills that are part of a broader crackdown on the city.
While the majority of Democrats objected, saying such a move would infringe on the District of Columbia’s right to self-govern, several Democrats in battleground districts backed the effort.
“I strongly believe in D.C. statehood and home rule, and I oppose President Trump’s unlawful overreach in D.C.,” said Rep. Dave Min, who represents a competitive Southern California district. “At the same time, I take violent crime seriously.”
Min was one of eight Democrats who voted in favor of the measure, which would lower the age in D.C. at which a minor can be tried as an adult to 14 in certain cases.
The legislation is part of a larger focus by Republicans on crime. President Donald Trump has long been pushing for a comprehensive crime bill, declaring on his Truth Social platform in late August that “it’s what our Country [needs], and NOW!”
Semafor reports that Republicans in the House and Senate are talking about comprehensive legislation that goes beyond the District’s borders.
Polls seem to support the GOP’s decision to emphasize the issue: Two-thirds of voters think crime is a major problem overall, and even nearly 70 percent of Democrats think it’s a major problem in cities, according to a recent AP-NORC survey.
Of course, there may be another reason why Republicans are leaning in on crime in advance of the midterms: growing disapproval of Trump’s handling of the economy, as several recent surveys have shown.
Starting gate
Turning point: Many young conservatives view the assassination of Charlie Kirk as an inflection point and predict it will propel a new generation toward political activism, including running for office.
#MESEN: The Democratic primary for Maine’s Senate race includes several political newcomers who argue that voters are looking for a new type of candidate to challenge longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins. On Thursday, Democrat Daira Smith-Rodriguez, an Air Force civilian contracting officer, became the latest entrant into the race.
Going for a hat trick: Tim Walz will run for a third term as governor of Minnesota, the former Democratic VP nominee announced this week. He’ll need to select a new running mate, with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan running for Senate.
Targeting Texas: The NRCC added three Texas districts to its 2026 target list after the GOP-led state Legislature approved a new congressional map for next year’s elections. The three districts — in the Houston, Dallas and Austin areas — have all been redrawn in Republicans’ favor.
Also in Texas: Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, a former chair of both the Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees, will not seek reelection next year, opening up a safe Republican seat that stretches from North Austin to suburban Houston. Read more from Roll Call’s Jessica Wehrman and Rachel Oswald.
#CO08: Democratic former Rep. Yadira Caraveo dropped her comeback bid for Colorado’s battleground 8th District, saying she “faced very strong resistance to my candidacy this cycle due almost entirely to the stigmatization of mental health in America.”
Missouri map: The GOP-controlled Missouri legislature last week sent a new congressional map to Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, who is expected to sign the legislation. The redrawn map would divide the 5th District currently held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, creating a new Republican-leaning seat.
Opinion: Former Roll Call Editor-in-Chief Christina Bellantoni writes that Prop 50, California’s redistricting ballot referendum, is something of a “proxy battle” between Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
RIP: Former Ohio Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, the first Arab American woman in Congress and a political casualty of the 1992 House banking scandal, died Saturday at the age of 85. As Jessica reports, Oakar, who represented the Cleveland area for eight terms beginning in 1976, championed women’s rights and also served in House Democratic leadership.
Redford remembered: Actor and director Robert Redford, who died Tuesday at age 89, was a climate and conservation advocate who often spoke to members of Congress about these issues. Our photojournalists dug into the Roll Call archives for photos of his periodic visits to Capitol Hill.
ICYMI
A new leader: The board of Turning Point USA, the organization for young conservatives founded by Kirk, has “unanimously” elected his widow, Erika Kirk, as the group’s new CEO and board chair.
Battleground launches: Tejano singer Bobby Pulido on Wednesday announced a challenge to Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ 15th District. (The Democrat was also nominated for a Latin Grammy the same day.) In Nebraska, James Leuschen, who was a top aide to Democratic former Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, has joined the crowded Democratic primary for the 2nd District based in his hometown of Omaha. In New Hampshire, Republican businesswoman Hollie Noveletsky is running again for the 1st District after placing second in last year’s primary. And in Nevada, businessman Joshua Walters is the latest Republican to announce a challenge to Democratic Rep. Susie Lee in the 3rd District.
Bean’s comeback bid: Former Illinois Rep. Melissa Bean, who lost reelection in the post-Obamacare tea party wave of 2010, has joined the crowded Democratic primary for the Chicago-area 8th District, whose Democratic incumbent, Raja Krishnamoorthi, is running for Senate, the Daily Herald reported.
#NY12: New York state Assemblyman Micah Lasher has entered the race to succeed his political mentor and former boss, retiring Rep. Jerrold Nadler. The Democratic primary for the deep-blue district, which includes New York City’s Upper West and East sides, is expected to draw several more candidates.
#NY10: Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman won a crowded primary in 2022 en route to winning his Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn seat, and Jewish Insider reports he could face another primary next year. A poll from progressive group Demand Progress Action found New York City Comptroller Brad Lander leading Goldman by 19 points in a head-to-head matchup, while former state Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, who lost to Goldman in 2022, may run again.
