<div>Data: The Downballot, Dave's Redistricting Atlas, The Texas Tribune; Table: Andrew Solender/Axios</div><p>House Democrats' campaign arm announced Wednesday it is adding a dozen districts that President Trump won handily in 2024 to their <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/04/08/house-democrats-2026-republican-target-list-dccc" target="_blank">midterm target list</a>.</p><p><strong>Why it matters: </strong>The additions are meant to project Democratic confidence that they can compete in solidly Republican territory come November.</p><hr><ul><li>"House Democrats are expanding the battlefield deep into Trump terrain," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said in a statement.</li><li>Republicans aren't buying it. National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella said the DCCC has "officially entered the hallucination phase of the election cycle."</li></ul><p><strong>Driving the news: </strong>In a news release shared with Axios, the DCCC announced the new additions to its "Districts in Play" list — which now includes 59 districts where the party thinks it has at least a narrow shot.</p><ul><li>Trump easily carried all the new districts on the list in 2024, by margins ranging from roughly 10 percentage points in Colorado's 3rd district to a 21-point win in Tennessee's 9th.</li><li>The most provocative of the additions: North Carolina's 9th district, where NRCC chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) is <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/15/richard-hudson-ojeda-fundraising-north-carolina" target="_blank">facing a challenge</a> from populist Democrat Richard Ojeda.</li></ul><p><strong>Reality check: </strong>The DCCC is not going to spend big money to try to compete in 59 Republican-held and open seats — the battlefield will be much smaller than that, likely no more than a few dozen districts.</p><ul><li>The announcement is more a way to flex muscle about the national environment, with the press release citing <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/30/politics/cnn-poll-midterm-generic-ballot-democrats-republicans-change" target="_blank">CNN polling</a> from last week that put congressional Democrats ahead by 8 points nationally.</li><li>"MAGA Republicans who historically have considered themselves 'safe' have let down the people they were elected to represent," DelBene said in her statement.</li></ul><p><strong>The other side: </strong>"Instead of explaining why radical socialists hijacked the districts they actually need to win, they're pretending deep-red Republican seats are suddenly competitive," Marinella said. </p>