Our Candidates
We endorse candidates from working class backgrounds who are committed to advancing policies that benefit everyday Americans.
Arizona
AZ-06
JoAnna Mendoza
JoAnna Mendoza is a retired United States Marine, a mom, and a lifelong public servant. She spent 20 years in uniform, training military leaders and later advocating for veterans navigating the transition to civilian life. Now she's running to represent Arizona's 6th Congressional District, where she'll bring the same mission-focused, action-oriented leadership to Washington. JoAnna is committed to working with anyone — Democrat, Republican, or Independent — to fix broken systems and tackle the rising cost of food, gas, housing, and child care for Southern Arizona families.
California
CA-22
Randy Villegas
Randy Villegas is an educator, activist, and proud son of immigrants, raised in a working-class family in Kern County, California. The first in his family to earn a Ph.D., Randy has spent his career as a college professor, mentor, and community organizer, always working from the belief that government should serve everyone — not just the powerful few. He's running for Congress in California's 22nd District to bring bold, compassionate, people-first leadership to Washington and to challenge incumbent David Valadao, whom Randy says has consistently sided with corporate interests over his constituents.
Colorado
CO-08
Manny Rutinel
Manny Rutinel is the son of an immigrant, working-class single mother, and grew up relying on food stamps and Medicaid to get by. His family lost their home to foreclosure during the Great Recession. Manny worked at McDonald's through high school and later sold plasma to help pay family bills, before starting at community college and working his way through a public university. He went on to serve as an economist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, worked as a first responder after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, and graduated from Yale Law School. He's running for Colorado's 8th District to lower costs, stop ICE overreach in local communities, and defend Coloradans' rights.
Iowa
IA-01
Christina Bohannan
Christina Bohannan is a mom, law professor, engineer, and former state representative. She grew up in a mobile home in a town of 700 people; her father was a construction worker and her mother worked part-time at a daycare. When her father developed emphysema and lost his health insurance over a "pre-existing condition," the family lost everything trying to care for him. Christina became the first in her family to go to college, earning a degree in environmental engineering before graduating first in her class from law school. In 2020, she defeated a 20-year incumbent to win a seat in the Iowa House. She's running for Congress to put Iowa's working families — not the wealthy and well-connected — first.
IA-03
Sarah Trone Garriott
Sarah Trone Garriott is a mom, State Senator, and Lutheran minister who has spent her life answering a call to service — from a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer supporting domestic violence survivors, to hospital chaplaincy, to ordained ministry, to coordinating interfaith work at a Des Moines-area food pantry network. In 2020, she flipped a Republican-held Iowa Senate seat, and in 2022 she won a tougher, redrawn district by 3 points even as the governor carried it by 7 — making her the only Iowa Democrat to flip multiple districts previously held by Republicans. She's running for Iowa's 3rd District to make sure Iowans have a real voice in Washington.
Michigan
MI-07
William Lawrence
William Lawrence was raised in Lansing and is running as a Democrat to unseat GOP incumbent Tom Barrett in Michigan's 7th Congressional District. He's an experienced community organizer who has helped dozens of Mid-Michigan families avoid homelessness and helped secure $26 billion in federal investment for Michigan jobs. Will describes himself as independent of D.C. insiders and unbought by corporate money, and has built his campaign around showing up in person — holding dozens of community events across the district. His priorities include lowering the cost of living, protecting Michigan's water and public lands, opposing continued war spending, and restoring accountability in government.
MI-10
Christina Hines
Christina Hines is a prosecutor, mom of three, and lifelong Macomb County resident running for Congress in Michigan's 10th District. After earning her law degree from Wayne State, she spent her career prosecuting cases involving sexual abuse, human trafficking, hate crimes, and homicide — work that led her to start a Restorative Justice Program. The daughter of autoworkers, Christina says she's running to put the middle class first and make sure the American Dream is a reality for every family, not just the well-connected. She doesn't take corporate PAC money and supports a ban on members of Congress trading individual stocks.
Minnesota
MN-01
Jake Johnson
Jake Johnson is a high school math teacher who has spent 20 years teaching in Rochester, Minnesota. Raised in Stewartville as one of eleven siblings — the son of a garbage man and a meter reader — Jake worked his way into the middle class with the help of public programs and his church community. He and his wife Molly, a paraprofessional, are raising four boys in Southern Minnesota, and Jake says the family feels the same rising grocery, utility, and healthcare costs as everyone else. He's running for Congress to bring down costs, take on corruption in Washington, and invest in rural communities — and has committed to holding a town hall in every county of the district.
Montana
MT-01
Sam Forstag
Sam Forstag is a smokejumper — a Forest Service firefighter who parachutes into remote areas to stop wildfires before they spread — and a union leader running for Montana's 1st District. Raised by a mom who picked up extra nursing shifts and a dad who taught public school, Sam worked his way through the University of Montana before joining the Forest Service. As Vice President of his union's local, he organized against cuts to the Forest Service and public land agencies, and has advocated at the state legislature for public education, libraries, and healthcare. He's running because he believes it shouldn't be this hard for working Montanans to afford housing, healthcare, and child care.
