The Jamie Ager, Shannon Bird, Christina Bohannan, and Sarah Trone Garriott Endorsements
Welcome is thrilled to back four candidates who prove they can Win the Middle on Trump turf in 2026.
The 2026 election cycle has been defined by the gerrymandering wars initially set off by a rare mid-decade gerrymander in Texas. But even as parties try to win by gerrymandering, the true path to a sustainable majority remains candidates who can win the middle consistently.
WelcomePAC, the only PAC that exclusively supports Democrats in Trump-won congressional districts, announced four new endorsements for the 2026 cycle: Jamie Ager (NC-11), Shannon Bird (CO-08), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), and Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-03). They join the eight candidates on Welcome’s Win the Middle slate, bringing the total number of endorsed candidates for the 2026 cycle to 12.
Last week’s endorsements were featured in the Washington Post:
“Centrist Democrats don’t only recalibrate the party to where the voters are, they also provide voters with the nuance that’s needed for people to see the Democratic Party as something other than the toxic brand that it’s become,” said Lauren Harper Pope, the co-founder of WelcomePAC, a centrist political organization that supports Democrats in Trump-won congressional districts. “When are we going to prioritize the ideologies, the values, the vision, the sentiments of the people who are running in places that we wouldn’t necessarily even have a Democrat in office if they were not this type ofDemocrat?”
To that end, WelcomePAC is endorsing six candidates today, putting their organization and money behind Jamie Ager in Western North Carolina, Christina Bohannan in Eastern Iowa, and Sarah Trone Garriott in the district around Des Moines, Bobby Pulido in a Texas district that stretches from near San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) in SouthTexas. The group is labeling these contests “winnable races where the math says centrists can win.”
Welcome has a proven track record of supporting candidates who over-perform the fundamentals of their districts. Let’s dive into each race.
The Fourth-Generation Farmer Disrupting a North Carolina Gerrymander
Jamie Ager is a populist moderate with a distinct rural identity. He’s centering his campaign on his agricultural roots. As a fourth-generation farmer who focuses on local economic resilience rather than national culture war issues, Ager explicitly campaigns on a willingness to “speak out against [his] own party” to position himself as an independent voice.
His candidacy is built around his small business Hickory Nut Gap Farms, a regional meat producer that allows him to speak authentically about how Trump’s tariffs are punishing America’s farmers. Ager’s platform is explicitly constructed to distance him from the “Asheville liberal” stereotype that Republicans often use as an attack. He is instead running as a “Mountain Democrat” who talks about his faith, his love for America, and his support for the Second Amendment.
His opponent, Rep. Chuck Edwards, defeated Madison Cawthorn by promising reasonableness, but he hasn’t delivered. Edwards supported Republicans’ drastic cuts to Medicaid, abortion restrictions, and he was sanctioned by the bipartisan House Communications Standards Commission for violations concerning official mail communications. He under-performed in his district by 3 points in 2022 and by 1.5 points in 2024.
North Carolina has been defined by incessant Republican gerrymanders, with districts changing multiple times since the last census. The best way for Democrats to derail Republican gerrymandering is by running district-aligned candidates who keep Republicans on the defensive. Jamie Ager is on pace to do that well.
The Iowa Centrists Running Against Tariff Disruptions
It’s indisputable that Trump’s disastrous tariff policies have hurt farmers. The Administration is trying to mop up the damage done with subsidy after subsidy, but farmers don’t want subsidies or excuses – they want smart policy. In few states is that desire more intense than in Iowa, a state where the Democratic Party’s weakness with non-college white voters has been evident. Two Democrats are looking to change that.
In the 2024 cycle, Christina Bohannan had the strongest over-performance by a Democratic challenger in the country. Not only did she over-perform Harris by 8.2%, she ran 11.3 points ahead of a generic Democrat in the district.
Bohannan is running in Iowa’s 1st congressional district. She grew up in a mobile home and worked her way into the middle class, eventually becoming a law professor and state representative. In each of her campaigns, she’s made an intentional effort to talk and meet with voters in rural parts of the district who typically don’t hear from Democrats.
She’s distinguished herself from the party by leading her Democratic colleagues in the state house in support of a bill requiring faculty and students at state universities to be trained each year about free speech rights. Bohannan also publicly opposed Biden’s plan for student loan forgiveness and was early to call for Biden to step down, despite receiving criticism from Democrats in the state for the move.
