As midterm campaigns and fundraisers ramp up for the November 2026 election, Democrat and socialist candidates are flocking to the Left Coast for a last-ditch fundraising effort.
Even as the party struggles to decide its alignment with former Vice President Kamala Harris, a California resident and likely 2028 presidential candidate, its leading Senate candidates are targeting her state for potential donors.
Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democrat Senate nominee and a socialist candidate, is set to host a fundraiser more than 2,000 miles away in San Francisco’s financial district at the end of September.
“Abdul is running to build a government that works for regular Michiganders—not billionaires and corporations,” El-Sayed’s campaign website reads, adding that tickets are running upward of $500.
El-Sayed has been endorsed by Harris but has not campaigned with her.
While Republicans gathered in Dallas for the Republican National Committee’s Midterm Convention earlier this month, Texas Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico escaped his home state for Los Angeles. At his second Hollywood fundraiser, tickets ran upward of $13,000. More than 50% of the funds raised by Talarico came from donors outside Texas during the first quarter of the campaign, Fox News Digital reported.
Talarico also has been endorsed by Harris.
Incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., has been the candidate most closely aligned with Harris. Ossoff said he was “grateful” for her endorsement and hosted a private “Women for Ossoff” call with Harris in attendance.
Talarico and Ossoff campaigned together in California last week. Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins, accused Ossoff, his opponent in the race, of campaigning with the “left-wing elites that he actually represents.”
Unlike Ossoff, Josh Turek, the Iowa Democrat Senate nominee running against Rep. Ashley Hinson, has said he has no plans to campaign with Harris and is not seeking an endorsement. Continuing a pattern in Iowa, Democrat gubernatorial nominee Rob Sands also has distanced himself from a Harris endorsement.
While Turek isn’t seeking an endorsement from Harris, he is seeking her Democratic Party donor base in San Francisco. The Iowa Democrat traveled nearly 2,000 miles for a California fundraiser earlier this week.
Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat Senate nominee, was also thousands of miles from his home state this week while fundraising in California for the Ohio Grassroots Victory Fund. The late-night event cost attendees anywhere from a few thousand dollars to upward of $13,500.
