More Democrats are facing well-funded primary challengers as the party reckons with its future

The Democratic Party’s ongoing reckoning is fueling more primaries against longtime lawmakers, new fundraising reports show — the latest in a string of signs that some veteran Democrats next year may face their toughest challenges yet, as the party grapples with generational and ideological divides

The Democratic Party’s ongoing reckoning is fueling more primaries against longtime lawmakers, new fundraising reports show — the latest in a string of signs that some veteran Democrats next year may face their toughest challenges yet, as the party grapples with generational and ideological divides.

Fourteen House Democratic incumbents are facing primary challengers who raised $100,000 or more in the most recent fundraising quarter, with nine also outraised by their primary opponents. The number includes some challengers who are pouring their own money into campaigns against entrenched incumbents, seeing the possibility of a rare political opportunity.

It’s rare for a sitting House member to lose a primary. Just four of the hundreds who ran for re-election last year — two Democrats and two Republicans — lost their bids for renomination.

But the angst within the Democratic Party about its direction is providing more financial fuel for primary challengers than in recent years. Just five House Democrats faced primary challengers who raised over $100,000 at this point in the 2024 election cycle, according to a review of campaign finance filings from October 2023.

The reports filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, which detailed fundraising from July through September, also shed new light on intraparty fights among Republicans and on the key House and Senate races that will decide which party controls each chamber in next year’s midterm elections.