Trump Helped Schumer Get Three of His Dream Candidates for 2026

On paper, Mary Peltola should have little interest in running for Senate. Many Alaska Democrats think she’d have a better chance of winning the governor’s race, which would keep her much closer to home and give her greater leeway to govern than in the hyperpolarized Senate.

And yet Peltola is still actively considering running against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, according to Democratic sources, some of whom even suggest she’s leaning toward a federal campaign.

If she runs, she’d be just the latest Democratic recruit to make the unlikely decision to jump into a race for Senate.

At a time when many politicians are fleeing Washington, Senate Democrats have persuaded a trio of candidates — Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Janet Mills in Maine — to run even though they had little apparent incentive to endure a grueling campaign next year. None of the three were considered a sure bet to run when the year began, and Democrats had said they would have felt fortunate if even one of the three had decided to launch a campaign.

At the center of their motivation to run was a genuine concern about the state of the country under Donald Trump and a belief that they had the power to do something about it, longtime Democrats say.

“I don’t think it matters what age, what background, what office you’ve had before,” said Stephanie Schriock, former head of Emily’s List. “These are folks who know there is just a gigantic challenge in front of us, and now they want to be the ones who roll up their sleeves.”

The states these candidates are running in are three of Democrats’ top targets for 2026, making their decisions potentially pivotal as the party embarks on a long-shot effort to flip control of the Senate.

Their decisions are also positive developments for a party that has otherwise had a tumultuous year of recruitment, with a surge of Senate candidates who are unhappy with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and promising a fresh approach to politics.

In Maine, that frustration with party leaders helped persuade oyster farmer Graham Platner to launch a bid for Senate that has gained national attention and threatened Mills’ path to the nomination. Some polls of the race show the political newcomer Platner leading the incumbent governor in the primary, and he has vowed not to back down even after a series of revelations about his personal history led to criticism from some Democrats.

Some Democrats are surprised that Mills — who for much of this year was publicly coy about her intention to run — is running at all. The governor is almost 80 and, when the year began, wasn’t seen as eager to continue a political career that started in the 1980s.

Cooper, meanwhile, has held statewide office nearly every year this century, including two terms as governor. The North Carolina Democrat had been recruited to run for Senate in 2004, 2008 and 2010 but passed on campaigns then, Democrats say. In the next election, he’ll attempt to become the first Democrat in 18 years to win a Senate seat in the state.

Brown might be the most surprising candidate of the three. The senator just lost an intense reelection campaign last year after 18 years in the Senate and was considering a bid for governor, which some Ohio Democrats encouraged him to pursue. Even if he wins a Senate seat in the red state, he would have to run for reelection again in 2028 — the third consecutive cycle in which the 73-year-old would have to run a campaign.

“A lot of people would have said, ‘I have other things to do or I could get a TV gig,’” said David Pepper, a former chair of the Ohio Democratic Party. “But he’s signing up for at least one, and probably two, truly big-time, all-in campaigns.”

The decisions from Mills, Cooper and Brown to run are likely rooted in many factors, including what looks like an increasingly positive electoral outlook for Democrats next year. But the candidates themselves have said they likely wouldn’t be running for office if not for Trump’s presence in the White House, which many Democrats regard as representing a serious threat to the country’s democracy.

Cooper, in a video announcing his bid, said hadn’t planned to continue his career in Washington but felt compelled to because “these are not ordinary times.” Brown echoed that sentiment in his own rollout video, saying he hadn’t planned to run for Senate again but wanted to end the “craziness” in Washington.

Mills’ announcement of her Senate bid was especially blunt.

“Honestly, if this president and this Congress were doing things that were even remotely acceptable, I wouldn’t be running for the U.S. Senate,” she said.