Blue wave to blue ocean, part 1: 5 key House candidates

Democrats will win the House this fall, inshallah.  We need a minimum net gain of six seats to take back the House, and more is better. We won’t win enough seats to override a Presidential veto, so real legislative wins in the next two years aren’t likely.  But we can do things in this midterm cycle to set us up for more power in the future. Electing the right candidates to move us forward is how we get there.

Why I chose these candidates

I wanted to highlight candidates that are flying under the radar but worth supporting, as well as some who are better known.  I came up with a few criteria to help define the qualities we need in today’s candidates to help us level up, to fight and win bigger battles in the future. 

Non-Traditional 

Candidates who aren’t the same-old, same-old can make government more responsive and more effective and help the Democrats rebuild their brand.  There are far too many House reps who come from elite backgrounds and professions, take direction from corporate buddies, or are just complacent.

We need people from more walks of life, including blue-collar workers, veterans, farmers, small business owners, advocates and organizers, strong leaders and project managers, and from small towns and mid-size cities. We need more youth, women, and people of color.

Close Race

A great lesson I learned from my days in ad sales is a form of triage: Don’t spend time where you know you’ll win, or where you know it’s hopeless. Put your energy where it can make the difference between winning and losing!  This means candidates who are polling within a few points of leading competitors.  They have some name recognition, fundraising, endorsements, grassroots enthusiasm, momentum, and maybe that “it” factor.

Stretch Goal

These are races that may seem a bit out of reach, but which are worth contesting. Good campaigns here, even if they lose, can expand the map where Democrats and independents are competitive and erode key red areas. They give new candidates a chance to learn. They increase public engagement in the community, help move the needle on policy, and maybe win in future.

 Great Communicator

Charisma and interesting personal bios are pluses, but the most important personal characteristic is INTEGRITY.  We need them to show they’re not in it for the money.  We need candidates who have compelling policy ideas AND connect with the average person, who create a compelling vision of a better community and bring hope. 

Hot Issue 

These candidates come from a community that’s directly affected by a hot issue, have been engaged with it on the ground, and/or have ideas about how to deal with the issue that are catching fire with the public.

So with that in mind, here are the candidates, ranked by the date of their next election. Please support them!

Brian Poindexter

OH Dist. 7 S of Cleveland

Primary:  May 5

Non-Traditional    Close Race

Ohio was a key swing state for decades. But Ohio deeply felt the collapse of US manufacturing.  It started to get more red in 2012.  In 2016, it crossed the line, with 51% voting for Trump, followed by 53% in 2020 and 55% in 2024.  Democrats threw this state away, but becoming competitive again would really help the party grow its national power.

This is an open seat, with about eight Democrats competing in the primary. According to Roll Call, Democratic strategists say Poindexter represents one of the party’s best chances of dislodging GOP incumbents.  Incumbent Max Miller won in 2024 with just over 50%.

Brian Poindexter, 46, went to community college, and his career experience includes working as a union ironworker. He has also served as an at-large member of the Brook Park City Council since 2017. As of 2026, he is an apprenticeship instructor for the Ironworkers Local 17 union.

According to Cleveland.com, if elected, Poindexter said his top priorities would include labor protections, wage growth and Social Security.  He also touts his ability to reach across the aisle. “If someone brings forward a good idea, I’ll stand with them on it. If they bring a bad idea forward, I’ll stand against it. No matter the party.”

Christian Menefee

TX Dist. 18 Houston

Primary Runoff:  May 26

Non-Traditional  Close Race

Christian Menefee, 38, is now the Representative for this district, having won a special election runoff to replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner earlier in 2026.  Next, he is running in a primary runoff on May 26, in this heavily Democratic district in Houston, Texas’ biggest city.

This is a generational race. Turner was about 70 when he died in office. Menefee’s opponent, Al Green, 79, was the Representative for District 9, which is being mostly absorbed into District 18, since 2005.  Both candidates are Black.

Menefee was the first in his family to graduate college.  He became a lawyer and did pro bono work with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, advised immigrants and their families during Trump’s Muslim ban, and stood up for people wronged by government overreach.  In 2020, he unseated a three-term incumbent to become the youngest and first Black Harris County Attorney.

Issues he’s highlighting include a $15/hour minimum wage, taxing the rich, Medicare For All, expanding pathways to good jobs, and expanding access to Pell grants for college.

He's been endorsed by many Harris County and Houston Democrats and unions, as well as Leaders We Deserve, Patriotic Millionaires, and the Jane Fonda Climate PAC.

Turnout is usually low in runoff elections, so it’s really important to support Christian now.  Texas once had a strong Democratic Party, but it’s atrophied in recent years. The state is our second-biggest, with about 31 million people, and it’s growing fast. Democrats cannot afford to concede Texas to the GOP.

