Redistricting already reshaped the House map for the 2026 midterms. But for House Democrats, it means fewer incumbents are paying dues to the party’s campaign arm, and some are worried it could cause a cash crunch.
Every year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee designates a group of vulnerable Democrats as “Frontliners,” giving them extra financial support to help them retain their seats, as well as debate-preparation help and legislative and communications guidance.
Unlike other members of the caucus, this group is also exempt from paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in dues to the DCCC because they’re expected to devote most of their resources to their own reelection campaigns.
After the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act by making racially drawn districts illegal this spring, state Republicans raced to remove majority-Black districts. Those efforts pushed some Democrats into red districts, lowering their chances of being reelected.
On top of that, the mid-cycle redistricting crunch has bulked up the number of Frontliners and other non-dues-paying members, multiple sources told NOTUS.
Louisiana Rep. Cleo Fields is still undecided about whether he will run in what is now a Republican-leaning district after state lawmakers eliminated his district. But he has stopped paying his dues to the campaign arm, even after fulfilling more than a third of his $275,000 quota.
“Conditions have changed. The district has changed, obviously, which means that I got to, you know, focus a lot more on self,” he told NOTUS about paying dues.
One Frontliner, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told NOTUS that “the field [of vulnerable members] is spreading thinner, thinner, and so now the dues that members pay here, you know, don’t go directly to frontliners like me. They go to the DCCC to decide what they do with that.”
Initially, Democratic leaders designated 26 Frontliners. That list dwindled to 21 after Maine Rep. Jared Golden’s decided not to seek reelection and California voters approved a ballot measure to redraw the state’s maps to counter Republicans’ redistricting efforts in Texas.
But Democrats adjusted the program after redistricting, adding five additional members to their roster of vulnerable Democrats: Florida Reps. Jared Moskowitz, Darren Soto and Kathy Castor, and Reps. Shomari Figures of Alabama and Greg Landsman of Ohio, who was released from the program in 2024 but was re-added after Ohio redrew its maps in 2025.
Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said he declined to officially join the group of Frontliners after Republicans eliminated his seat, but he accepted some of the perks the DCCC offers to its most vulnerable members. He told NOTUS the caucus has been “unimaginably supportive.”
But the fundraising restraints have had a sort of ripple effect. Cleaver wanted to donate to a promising candidate running for election in a Southern state legislature, but was advised not to by the Congressional Black Caucus’ political arm. They didn’t like the optics of Cleaver fundraising for another candidate when he’s also now running in a newly drawn district that will be an uphill climb.
A spokesperson for the DCCC said the committee expects to exceed what it raised last cycle from dues, but acknowledged that redistricting has effectively reduced the number of members who pay dues to the party.
“While we’re on track to surpass what was raised in dues this cycle when compared to 2024 or 2022 — there is still more to do. Under the leadership of Leader Jeffries and Chair DelBene, we’re working everyday to continue to make sure we have the necessary resources to take back the majority — and member dues are a huge part of that equation,” Viet Shelton, the DCCC spokesperson, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the ever-changing House schedule has affected lawmakers’ ability to fundraise, with some being forced to reschedule events with donors.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) told NOTUS when the House failed to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, rumors circulated that lawmakers would need to remain in D.C. to work over the weekend, risking the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC’s scheduled retreat in Annapolis, Maryland.
Ultimately, House votes were postponed, “but we had hundreds of people coming from all over the country, and we had no idea if we were going to be able to actually go,” Jayapal said.
“This is my 10th year, it’s never been like this. It’s also really hard on our constituents. We’ve had to cancel town halls, we’ve had to cancel meetings, we can’t plan anything,” Jayapal added. “We just have no certainty around what the schedule is, and especially when the fundraising event involves a lot of people coming from lots of places, it makes it really tough.”
