© 2024 Allbritton Journalism Institute

This Year’s Senate Campaigns Are Flush With Candidates From Out of State. Will It Matter?

Candidates in high-profile races have been in and out of the states they’re running in, but that might not be as much of a penalty now as it’s been in the past.

Dr. Mehmet Oz
Mehmet Oz became the poster child for carpetbagging candidates in 2022. Others are joining this year, hoping for more success. Derik Hamilton/AP

Candidates in some of the biggest elections of 2024 are presenting a central question for the future of campaigning: If all politics is now national, is there really any harm in running in a state you’re not wedded to?

A surprising number of Senate candidates this year have out-of-state ties that, in even the recent past, could have cost them their races. Some, like Republicans Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania and Eric Hovde in Wisconsin, own or rent homes in other states whose value far exceeds that of the residences they own in the states they’re running in. Others, like former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan, have an active voter registration in a different state.

Strategists and campaign operatives told NOTUS that while that presents clear liabilities for those campaigns, local ties aren’t as significant for the Senate as they used to be.