Dem-aligned group wants to spend $100M flipping red House seats
December 8, 2025
On the heels of overperformances up and down the ballot this year, the Save America Movement, co-founded by Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt, said it wants to pour up to $100 million into as many as 60 GOP-controlled House seats ahead of the midterms.
The ambitious strategy for the Democratic-aligned group, shared first with Score, is the group’s first foray into electoral politics after it spent significant capital protesting President Donald Trump’s return to office, which it deemed a fundamental threat to American freedoms.
“The Save America Movement was started with the express mission of defeating MAGA, but the electoral side, particularly the 2026 elections, are absolutely critical to that mission,” said Mary Corcoran, co-founder and executive director of SAM.
While its plans are big, SAM is starting small, identifying 10 Republican-controlled House seats it will focus on, according to an internal memo shared with Score.
The seats the group is already targeting range from battleground areas like WI-03 — where Democrat Rebecca Cooke is making another run at unseating Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) after losing narrowly last year — to the solid-red MN-08, where Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) won by 17 points in 2024.
The high-dollar goal of $50 million to $100 million is no easy fundraising task. Asked whether the group would have trouble meeting the figure, Corcoran said, “What I can tell you is that the response from donors has been very positive.”
The timing of the launch comes just a week after progressive Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn made a double-digit cut into the GOP’s 2024 winning margin in a deep-red House seat, though she still came up 9 points shy of victory. That performance followed Democrats making sweeping gains in November’s off-year races, ranging from gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia to two flips on a statewide utility board in Georgia.
“We can’t truly break the MAGA movement until these Republican members of Congress are more afraid of their own voters than they are of Donald Trump,” said Brandon Hall, a political adviser for the group.
There will be more districts on the radar soon. Documents shared with Score detailed plans to identify more seats that party-aligned groups have “overlooked,” though many of SAM’s initial targets are also on the DCCC’s Red-to-Blue list. Plus, the DCCC is planning to expand its list soon given recent overperformances, POLITICO reported last week.
One thing SAM will do is spend earlier than the DCCC, which typically starts spending later in the cycle. SAM in pitch documents addressed to donors called the DCCC’s approach an “old, D.C.-driven, ‘play-it-safe’” formula that is “insufficient.” SAM plans to start spending as early as February or March, Corcoran said, with the hopes of shaping political messaging instead of using polling to dictate it.
“Republicans have always been really good about speaking to voters early,” she said. “We need to fill that gap and ensure by the time the candidates are actually campaigning, the voters already have a perspective in their minds about how they’re going to vote.”
The DCCC said it welcomed SAM’s commitment to broadening the House map while defending its “expansive” list of target seats.
“The DCCC is on offense, with more pick up opportunities in 2026 than last cycle,” spokesperson Viet Shelton said in a statement. “As [House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries] always says, more is more. We welcome anyone and everyone to help get the People’s House back to work on behalf of everyday Americans, not the billionaires.”
While SAM is making a play for dozens of seats, Republicans say they aren’t worried.
Mike Marinella, spokesperson for the NRCC, said Democrats’ hopes of expanding the House map is a “daydream,” adding, “Their primaries are a socialist brawl, their coalition is crumbling, and voters see a party that can’t get anything right.”
