More vulnerable Democrats announce they’ll skip DNC

Six more Democrats in competitive races have announced they will not attend the Democratic National Convention this week, where Vice President Kamala Harris will be named her party’s presidential nominee. 

Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME), Mary Sattler Peltola (D-AK), Yadira Caraveo (D-CO), Val Hoyle (D-OR), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) are skipping the DNC. The news could indicate that Democrats in tough battles to keep their seats believe aligning themselves with Harris could hurt their chances of winning reelection.

Multiple Democrats in close reelection races, including Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), have also said they will not attend Harris’s political coronation. 

Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME)

Bangor Daily News reported that Golden will not attend the DNC. The Democratic lawmaker added he would spend August “mostly away from the well-worn campaign trail, meeting voters in the places Mainers go to enjoy summer in our great state,” in a post to X over the weekend. 

Last month, Golden sounded a conciliatory note to Republicans as he battles to keep his seat in a red-leaning district. Telling voters he was “OK” with a Trump win on Election Day, the vulnerable Democrat said, “Maine’s representatives will need to work with him.” 

While he said he would not vote for Trump, Golden has yet to confirm support for Harris this November. He also declined to join the virtual vote to nominate the vice president. 

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM)

Heinrich has added his regrets to the DNC, telling Scripps News that he “has other commitments during the time of the convention.”

While New Mexico is a reliably blue state, a poll conducted earlier this summer indicated that 13% of voters remained undecided in Heinrich’s race against Republican challenger Nella Domenici. Heinrich led by 7 percentage points in June, but the next month, Domenici touted “the largest fundraising quarter of any U.S. Senate candidate in New Mexico political history.”

In July, Heinrich called for Biden to suspend his reelection bid. He has since voiced support for the Harris-Walz campaign. 

Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola (D-AK)

Peltola secured her seat by 10 percentage points in 2022 through a special election and has confirmed she would be unable to attend the DNC because she would be “campaigning in-state.”

Peltola represents a state Republican presidential candidates have easily won for decades. She’s one of the only pro-fossil fuel Democrats in the House and attracted attention after she didn’t jump to support the vice president’s bid for the White House, citing potential concerns over Harris’s energy policies.  She later told the Associated Press she would not be endorsing any presidential candidate. 

One nonpartisan political analysis shows that Peltola’s district ranks as one of the reddest to be occupied by a Democrat. The campaign arm for the House GOP believes it has the golden opportunity to flip Peltola’s seat, launching television ads against her in Alaska last month before it had released similar media blitzes in other states. 

Rep. Yadira Caraveo (D-CO)

Caraveo told Colorado Politics she’s skipping the DNC to spend running her reelection campaign in the 8th Congressional District. 

Caraveo pulled off a razor-thin win two years ago, which was one of the narrowest House elections nationwide. The Cook Political Report rates Caraveo’s race against Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans as a toss-up. 

“Caraveo’s phony attempt to avoid the convention will not fool anyone — Coloradans know Caraveo will enable all of Kamala’s extreme policies.” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Delanie Bomar said. The NRCC is the campaign arm of the House GOP. 

Caraveo is one of five House Democrats the NRCC is targeting with a mobile billboard outside the Chicago convention this week. DNC attendees will see the billboard showing photos of the members with the words “Have You Seen Me?”

Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR)

As other Democratic lawmakers claim they’re skipping the DNC to campaign for reelection, a spokesman for Hoyle told Punchbowl News she is likely will not attend the convention to monitor wildfires raging in her state.

Although the Cook Political Report rates Oregon’s 4th District as “Likely Democrat,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee quietly moved Hoyle to its “front-line” list of vulnerable incumbents. 

Meanwhile, the GOP recently tagged Hoyle’s race against Republican challenger Monique DeSpain to its “Young Guns” list of seats the party hopes to flip this November. 

Hoyle has endorsed Harris. 

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA)

Another Pacific Northwest lawmaker will not attend the DNC. Gluesenkamp Perez is facing a tight race against Trump-backed Joe Kent in a district that leans Republican. 

Gluesenkamp Perez has one of the most bipartisan voting records in the House, according to an analysis by the Lugar Center at Georgetown University. She narrowly defeated Kent by just 2,629 votes two years ago. 

Vulnerable Democrats inching closer to Harris

While these six vulnerable Democrats aren’t going out of their way to affiliate themselves with Harris and national party leadership, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who’s in a rough race to keep her seat, is expected to address the DNC on Thursday evening, according to Punchbowl News. Unlike some of her colleagues, Baldwin appears to believe linking herself with the vice president could boost her odds of keeping her seat this November.  

While he’s not up for reelection, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has also confirmed he will not attend the DNC this week. Although the Pennsylvania Democrat insists he’s not forgoing the event because of rifts with his party over Israel policy, he admitted during a recent interview that he has grown “frustrated” with fellow Democrats over their stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict. 

Fetterman has voiced public disapproval of his own Pennsylvanian colleague, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), who is in the midst of a tough bid for reelection. Casey leads his Republican challenger by only 3 percentage points, according to the latest polling. 

Like Baldwin, Casey appears to believe an alliance with Harris, who has been rising in national polls, will help him clinch victory this November. He is also set to address Democrats on Thursday before Harris gives her own highly anticipated prime-time speech at the DNC.