Ugliness.....

A growing number of prominent Republicans are endorsing Democrats in 2026

Analysis by Aaron Blake

In 2010, Ken Buck rode the tea party wave to win Colorado’s Republican Senate nomination but proved too conservative for the state’s general-election voters.

In 2022, Don Bolduc rode a similar arc in the New Hampshire Senate race as an election-denier who spouted a conspiracy theory about Bill Gates and vaccines.

This week, both Buck and Bolduc endorsed Democrats for major statewide offices in their respective states. Buck backed Democratic state Attorney General Phil Weiser for Colorado governor, while Bolduc backed Rep. Chris Pappas for Senate in New Hampshire.

And they’re part of a growing list of Republicans making similar crossover endorsements.

Sometimes the endorsements are about opposing the GOP’s Trump-era exploits. But other times, they appear somewhat personal.

The impact of any of these endorsements could be limited. As the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris touted the support of Republicans including former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Rep. Liz Cheney and former Sen. Jeff Flake, among other Republicans, and she still lost. But they’re notable all the same.

The road to the 2026 midterms starts now

Buck’s endorsement of Weiser is a little less surprising, given the former congressman drifted away from his party late in his House tenure in 2023 and 2024. Weiser’s GOP opponent, Victor Marx, is also a highly unorthodox candidate who recently spoke openly about slamming his wife against a door. (His wife says it was not domestic abuse and that it was self-defense practice.)

Bolduc’s move will raise more eyebrows. The retired Army brigadier general is endorsing against a standard-issue Republican nominee in former Sen. John E. Sununu. But Sununu’s brother, then-Gov. Chris Sununu, endorsed Bolduc’s opponent in the 2022 primary and called Bolduc “not a serious candidate.”

Other prominent Republicans have also endorsed key Democratic candidates in 2026.

In Kansas, two former governors — Mike Hayden and Bill Graves — are backing Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton over GOP Sen. Roger Marshall. Both criticized Marshall’s decision to go along with Trump policies that they argue are bad for Kansas and the country.

Flake, the former Arizona senator, has backed Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff for reelection in Georgia over MAGA GOP Rep. Mike Collins.

Two former chairmen of the Republican National Committee have also endorsed Democratic congressional candidates in their states. Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot is backing union leader and former smokejumper Sam Forstag in the 1st District. And in Florida, former Sen. Mel Martinez announced Thursday that he’s backing former NASA chief of staff Bale Dalton in that state’s 7th District.

(Racicot, like Flake, has backed prominent Democrats before.)

In Illinois, former GOP state House leader Jim Durkin is backing Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker for reelection over Republican nominee Darren Bailey, with whom Durkin has clashed before.

Republican South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson is endorsing the Democrat running for her job after losing at her party’s convention. Johnson’s evolution is also interesting; she had in her 2022 campaign declined to say whether then-President Joe Biden had legitimately defeated Trump in 2020 and ran on “election integrity” like many election-deniers were at the time.

In the high-profile Texas Senate race, a number of well-known Republicans are backing Democratic state Rep. James Talarico against state Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose personal baggage has alienated many conservatives in the state.

And in perhaps the most shocking crossover endorsement, former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove said he would back Democrat Jon Rosenthal for Texas railroad commissioner over Republican Bo French. That came after French posted an image of brown-skinned students at a University of Texas football game and complained about the replacement of Americans by foreigners.

Rove said he had only voted for one other Democrat — all the way back in 1994.

Crossover endorsements have gone the other way, too, with some well-known moderate Democrats, or former Democrats, backing Republicans in key races.

Retiring Maine Rep. Jared Golden recently announced he would back New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler for reelection. Former Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who became an independent before retiring from the Senate, backed GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. And former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who also became an independent, is supporting GOP congressional candidate Jay Feely in her state, Axios reported.

But the GOP crossovers for Democrats are more numerous — and come from more interesting places.