Eight years ago, a Democratic blue wave carried dozens of candidates into Congress, elevating them as prominent figures in the resistance to President Donald Trump.
Yet in politics, as with the tide, momentum can recede just as fast as it arrives.
For the 42 Democrats who captured Republican-held House seats in 2018 and helped the party take back the chamber, the years since have produced sharply different outcomes.
Their paths illustrate how fleeting political success can be as Democrats seek another midterm breakthrough this year. In an electorate that is constantly shifting, the qualities and messages that make candidates successful in one election can turn into weaknesses by the next.
A handful of the 2018 winners went on to higher office. Others attempted to advance but found themselves misaligned with a Democratic base that no longer embraced the kinds of compromises once seen as essential in conservative-leaning districts. Several lost when Republicans regrouped and won their seats back amid changing political conditions. Just 14 are still serving in the House, and at least three will depart in January.
The Democratic strategy in 2018 centered on political outsiders whose public-service credentials included military experience, national security work and careers in medicine. The party wanted candidates who could win over independents because they “look, feel and sound like a different kind of Democrat,” said Dan Sena, who served as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that cycle.
At the time, voters responded to the image of steady, nonpartisan competence — a potential check on Trump. That is no longer the dominant demand.
“In 2018, the Democratic base wanted an adult in the room,” Sena said. “In 2026 they want a fighter in the ring.”
Some were viewed as too moderate to pursue higher office
The 2018 election delivered the biggest class of newly elected House Democrats in at least 40 years. It also became the youngest and most diverse freshman class in the history of the chamber.
Angie Craig won a Republican-held Minnesota district in the suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul in 2018. She was repeatedly targeted by Republicans, who poured millions of dollars into trying to defeat her, but managed to win reelection three times.
The first openly gay mother in congressional history, Craig helped break barriers. However, her instinct for moderation became a liability when she tried to win the Democratic nomination to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith.
Craig overwhelmingly lost the Democratic primary to Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who relentlessly hammered Craig over her relationships with deep-pocketed donors and her votes for tougher immigration enforcement.
“That was a tough seat to flip, and she did it, and that is commendable, and that has been to everyone’s advantage in Minnesota since then,” Justin Ropella, a 43-year-old Flanagan supporter, said days before last month’s primary. “But I think she has failed to meet the moment time and time again since then, and she is stuck in a moderate environment when the world is progressing past her.”
Haley Stevens faced a similar fate in Michigan. She flipped and held a Republican-seat in 2018, and defeated a fellow Democrat after they were put in the same district in 2022, but she narrowly lost this year’s Senate primary to progressive Abdul El-Sayed.
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A few clashed with party leadership
Jared Golden won an overwhelmingly Republican district in Maine and fended off perennial Republican attacks to keep the seat. But his mix of progressive economic views and cultural conservatism often put him at odds with Democratic leaders and the party’s base.
In the face of a primary challenge from his left, Golden decided not to seek reelection this year. Strategists in both parties widely expect the seat to flip back to Republicans in November.
The latest example of him clashing with party leadership came this week when he was one of just two Democrats to join Republicans on a procedural vote, an apostasy in Capitol Hill’s unwritten rules. The vote enraged his colleagues, who then had to cast votes on a conservative resolution on socialism and elections designed to put Democrats in a bind during election season.
Republicans swiftly reclaimed some seats
A majority of the 2018 Democratic frontliners didn’t last long in Congress. The Republican-leaning districts they flipped proved tough to hold when the political winds weren’t blowing overwhelmingly in their favor.
The party lost ground in the House in 2020 but retained a small majority. Then it lost that in 2022, when Republicans took control of the chamber midway through Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency.
Today, just 14 remain, and their ranks will shrink in January when Craig, Stevens and Golden leave office.
The 2026 battle for the House is playing out on similar turf. Most of the battleground districts voted for Trump, who expanded his coalition to return to the White House but has seen his popularity plummet.
A few were able to climb the political ladder
It hasn’t been all bad news for the class of 2018.
Mikie Sherill and Abigail Spanberger were elected governor of New Jersey and Virginia, respectively, last year. Both of their campaigns focused heavily on the cost of living, a formula Democrats around the country are now trying to replicate.
Andy Kim of New Jersey and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan won Senate seats in 2024.
Slotkin may try to take another political leap soon — she could run for president in 2028.
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