Press Releases
RE: Election Night 2026: How Bench Candidates Won
To: Interested Parties
From: The Bench
Date: November 4, 2026
RE: Election Night 2026: How Bench Candidates Won
Overview
After the 2024 election, we founded The Bench because we believed the Democratic Party was thinking too small, writing off too many voters, and looking for the wrong qualities in its candidates. For too long, Democrats thought that we would never win in some parts of America and gave up on winning over voters who disagreed with us. You can’t win a durable majority with that strategy.
At the Bench, we believe Democrats can compete everywhere if we find the right people to run.
- 15 out of our 16 Bench candidates won or are currently leading in their races.
- 3 of Democrats’ Senate flips came courtesy of Bench candidates in Texas, Kansas, and Iowa.
- 8 of the 33 Democrats who won or currently lead in Trump +10 seats are Bench candidates
Bench candidates had massive overperformances relative to the 2024 result, including:
- +42.1 point overperformance for Bobby Pulido (TX-15)
- +25.5 point overperformance for James Talarico (TX Senate)
- +25.4 point overperformance for Jamie Ager (NC-11)
- +21.3 point overperformance for Johnny Garcia (TX-35)
- +21.0 point overperformance for Adam Hamilton (KS Senate)
- +14.1 point overperformance for Pia Dandiya (FL-22)
- +14.1 point overperformance for Nancy Lacore (SC-01)
Growing the Map
Bench candidates didn’t just benefit from a strong national environment. They outperformed other Democrats running on similar turf, turning races that had long seemed out of reach into historic victories:
- Adam Hamilton became Kansas’s first Democratic senator since before World War II
- James Talarico became the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Texas since 1988
- Josh Turek will be the first Democratic Senator from Iowa in a decade
- Jamie Ager (NC-11), Pia Dandiya (FL-22), Sam Forstag (MT-01), Nancy Lacore (SC-01), Bobby Pulido (TX-15), and Johnny Garcia (TX-35) all won districts that Trump carried by double digits just two years ago
These weren’t just isolated upsets. Of the 33 Democrats who won or are leading in Republican-held or open seats on Trump +10 turf, eight came from The Bench. Our candidates accounted for nearly a quarter of the Democratic breakthroughs in some of the toughest places to win.
Bench candidates won back trust with voters Democrats had struggled with:
- Hispanic voters: Bobby Pulido and Johnny Garcia won Hispanic-majority seats in Texas that Republicans had redrawn specifically to lock in their 2024 gains
- Rural voters: Josh Turek won and Mary Peltola is leading in two of the country’s most rural states. Jamie Ager won North Carolina’s 11th District, a heavily agricultural Appalachian seat. In the North Country, Blake Gendebien cut into Republicans’ 2024 margins by double digits.
- Working class voters: Bob Brooks carried Pennsylvania’s 7th district, which had been a GOP pickup in 2024 as non-college voters soured on Democrats. Sam Forstag carried Montana’s 1st district, a working-class seat squeezed by rising costs
These victories show what happens when Democrats run candidates who understand their communities and can reach voters our party has often failed to connect with. A party that only talks to its base puts a ceiling on its own support. A party that competes for new voters has room to grow.
Moving Forward
Democrats shouldn’t wait for another wave. Instead, we need to find the right candidates who can outperform the national environment, win over voters who have turned away from our party, and put more of the country in play.
That’s why The Bench exists. These campaigns show why early investment matters: the right candidate can change the trajectory of a race, but they need support from the start, when money and national attention are hardest to come by. We will spend the next two years and beyond finding candidates outside the traditional political pipelines, backing them early, and helping them compete in places Democrats have given up on.
The Democratic Party is finding its way back to a fundamental truth: good people who genuinely want to serve their country make the best leaders. Our job is to identify them and help them win.
Results
| Candidate | Race | Expected margin of victory (pts) | Democratic gain over 2024 presidential result (pts) |
| Adam Hamilton | KS-Sen | 4.87 | 21 |
| Mary Peltola | AK-Sen | 0.24 | 13.4 |
| James Talarico | TX-Sen | 11.84 | 25.5 |
| Josh Turek | IA-Sen | 4.04 | 17.3 |
| Jamie Ager | NC-11 | 15.84 | 25.4 |
| Luke Bronin | CT-01 | 31.4 | 8.5 |
| Bob Brooks | PA-07 | 12.18 | 15.4 |
| Cait Conley | NY-17 | 4.44 | 3.9 |
| Pia Dandiya | FL-22 | 3.78 | 14.1 |
| Sam Forstag | MT-01 | 5.67 | 17.2 |
| Johnny Garcia | TX-35 | 10.86 | 21.3 |
| Blake Gendebien | NY-21 | -1.78 | 19.0 |
| Nancy Lacore | SC-01 | 1.02 | 14.1 |
| Denise Powell | NE-02 | 15.40 | 10.8 |
| Bobby Pulido | TX-15 | 24.64 | 42.1 |
| Sarah Trone Garriott | IA-03 | 7.10 | 11.5 |