Carlos Osorio, Associated Press file Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison speaks during a campaign event, Oct. 17, 2024, in Flint, Mich. Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jaime Harrison’s political group focused on turning out rural voters, Dirt Road Democrats PAC, is making its first slate of endorsements as the midterms ramp up.
Harrison told The Hill in an exclusive interview that the political group would be backing the Senate bids of former Gov. Roy Cooper (D) in North Carolina and former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) in Alaska in addition to backing House candidates Chris Jones in Arkansas, Shannon Taylor in Virginia and Jamie Ager in North Carolina.
The PAC is expecting to make a $5,000 contribution to each candidate, with Harrison noting that the group plans to announce more endorsements in the coming weeks. Dirt Road Democrats PAC hopes to fundraise $1 million this midterm cycle.
“This first round endorsement is focusing on some races that we think are really crucial for us to take back the majority in the House and Senate, and races that we think can be competitive if they have the resources,” Harrison told The Hill.
Harrison rocketed to party stardom with his 2020 Senate challenge against Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) in South Carolina. He ultimately lost the race by double digits, despite smashing fundraising records, but founded Dirt Road Democrats weeks later in a bid to help Democrats make inroads in rural, red and underrepresented areas.
Harrison rose to DNC chair in 2021 and helmed the party through the bruising 2024 presidential cycle before current chair Ken Martin took the reins last year. He stepped back from the PAC’s daily operations while in charge of the DNC, but the group continued to work on races across the South.
Now, Harrison has injected new energy into the PAC as his party faces a tough midterm election map.
In November, Democrats need to net four seats to win control of the Senate, and three seats to take back the House.
In North Carolina, the popular former Democratic governor is facing off against Michael Whatley, a former chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) in a race that Cook Political Report rates as leaning Democratic. In Alaska, Peltola is challenging incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) in a seat that leans toward Republicans.
Harrison called the North Carolina race “probably the single best Democratic pickup opportunity” for the party this year, calling it “a no-brainer” that his PAC needed to get in Cooper’s corner.
He cast Peltola’s entry in the Alaska race as “a number-one draft pick,” saying he’s “very, very bullish” about that race.
Republicans’ fundraising moves also signal the importance of these races. Earlier this year, the Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D)-aligned Senate Leadership Fund announced hundreds of millions of dollars would be invested in eight high-stakes Senate races, including $15 million in Alaska and $71 million in North Carolina.
On the House side, the Dirt Road Democrats PAC is backing Democrats for a trio of House seats, two of which election watchers expect to be competitive this fall.
In North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, livestock farmer Ager is a Blue Dog Democrats recruit to take on incumbent Rep. Chuck Edwards (R) in a race that could serve of a barometer of how Democrats fare in 2026. Cook Political Report shifted the race toward Democrats to the “lean Republican” column last week.
In Virginia’s 1st Congressional District, Taylor is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Rob Wittman (R), who would have been drawn out of the district if the courts hadn’t tossed out the voter-approved redistricting plan last month.
And in Arkansas’s 2nd Congressional District, which Cook considers solidly Republican, Jones is challenging incumbent Rep. French Hill (R). Jones ran for governor in 2022 and has served as a co-chair of the Dirt Road Democrats PAC.
Harrison said the PAC plans to cut each candidate a check and give them a boost with digital online fundraising and field organizing.
Martin, the current DNC chair, has laid out a vision for organizing across all 50 states this cycle. Harrison welcomed the efforts and called on Democrats to focus on rural America.
“They’ve been starved for so long that all the resources of any organization that can do stuff to organize Democrats in rural America, the more the better,” Harrison told The Hill.
The Democrats’ national party committee has been at a significant cash-on-hand disadvantage compared to its Republican counterpart in the wake of the 2024 election. But Democrats are seeing some promising signs in the polls: according to Decision Desk HQ’s aggregate, Democrats are up by more than 5 points over Republicans on a generic congressional ballot.
Encouraged by a string of off-year and special election wins, Democrats like Harris are hoping they can build energy while Republicans face significant headwinds from the historic trend of the sitting president’s party losing ground in the midterms.
Harrison stressed that the South will be key to the party’s success in 2026 and beyond.
“When you start to take a look at, you know, how the presidential elections will look after 2030, I mean, there’s gonna be a lot of shifting to areas in the South,” added Harrison, whose home base of South Carolina is a key early state in the presidential nominating calendar. “We need to have a foothold in these communities, and that has to start now.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Chuck Edwards Dan Sullivan French Hill Jaime Harrison John Thune Ken Martin Mary Peltola Michael Whatley Rob Wittman Roy CooperCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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