North Carolina
NC-11
Jamie Ager
Jamie Ager is a farmer, husband, and father of three from Fairview in Western North Carolina, where his family has farmed the land at Hickory Nut Gap for generations. He met his wife and business partner, Amy, at Warren Wilson College, where he studied environmental studies and sustainable agriculture; together they built the family farm into a sustainable meat company that now supports 25 employees. He's running for North Carolina's 11th District focused on Hurricane Helene recovery, affordability for working families, and protecting the region's environment and culture, and describes his approach as leading with curiosity and honesty rather than partisanship.
New Jersey
NJ-07
Rebecca Bennett
Rebecca Bennett is a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and aircraft commander who served for more than a decade before earning her MBA with honors from the Wharton School. She's now an officer in the Air National Guard and a healthcare business leader working with mission-driven startups to expand access to care. A mom of two young daughters, Rebecca is running for Congress in New Jersey's 7th District to bring a new kind of leadership to Washington, and says she's more interested in delivering results than scoring political points. She's been endorsed by New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, herself a former Navy helicopter pilot.
New York
NY-17
Cait Conley
Cait Conley is a fourth-generation Hudson Valley native — her mother was a postal worker for 48 years and her father a construction worker. She was a junior in high school on 9/11, and the next day began her application to West Point, where she later graduated in the top 2% of her class, the first in her family to graduate college. Cait served 16 years as an Army officer, deploying six times to combat zones including Iraq and Afghanistan, and was one of the first women in Special Operations leadership, earning three Bronze Stars. She later served as Director for Counterterrorism at the White House and helped protect U.S. election infrastructure at CISA. She's running for New York's 17th District, currently held by Mike Lawler.
Ohio
OH-07
Brian Poindexter
Brian Poindexter is a father, a card-carrying union ironworker, and a Brook Park city councilman running for Congress in Ohio's 7th District. He's held a range of blue-collar jobs over the years and says he understands the kitchen-table pressures facing working families because he's living them himself while raising a young family. Brian is running because he believes working people deserve real representation — not empty promises — and his campaign has been endorsed by the Ironworkers International, the UAW, the Ohio AFL-CIO, and Senator Bernie Sanders, among others.
OH-13
Emilia Sykes
Emilia Sykes is the incumbent U.S. Representative for Ohio's 13th District, seeking re-election. Since her first day in Congress, she's worked to bring federal resources back to the district, securing over $300 million in federal dollars and returning more than $15 million directly to constituents — work the Akron Beacon Journal's editorial board praised in her first year in office. She's championed lowering costs, supporting organized labor, protecting reproductive choice, and safeguarding Social Security and Medicare, and has advanced bipartisan bills including the Lower Your Taxes Act, the RAIL Act, and the Mental Health Improvement Act. Emilia holds a B.A. from Kent State and a J.D. and Master of Public Health from the University of Florida.
Pennsylvania
PA-07
Bob Brooks
Bob Brooks spent 20 years as a firefighter in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, holding nearly every position on the truck and in his union along the way. As President of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, he took on elected officials to fight for higher wages, better healthcare, and benefits for all workers. Bob has also worked as a bartender, landscaper, baseball coach, and Teamster. He's running to flip PA-07 and bring a voice for working families to Congress, with the backing of Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis and Senator Bernie Sanders.
PA-08
Paige Cognetti
Paige Cognetti is the Mayor of Scranton, first elected as an independent in a campaign she called "Paige Against the Machine" to take on corruption in the local Democratic machine. As mayor, she reformed City Hall — turning down the city car, eliminating cash payments, and cutting costs to produce budget surpluses — while working to attract new business and cut red tape for job growth and housing. She's running for Congress in Pennsylvania's 8th District against incumbent Rob Bresnahan, continuing what she describes as her career-long focus on rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in government.
Virginia
VA-02
Elaine Luria
Elaine Luria served 20 years in the U.S. Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer and nuclear engineer, deploying six times — including in the Middle East and Western Pacific — and commanding a combat-ready unit of 400 sailors. She joined the Navy at 17 and is a Naval Academy graduate. After retiring in 2017, she started a family business, Mermaid Factory, which created local jobs and gave back to community youth and arts organizations. Elaine previously represented Virginia's 2nd District in Congress and is running again, drawing on her Navy and small-business experience to focus on national security and an economy that works for everyone.
Wisconsin
WI-03
Rebecca Cooke
As a small business owner and nonprofit leader, Rebecca Cooke has focused her career on building community and serving others. Born and raised on an Eau Claire dairy farm and appointed by Governor Tony Evers to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, Rebecca knows the economic and social challenges facing the small towns and rural communities for which she’s fiercely advocated for, from the kitchen table to the board room. While Rebecca runs for Congress 7 days a week, she also waitresses. She believes we need more working class voices in Congress – folks who aren’t so far left or so far right but want work across the aisle to deliver for working families.
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