Democrats seek new crop of candidates

The party aims to compete in tough, often rural districts to retake House in ’26.

- JORY CAPPELLETTI

JAMIE AGER, a Democratic candidate in a North Carolina congressional district, among okra in Fairview.

Jamie Ager has spent much of the last year rebuilding his farm in the foothills of western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene tore through the region, cutting power, destroying fences and scattering livestock.

Then, earlier this year, Ager lost his beef contract with local schools, a casualty of billions of dollars in cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Trump administration.

Now, the fifth-generation farmer is running for Congress — part of a new crop of Democratic candidates the party is turning to as it tries to compete in the tough, often rural districts it may need to flip to retake the U.S. House in 2026.

Democrats say these new recruits are uniquely suited to break through in districts where President Trump’s popularity dominates. Many, like Ager, are already a well-known presence in their communities. And in parts of North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan and elsewhere, the party is betting local credibility can cut through skepticism where the Democratic brand has fallen.

Ager says he sees national Democrats as out of touch with rural life: too “academic” and “politically correct and scripted.”

“That's just not what people are interested in,” he says. “The ideas of helping poor people, being neighborly, the ideal of doing those things, I think, are worthy, good ideas that are actually popular. But the execution of a lot of those ideas has been gummed up, you know, not well-executed.”

A newly shifting U.S. House map