Primary challengers: In California, Sacramento City Councilor Mai Vang launched a challenge to Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui, who has represented the area since winning a 2005 special election to succeed her late husband. In Colorado, Wanda James, an elected member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents, is challenging longtime Rep. Diana DeGette for the Democratic nomination in the Denver-area 1st District.
Redistricting roundup: Indiana GOP Gov. Mike Braun said the state legislature will “probably” meet for a special session to redraw its congressional map, noting that multiple Republican legislators have changed their minds on the issue. Meanwhile, the Utah Supreme Court denied a request by the GOP-led Legislature to block a lower court ruling requiring new congressional lines before next year’s elections.
Guv roundup: In Wisconsin, two Democratic state lawmakers have joined the race to succeed retiring Gov. Tony Evers: state Sen. Kelda Roys, who ran for governor in 2018, and state Rep. Francesca Hong. In Georgia, the open governor’s race grew busier this week, with three notable entries. Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Trump critic who switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat earlier this year, launched a campaign to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Brian Kemp. On the Republican side, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who earned the wrath of Trump and many of his supporters over his refusal to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election result, and businessman Clark Dean joined what is developing into a crowded primary. Across the country, in Alaska, former state Attorney General Treg Taylor became the 11th Republican to enter the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Food costs: Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat who is running for Senate, has unveiled legislation designed to stop Trump from imposing tariffs on groceries. “Michigan has had enough of Donald Trump’s price hikes, and I am taking on these erratic tariffs to bring relief to Michigan families,” Stevens said in announcing her bill.
Nathan’s notes
Senate and House elections get the lion’s share of attention in Washington for obvious reasons, but governor’s races are having an impact in the nation’s capital, with a dozen members of Congress seeking to become the chief executive of their own states. And more could be joining them, Roll Call elections analyst Nathan Gonzales of Inside Elections writes.
What we’re reading
Stu says: Roll Call political analyst Stuart Rothenberg takes a look at the 2026 Senate map and says that while the path to the majority is difficult for Democrats, it’s not insurmountable.
Searchlight: “The folks who are most to blame about Trump are the ones who pushed Democrats to take indefensible positions,” longtime Senate Democratic aide Adam Jentleson said in an interview with The New York Times about his new think tank, the Searchlight Institute.
Manchin’s book tour: Former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III, an independent who was elected as a Democrat, is promoting his new book “Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense.” In an interview with Semafor, he said he would campaign for Maine Republican Susan Collins, his former colleague, “in a heartbeat” if she wanted him to: “She knows I will. I told her that.”
Silenced voices: CNN interviewed Democrats in Texas who say their votes have been diluted by the GOP-led Legislature’s decision to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries in a mid-decade redistricting effort pushed by Trump.
District delegate: Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, who was chief of staff to D.C.’s nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, in the 1990s, writes in The Washington Post that the longtime lawmaker “is no longer the dynamo she once was” and that she should not seek reelection next year.
Remaking the media? ABC’s decision to “indefinitely” remove late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr’s warning that the network could face fines or license revocations if it did not “operate in the public interest” signals a new conservative direction by media companies, Axios reports.
The count: 3
That’s how many times in the past century a former member of Congress has successfully returned to Washington representing a different state.
The most recent lawmaker to do so was Republican Edgar Franklin Foreman, who was first elected in 1962 from a district in the El Paso, Texas, area. After losing reelection in 1964, Foreman moved to neighboring New Mexico and, in 1968, won a race for a newly drawn seat covering the southern half of the state. Two years later, he again lost a reelection bid.
Two Democrats have represented a second state in Congress over the past century: J. Hamilton Lewis, who was elected to the House from Washington state in 1896 and later was a senator from Illinois in the 1910s and 1930s; and Robert P. Hill, who won election to the House from Illinois (1912) and then Oklahoma (1936).
This cycle, former Massachusetts Sen. Scott P. Brown is making a second comeback attempt in New Hampshire. He’s seeking to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who defeated him by 3 points in 2014.
Several other former member transplants are at least contemplating bids from their new states next year.
In South Carolina, former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh has said he’s considering challenging Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Walsh, who was elected as a tea party conservative from a suburban Chicago district in 2010, has continued his political evolution and now describes himself as a conservative Democrat fighting Trumpism.
And in Florida, two former congressmen whose earlier stints in the House ended in scandal, Republicans Chris Collins of New York and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, have expressed interest in running for the safely red 19th District, which Rep. Byron Donalds is vacating to run for governor.
— By Roll Call’s Ryan Kelly
Coming up
Voters in Arizona will pick a successor to the late Democratic Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva in Tuesday’s special election for the 7th District. The late congressman’s daughter, Democrat Adelita Grijalva, a former Pima County supervisor, is the heavy favorite for the deep-blue seat.
Photo finish
Subscribe now using this link so you don’t miss out on the best news and analysis from our team.
The post At the Races: Partisans in crime appeared first on Roll Call.