In 2026, Bohannan faces Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a serial under-performer who lagged by 4.6 points in 2020 (when she won by just six votes), 1.6 points in 2022, and a whopping 11 points in 2024.
Over in Iowa’s 3rd congressional district, Sarah Trone Garriott is running to face Zach Nunn in the general election. A member of the state senate, Sarah is a Lutheran minister and works at an interfaith food pantry. She is one of the few Democrats who leads prayer on the senate floor during the legislative session.
Notably, Sarah is the only Democrat in Iowa to flip two Republican-held state senate seats from red to blue. She first won an open seat in 2020, then beat sitting Senate President Jake Chapman in 2022 by more than 3 points in a district Kim Reynolds carried by seven points, a whopping 10-point over-performance. In 2024, she was the only Democrat to hold a Trump-won Iowa senate district, demonstrating her cross-over appeal with the swing voters that will decide this election.
Her differentiation credentials include filing bills banning state lawmakers from trading stocks and instituting term limits. Sarah also broke with her party to support a middle class tax credit.
Sarah will face Zach Nunn, who just this year tried twice to run for Governor, but both times was told by Trump allies to stay in the House. Nunn’s lack of enthusiasm for the district is reciprocated by voters: he under-performed by 2 points in 2022 and by 4.6 points in 2024.
Flipping A New Swing District In Colorado
Colorado’s 8th congressional district is the near definition of a swing seat and will almost certainly determine which party wins control of the House.
The district has existed for two cycles after Colorado was awarded an additional seat following 2020 reapportionment. It elected a Democrat in 2022 and a Republican in 2024, but both won with less than 50% of the vote. The district also has a Cook PVI of “Even.”
Shannon Bird is running to make sure that this seat flips and stays blue for cycles to come.
A state representative with an independent streak, Shannon has never been afraid to challenge the status quo to deliver results for her constituents. From protecting jobs to keeping communities safe to fully funding public schools for the first time in 15 years, Shannon has proven she’ll always fight for the people she serves.
The Democratic primary field in CO-08 at one point boasted six candidates but has now winnowed down to four. Colorado’s 8th is a winnable seat, but only if the right type of Democrat emerges from the primary.
Shannon is the only candidate in the primary who’s won contested campaigns, and she’s working to build the broadest coalition possible. With her bio, record, and commitment to service, Shannon is uniquely positioned to not only flip this must-win district “blue” in 2026, but to remain in elected office for cycles to come.
Colorado’s 8th is currently represented by freshman Republican Gabe Evans, who has voted to support Medicaid cuts that will disproportionately affect this district, where more than a quarter of residents are on Medicaid. Medicaid cuts are overwhelmingly opposed by Colorado voters.
And despite Evans campaigning on improving public safety, Shannon has actually passed bills to reduce crime, like barring car thieves from owning guns and passing a law that led to a 52% decrease in auto thefts in the largest county in the district.
Welcome’s Record
Welcome recently released Deciding to Win, a report that analyzes what Democrats have gotten wrong in recent years and offers a blueprint for how the party can win again. All of the candidates on Welcome’s Win the Middle slate are leaders who are actively deciding to win in the types of districts Democrats need to be able to compete in to win back the House.
In the 2022 and 2024 election cycles, Welcome invested a combined $14 million supporting a dozen of the Democratic Party’s most over-performing U.S. House challengers and incumbents. All of Welcome’s 2024 slate over-performed Kamala Harris in Trump-won districts by an average of nearly six points, demonstrating that candidates who “decide to win” the middle can beat expectations, even on red turf.
Independent analysis by Split Ticket confirms that WelcomePAC’s slate had the highest Wins Above Replacement (WAR) of any Democratic group in 2024.
Welcome Endorsees: +5.1 WAR (Average over-performance)
Blue Dog PAC: +4.5 WAR
New Dem Coalition: +2.3 WAR
Progressive Caucus: -1.3 WAR
Justice Democrats: -4.6 WAR
The Win the Middle slate exhibits Welcome’s commitment to supporting Democrats who represent the center of the country, not the center of the Party.
We can win – especially in Trump districts – by backing leaders with histories of over-performance, good governance, differentiation from the Democratic Party brand, and bucking the status quo. We hope you’ll join us.