Some House Democrats want the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to rethink its primary strategy after its third high-profile loss this season.
The 2026 election is far from over, but Democrats are already making specific demands for the DCCC to consider in future cycles: The committee needs to improve how it communicates with members, find ways to take more feedback and stop interfering in Democratic primaries.
House Democrats have heavily criticized their campaign arm over its involvement in primaries during an election cycle that has been defined by anti-establishment sentiment. This week, DCCC-backed Marlene Galán-Woods lost the primary in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District to Amish Shah, the latest in a stinging set of losses for the group.
“I think that it should certainly result in a pretty significant reevaluation of the strategy, the decision-making and the approach around primary endorsements and support,” one House Democrat, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told NOTUS. “The leadership of DCCC has a fiduciary responsibility to reevaluate things, given the several notable examples of non-DCCC-supported candidates winning.”
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The lawmaker added that members who pay dues to the DCCC “would have much greater confidence if we feel like there’s a genuine reevaluation of this approach.”
Other House Democrats echoed the sentiment.
“There’s no reason for us to put our thumb on the scale when you have a healthy field of many viable candidates,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) told NOTUS.
Ocasio-Cortez said the DCCC believes that “one type of candidate, or one type of approach, or one type of ideology is what will win in every swing seat in America.” Instead, she said, what the committee needs “to be doing is have an approach that is more tailored and is listening to every community.”
Before Galán-Woods lost her race, Maine state Sen. Joe Baldacci lost to progressive Matt Dunlap in that state’s 2nd Congressional District, and California Assembly member Jasmeet Bains lost to another progressive, Randy Villegas, in the 22nd Congressional District.
To some Democrats, these races illustrate breakdowns in the way the DCCC communicates with its members and allies.
For example, the DCCC failed to inform the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC that it was adding Bains to its “Red to Blue” flagship candidate program before she won her primary, even though the committee had agreed to keep the CPC PAC informed about its decisions, according to multiple sources.
The CPC PAC only found out about the DCCC’s move the day before it was announced — and only because Villegas heard about it in California and then called the progressive group, which was backing him.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), a CPC PAC co-chair, told NOTUS that the progressive group “immediately set up a call” with DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries after learning about their involvement.
They “apologized profusely,” Jayapal said, and “said it never should have happened that way, it was an oversight.”
“I think it begs the question of engaging in any Democratic primary,” Jayapal added. “At a minimum, if they’re going to engage, we need to know if we have a candidate in that race, and we need to have a really thoughtful discussion about it.”
The DCCC did add Villegas to its “Red to Blue” program after he defeated Bains in June, and a spokesperson for his campaign told NOTUS in a statement that since the primary, “DCCC has been extremely helpful in our shared goal of defeating David [Valadao].”
But the miscommunication around the DCCC’s primary involvement came at a time when the CPC PAC “is mobilizing our members to give the most amount of DCCC dues we’ve ever given,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Florida), another CPC PAC co-chair.
If the DCCC doesn’t change its election strategy, it runs the risk of members not paying their dues to the committee. Dues are already being affected by redistricting, which has cut the number of members who pay the party’s campaign arm, as NOTUS first reported.
“It makes you think, ‘I’m giving my dues to win in November, not for primaries,’ and so you’d think it could discourage members from giving dues,” Frost said.
In a statement to NOTUS, DCCC communications director Courtney Rice defended the group’s involvement in the primaries.
“When the DCCC decides to put a candidate in a competitive primary on Red to Blue, it is done after polling and research into different general election match-ups and discussions with Caucus members, local leaders, labor, and other stakeholders,” Rice said. “Given Democrats’ big tent, there is not always consensus, but the decisions are never made in a vacuum.”
Under the leadership of DelBene, the DCCC has been involved in 10 contested primaries in 2026 and won seven. But the three losses have been high profile enough to take up much of the oxygen, and opened the group to attacks. Republicans’ campaign arm put out a press release Wednesday calling DCCC’s most recent primary loss a “humiliation.”
“I have complete and total confidence in Suzan DelBene, her leadership of the DCCC, and as a result of that leadership, I’m confident we’re going to take back control of the House of Representatives in November,” Jeffries said at a press conference Thursday when asked about DCCC’s involvement in primaries.
Some members said there’s a desire in the caucus for the DCCC to create more avenues for members to provide feedback to the committee.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-California) told NOTUS the DCCC needs to “listen to members from the states where candidates are running to really understand what’s happening on the ground, to understand the local dynamics, and to either support the candidates that are best connected to the community, or to let the dynamics play out in the primary.”
The DCCC, Kamlager-Dove said, holds regular “listening sessions” where members can keep the committee informed about “what they’re seeing, what’s happening” in their states.
However, attendance does not appear to be mandatory; when asked if the DCCC seemed receptive to the feedback from those meetings, the lawmaker said, “I couldn’t say because honestly, I don’t join many of them. I stay focused on my own state and how I can be helpful to the ‘Red to Blue’ candidates that are running.”
Some House Democrats are floating the idea of creating a committee that gives members more say over the DCCC’s decisions. Axios first reported lawmakers’ interest in a formal body to give that feedback.
“It would not be a bad idea for us to really consider what leadership will look like that’s beyond one person,” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Illinois), an outspoken critic of the DCCC’s involvement in primaries, told NOTUS. “A coordinated approach, a table convening of six or seven members of Congress, that represent different parts of this big tent that can help provide adequate, intentional perspectives as they’re making their decision.”
“One person can’t possibly have the breadth of understanding and the dynamics of what’s happening on the ground,” Ramirez added. “I certainly want to talk about that as we’re thinking about how we move next year.”
The DCCC’s primary election strategy has also been criticized by Democratic candidates.
Joe Caiazzo, a consultant for Dunlap’s campaign in Maine, told NOTUS that the DCCC “has made some decisions this cycle that have been far from ideal.”
But, he added, “as we march towards November, we all need to unify in an effort to win back the House, and I think that there are many competitive races around the country that the DCCC could absolutely come to the table and support to ensure that we are broadening the map.”
While Dunlap painted himself as an anti-establishment candidate during his primary, Caiazzo said Dunlap is still interested in getting the DCCC’s backing — highlighting how the party’s support remains valuable for the general election.
“We’re talking to the DCCC, we have a good relationship, and I expect that they will eventually move him to ‘Red to Blue,’” Caiazzo said.
In a statement released after the Arizona race was called Wednesday, Shah similarly touted his win as a “grassroots victory where Arizona voters made their voices heard,” adding that the “status quo in Washington, D.C., is not working for Arizonans.”
The day before, he’d told reporters that if he won the race, “I’m sure we’ll have a phone call, and I will speak to the DCCC and I hope that I can get their endorsement.”
“Any Democratic candidate would want to be on the ‘Red to Blue’ list,” a source close to Shah’s campaign told NOTUS.
It is unlikely that the DCCC will stop becoming involved in Democratic primaries.
Dan Sena, the DCCC’s executive director in the 2018 cycle, pointed to the Maine Senate race, where Graham Platner stepped down as the Democratic nominee after being accused of sexual assault — which he denies — as an example of what happens when “you allow things to just happen without heavy input.”
“You either get involved in the primaries and you win seven out of 10, or you don’t get involved and you come up shy in the majority,” Sena said. “Either way, the Democrats have to ask themselves, wouldn’t you rather have the gavels in your hand?”
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