Election night 2026 delivered a strong message, and the South said it most loudly.
Democrats won in places that were written off for decades, with gains stretching from Tennessee to Texas to Virginia.
Where Evinco clients stand right now: Our win rate so far is around 77%. Several races are still too early or too close to call, but our clients are ahead in those races as of now. We’ll update this post as the final results come in.
In Texas, Democrats finally broke a decades-long statewide losing streak and elected James Talarico to the U.S. Senate. Our team helped drive Democratic turnout there through an Austin City Council race.
In Virginia, we had a similar impact through our partnership with Rural Ground Game, which focuses heavily on boosting turnout in rural and lower infrastructure areas — a top priority for Evinco. Our fundraising support in the primary helped them launch a massive phone banking effort, and they used that same infrastructure in the general election to power get-out-the-vote efforts for all three of the state’s ballot initiatives.
One of those initiatives was the voting rights amendment, and we backed it from another angle too. We worked with a client that partnered with the NAACP to turn out voters for it, work that sits at the heart of our commitment to criminal justice reform.
These are the areas campaigns have ignored for too long, and the results are what happens when somebody actually shows up.
Rutherford County Turned Up, and Tennessee Will Never Be the Same
Tennessee gave us one of our proudest victories. We helped Connie Casha unseat Rep. Mike Sparks, who had held House District 49 for 16 years. She won by double digits, running a grassroots campaign with no corporate money. Casha is a longtime education leader, with a decade at MTSU and 15 years at the Tennessee Department of Education, so voters got a candidate whose résumé matched their priorities.
The bigger story is what her win says about Rutherford County. She is the first Democrat elected in that district in a midterm in 18 years, and she took the party’s 2024 showing of 42.8 percent up to 55. She wasn’t alone, either. Democrats flipped six Tennessee House seats statewide, three of them in Rutherford County, and Victoria Broderick took down longtime Rep. Scott DesJarlais in the 4th Congressional District by just 280 votes.
A county that was once reliably red is now a battleground, and the lesson for Democrats is that Tennessee is worth the investment.
Out West, the Wave Kept Rolling
Our work on statewide and congressional races helped bring the blue tsunami to Colorado, where Democrats swept all five statewide offices. That includes our former client Jena Griswold, the two-term secretary of state, who was elected Attorney General. She’ll lead the state’s fights on consumer protection, civil rights, and public safety, and she’s promised to keep standing up to federal overreach.
Meanwhile, in the 4th District, Democrat Eileen Laubacher is sending Rep. Lauren Boebert packing. Boebert, a member of Congress best known for her theatrics, is on her way out, and Colorado voters seem to have decided they’d like a representative who is actually interested in representing them. We won’t pretend we’re sad about it.
Then there’s Nevada. Our team spent the year doing Democratic movement-building work there, including fundraising for state legislative candidates.
Last night, Democrats ousted the Republican incumbent Governor and won Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer, Secretary of State, and Controller, which means they now hold every statewide office. The last time that happened was 1962. Democrats also gained in the legislature, swept all four U.S. House seats, and regained full control of state government.
California: Making an Incumbent Earn It & More
California is still counting votes, and it usually takes a while to finalize results. Based on the early returns, we have a pretty good sense of where these races are headed. We’ll update this section as the counts come in.
In El Cajon, we supported a socialist challenger who took on Mayor Bill Wells and, in early results, earned roughly 40 percent of the vote in one of the most conservative cities in Southern California. Wells is used to cruising to landslide wins. This time, he had to actually campaign, show up, and answer for his record against the strongest opponent he’s ever had. Accountability isn’t something he’s used to, and we’re proud to have helped make it happen.
In San Diego, our client Antonio Martinez is leading by double digits in his City Council race, and a win would be a big victory for environmental justice. His campaign was a fight against special interests who wanted to build a new landfill near some of the most pollution-burdened communities in the region. Early results suggest voters are sending a clear message that they deserve clean air and a seat at the table.
And in San Marcos — a historically red enclave in northern San Diego County — we helped our client, the local Democratic club, run a voter education campaign to keep a MAGA extremist off the school board and even the playing field on the city council. The early results put two seats in reach and could cut the GOP majority in half. The city council results are still too close to call, but one thing is clear: San Marcos is no longer an easy win for Republicans.
Making the Case, Backing Workers, and Taking Back Congress
Another one of our clients, Congress Majority PAC, took a different approach to messaging this cycle. Its ads skipped the personal attacks and led with a bigger argument for why Democrats deserve to govern. A main focus was Arizona’s 6th District, where Democrat JoAnna Mendoza defeated Rep. Juan Ciscomani. That flip contributed to a strong House majority that will be able to hold Trump accountable for the final two years of his term.
But the piece of national-level work we’re proudest of may be our fundraising for the American Federation of Government Employees PAC (AFGE).
The last two years of MAGA rule have been especially brutal for the federal workers who keep our government running. They’ve been through DOGE-driven cuts and firings, a chaotic Pentagon under Hegseth, and MAHA-era upheaval at the health agencies that protect our food, our medicine, and our families. Those workers staff the VA, Social Security, the EPA, and the agencies that deliver the services people count on every day.
Our fundraising helped AFGE back labor-friendly candidates across the country, and that effort helped deliver Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate. Those majorities will be far friendlier to government workers, and they give Congress the power to start cleaning up the damage.
These changes matter for working-class rights well beyond Washington. We take that contribution seriously, and we’d like to do a lot more of it.
Why Campaigns Trust Evinco
We’re a women-led political consulting firm that does movement building, fundraising, and digital campaigns for Democratic candidates and organizations. This year proved the work holds up everywhere, because a suburban California school board seat, a rural Tennessee state legislative district, a Colorado Attorney General’s seat, and nationwide PACs all need very different plans.
If you want a team that knows how to build the right one, we’d love to talk. evincostrategies.com/book-a-call