Alex Bores

NY Dist. 12 Manhattan

Primary:  June 23

Non-Traditional   Hot Issue    Great Communicator Close Race

 Bores, 35, says with good reason that he is “Feared by the powerful. Fighting for us.” He recently got an AI safety bill passed in the New York legislature widely regarded as the furthest-reaching in the country.   He has also released an excellent AI Policy Framework, “Giving Americans Power, Protection, and a Stake in the AI Economy.”

As many as ten Democrats have thrown their hats in the ring to replace longtime Rep. Jerry Nadler, who is not running for reelection. The top candidates include Bores, George Conway, ex of former Trump publicist Kellyanne Conway and co-founder of the GOP anti-Trump group Lincoln Project, and Micah Lasher, a longtime political insider who was a staffer for Nadler, Kathy Hochul, and Michael Bloomberg, and has Nadler’s endorsement.

Alex Bores was born and raised in the 12^th District, and elected to the NY Assembly in 2022. According to Ballotpedia, he is “the first Democrat elected in New York State with a degree in computer science.”  He is best known for his support for strong AI regulation.

According to Politico, top AI-industry PAC Leading the Future is leading the attack on Bores for the industry.  An ad of theirs claimed that Bores “made hundreds of thousands of dollars building and selling the tech for ICE.”  Though Bores did spend five years at Palantir, which had a contract with ICE, Bores says he never worked on that project and in fact, quit over his objections to it.  “Left unmentioned,” notes Politico, “was that one of Leading the Future’s founding backers, Joe Lonsdale, was not just a staffer but a co-founder of Palantir.”

Bores stands for other important issues, like funding the IRS to go after rich tax cheats, banning stock trading by elected officials, and ending Citizens United.  He’s been very effective.

We need to show the tech bros that they don’t own us.  Support Alex Bores!

Beth Macy

VA Dist. 6 Charlottesville

Primary:  Aug 4

Non-Traditional  Close Race Great Communicator

Beth Macy, 62, is competing with four to six other Democrats in the Aug. 4 primary for this seat.

Two things distinguish her from the typical progressive challenger: First, she plays a starring role in a battle against one of America’s most hated big corporations.

She is the bestselling author of several books, including Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, which was also a successful miniseries on Hulu in 2021.  That company is Purdue Pharma, which decimated Macy’s Appalachian community with its opioids.  Michael Keaton won an Emmy for his role in the miniseries. 

Second, she had planned her campaign to “test her contention that Democratic candidates could win back the House by talking and listening to rural voters.”  As a story in the NYT outlined, that plan has now been killed by Virginia’s redistricting.  The new Dist. 6 is based in central Virginia, rather than the Appalachian West.  That means campaigning “mostly in college towns, talking and listening to well-off, well-educated people who are more likely to be readers of her books than their subjects.”

Both the 6^th and the 9^th Districts, which have to some degree swapped territories in the redistricting, have incumbent GOP representatives.  It’s possible that the Supreme Court will rule against the redistricting plan. Given all that, this race is not “close” so much as “fluid.”   But Macy definitely has a good shot.

Macy’s been endorsed by Ro Khanna, as well as local electeds, and has strong fundraising. Among her priorities are Medicare For All, billionaires paying their fair share of taxes, and farmers’ issues including tariffs and the “right to repair.”

Even if Beth Macy winds up representing college towns rather than Appalachia, the fact that she’s been a fighter for Appalachia makes her someone we need to elect to Congress.

Justin J. Pearson

TN Dist. 9 Memphis

Primary:  August 6

Non-Traditional   Hot Issue    Great Communicator

Pearson, 31,  is currently challenging incumbent Steve Cohen, 76,  in the Democratic primary.  Cohen is white, Jewish, has been in the House for 20 years and in public office since the age of 27.  Pearson, a preacher’s son with a LOT of charisma, is Black, and a state representative from Memphis.

Pearson is best known for his membership in the “Tennessee Three.” In 2023, he joined two other lawmakers and interrupted debate on the floor by leading protesters in a call for stricter gun laws.  This was shortly after a school shooting at a Christian school in Nashville that killed six people. The two Black reps were expelled from the legislature for the protest; the white rep was not.  The two were quickly re-elected in special elections.

Environmental issues have been a focus for Pearson. Right now, he’s part of a battle over several data centers powering Elon Musk’s xAI operations near Memphis and close by in Mississippi, which are causing tremendous pollution and noise issues.

He’s been endorsed by Justice Democrats and Leaders We Deserve.

We need Justin Pearson representing progressives nationally, as well as the long-suffering people of Memphis, in Congress.