Similarly, the Congressional Black Caucus PAC recently postponed a dinner meant to thank dues-paying members after House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled votes due to a revolt in the GOP conference over the SAVE America Act, according to a senior congressional aide who was granted anonymity to share internal correspondence from the DCCC to Hill staff. The PAC invited chiefs of staff instead since lawmakers had left Washington.
The Frontliner who initially said that DCCC dues don’t go directly to vulnerable Democrats griped that the leadership’s inability to build a fundraising infrastructure to support battleground candidates is “incredibly frustrating.”
Johnson has a joint fundraising committee dubbed “Grow the Majority” that raises money specifically for the most vulnerable Republicans. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries started a similar entity for Democrats just over a year ago — after being asked by the Frontliners — but they haven’t quite matched their Republican counterparts.
Members are coming up with creative ways to incentivize their colleagues to pay dues. For example, Washington Rep. Emily Randall raised $162,500 at a December dinner she hosted at her home, forgoing the normal route of a “fancy dinner,” she told NOTUS. She hosted another dues fundraising dinner at her home last week.
In a meeting last month, Democratic leadership presented slides of the April dues report, detailing which members had met their dues commitment, as well as those who had not contributed at all this cycle. Some members told NOTUS they felt the message was designed to intentionally shame some members into paying.
“People were committing, ‘Now that I’m off the frontline’ or ‘Now that my primary is over, I’m going to give,’” California Rep. Nanette Barragán, a member of House Democratic leadership, told NOTUS.
She added that she’s organizing a dinner in July to remind her colleagues about their dues. “I go around to the members and say, ‘Hey, come to this dinner and pay some dues, we need to get the majority back,’” she said. “There are some members who don’t want to, and we just try to talk to them about the importance of it, and we’ve got some members who haven’t paid in the past, who pay now.”
Some members pointed to New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who has over $11 million in cash on hand, as one House Democrat who hasn’t paid much in DCCC dues. Gottheimer ran for governor in 2025, but lost in the primary and is now running for reelection to his sixth term. According to a member dues report obtained by NOTUS, he paid $13,479 as of May, representing just under 5% of his expected dues.
When asked by NOTUS about this, Gottheimer said he is “very focused on making sure I get resources directly to candidates.”
“There’s people that I want to support directly and that I’m really, really focused on, and that’s what I’ve been doing, and I’m going to continue to do that. And I’m sure along the way I’ll also make sure I help the DCCC,” Gottheimer added.
And then there are Democrats in safe blue seats — who would be expected to donate to the party to support their colleagues — who aren’t paying dues because they’ve had to fend off primary challengers. According to the member dues report, Reps. Adriano Espaillat of New York, Shri Thanedar of Michigan, Jimmy Gomez of California and Al Green of Texas, all of whom faced primary challengers, didn’t pay their DCCC dues as of May of this year. Espaillat and Green both lost their primaries.
“I worry longer term about dues, the potential for member dues to go down,” one former senior DCCC official told NOTUS. “Because rightly or wrongly, members are either concerned about a primary or at least have the convenient excuse of the potential for a primary.”
Vulnerable members are privately griping about their colleagues who’ve simply lagged in paying dues, affecting the campaign’s ability to support the caucus.
“Less dues means less resources for everyone, including our frontliners,” one former aide to a Frontliner told NOTUS. “Modern campaigns are increasingly incredibly expensive operations to run. With Republicans looking to raise as much money as possible for this upcoming midterm, every dollar counts.”
A second Frontliner told NOTUS that members not paying dues has “always been a problem.”
The lawmaker added that members who don’t pay their dues or delay paying them puts vulnerable Democrats in a tricky position when they’re planning how to spend resources in the fall: “Knowing what resources the DCCC can provide is important. Yet, key decisions are often delayed and that affects the members’ ability to make good decisions and key investments.”
“How can we ask donors for contributions when our own caucus doesn’t do it?” the member added.
Texas Rep. Vicente Gonzalez said of those colleagues: “It’s really selfish of them.”
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS — a publication from the nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and NEWSWELL, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia.
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